fantastic birthday present!!!!

Buying, building and using brewing equipment and apparatus. Product reviews and questions.

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Fraoch
Double IPA
Double IPA
Posts: 215
Joined: Fri May 18, 2001 5:36 am

fantastic birthday present!!!!

Post by Fraoch »

My birthday just happens to fall on your national birthday and this year my wife bought me a brand new 3gal oak barrel for beer. Due to the popularity in Australian wines, coopering is becoming an increasing industry, the plus side of this is that they have started to produce American Oak kegs. These are vastly improved on the kegs of old in that instead of relying on hard and soft pegs to vent excess condition gas, they come with a s.steel screw fitting with 'o' rings to seal tight. This makes life so much simpler!! At the moment i am conditioning it ready for the first batch of my very best pale ale... cant wait@!!!

PS it also makes for a great looking piece of furniture and goes well beside the sofa in front of the TV!!
Freon12
Strong Ale
Strong Ale
Posts: 404
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2001 8:27 pm
Location: WHITELAND, IN, US

Ok

Post by Freon12 »

That settles it, I'm retiring to Aussie land.

See you there Fraoch.(In 20).

S.
Kerouac1964
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2002 5:45 am

Wow! Nice gift!

Post by Kerouac1964 »

I'm new to homebrewing. What do you do to "condition" the barrel for use? And one last silly question, what does beer that is wood aged-taste like? Would it have a tannin quality to it? Sounds like something I'd like to try sometime. Best Regards from Sioux City, Iowa! Mike {invisioning a 3 gal keg swapping club...LOL}
dartedplus
Strong Ale
Strong Ale
Posts: 339
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2001 11:33 pm
Location: Hummelstown, PA, US

Aging in oak answer

Post by dartedplus »

For the answer to your aging question, check out the latest issue of BYO, I think you can access the articles online at byo.com
Freon12
Strong Ale
Strong Ale
Posts: 404
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2001 8:27 pm
Location: WHITELAND, IN, US

Don't laugh

Post by Freon12 »

I have a sort of, 5gal corni keg swapping club.

----A side note------ Don't worry if no answer is given to your questions right away or ever. The guys(gals) would rather not answer as opposed to giving a wrong answer, or reseaching the answer first.
Fraoch
Double IPA
Double IPA
Posts: 215
Joined: Fri May 18, 2001 5:36 am

conditioning

Post by Fraoch »

As the barrel is new, and in fact if it is secondhand, it is best to do a fermentation in the barrel and leave the beer in for say 3- 4 weeks to leech any tannins from the wood, If you were to fill with say a lager then at the end of the process the beer would look brown to blackish as the tannins have been removed due in part to the alcohol content. Obviously, the stronger the beer the better. This is important to ensure that your beer when you come to use your barrel properly does not leech tannins but rather a smooth "oakish" flavour. The same is achieved in part by adding oak chips to wine and bourbon in the commercial field. Although it has to be said that great care has to be taken with the nurturing of the barrel so as not to ruin it by letting anything go off. I have an idea to keep it sterile by adding 1/2 capacity mild sterilising solution and purging with CO2 from my post mix set up.I am hoping that this will/should keep sterile indefinately so long as there is not a leak.

PS
see you all in a few months to tap the first pint!!!!
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