Who is barrel aging?

I have been trying to acquire some barrels from my local winery. I sure wish I had one right now..

 

Flander's Red and Barleywine currently in 15.5 gal Cabernet barrels. Looking to pick up a rye whiskey or bourbon barrel in the near future.

Flanders is still young, about 6 months, and is really now just starting to get some heavy sour cherry pie flavor/aroma going on, although in its current state it has a really nice amount of oak, plum and currant flavors, a mild dose of tannins, some toasted coconut notes and a decent amount of acidity. Over the next couple months it should pick up some more acidity to further cut the oak and turn into a really nice beer.

Verdict still out on English Barleywine (100% MO & 100% EKG; 12%, 90+ IBU, theor.). Haven't opened the barrel up since I racked in a couple weeks back. Will pull in a month or so.

 

I have 3x 10 gal apple brandy barrels.

Ive produced some winners and a couple forgettable beers from them. I have 1 of the barrels almost completely neutral from usage so it is now in the process of being wrecked with bacteria to be a house for sours.

Another barrel is currently holding a barleywine
The last is holding a table saison

my end goal is to have a 30 gal solera project between the 3 barrels before buying more

 

Here are some pics from our first club barrel project.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gonzoillini/sets/72157626212608735/

Used 3 - 30 gallon barrels from Koval Distillery out of Chicago. These barrels came from their Lions Pride series of whiskey, and we had a spelt, rye and millet whiskey barrel to play with.

Ended up filling them with x2 RIS and a big American Barleywine on the first fill. Aged them for just over 6 months, and Weatherdog used a great method to use CO2 to push the beer from the barrel into sanitized and purged corny kegs. As we emptied the barrels they were immediately refilled with a weizenbock, a strong scotch ale and an American Brown Ale.

All three barrels eventually took on an infection, with two of them turning out pretty tasty (the weizenbock transformed into a flanders like beer while the American brown only had a very minor hint of brett) and the strong scotch ale ended up with a very solventy / harsh / acetone like character.

The strong scotch barrel was given to a member of our club to be used in gardening, while the other two have a storage solution in them. We will drain and rinse them, then use a steam cleaner (inspired by former BA Levifunk) to rid them of surface bacteria / brett / whatever. Then they are going to be used for some intentional sours.

One of the most enjoyable projects I've been involved with since I started homebrewing.

Cheers!

 

Got a pluot sour in a brandy cask now. That cask used to hold my 16.25% English/Belgian barleywine.

 

I have a 60 gallon Cabernet barrel from California filled with an Oude Bruin that I am to be emptying soon and racking some onto fruit for further aging.

 

I would love to find some 5 or 10 gallon barrels. Bourbon/whiskey and/or wine. I really haven't looked too hard yet, all of my extra $ is going towards building a keezer at the moment. Hopefully next summer.

 

I have a 5 gallon for Flemish Reds and a 7.5 for Lambics. Both are full of water now, need to brew some beers for them.

 

Going to be filling up the 5 gallon ranger creek whiskey barrel with an ris soon.

 

I've got two 3-gallon charred oak barrels, one that I filled with white wine and the other I filled with red wine and left for a few months. The barrel that held the red wine now has a Flanders red based on Red Poppy in it that I'll eventually pull out and add cherries too in a carboy. The barrel that held white wine has a belgian pale based on Temptation innoculated with Temptation and Cantillon dregs.

 

4 x 30 gallons

Flanders Red
Oud Bruin
Cherry Farmhouse Ale
Pale sour beer (hopefully like petrus)

 

I don't have anything in my barrel right now. My barrel is a 5 gallon barrel that held Palm Ridge Reserve whiskey in it's previous life. I've used it twice so far, the first was a poor attempt at a Hunahpu's clone and the second was a fairly decent attempt at a KBS clone. I'm going to rebrew my KBS clone again sometime in October and age it for a longer time period in the barrel and then save it for the 2013 Hunahpu's day, our homebrew club will have a booth there and I'll donate it to be served for free to the masses.

 

I have an 8 gallon bourbon barrel (currently holding a big english barleywine), also really want to get a white wine barrel.

 

That must have cost a pretty penny to buy 6 gallons of wine.

 

It wasn't too bad actually, I found some jug wine on sale the same week that I got the barrels. I saved the wine after I pulled it out of the barrel, talk about oak-bomb. I think I'll use it for cooking or maybe make some vinegar.

 

Lol awesome then. Be careful cooking with it though because the oak will only get more intense once it's reduced.

 

I also have a 5 gallon Palm Ridge Reserve barrel. I put four beers through it, then soured it. It's now a "small-scale" sour solera with a Flanders Red Ale. I pull about 2 gallons every six months or so and add new "fresh" beer. I really want a 10-15 gallon barrel...

 

Would that barleywine be the M clone you were doing a while back? How did this turn out? I've been planning something like this for the last few months.

 

Was very impressed by stakem's AB Russian Imperial Stout! Just sayin'!