Aging beer in old wine berrals

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amitgo
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jan 06, 2007 10:39 am
Location: Israel

Aging beer in old wine berrals

Post by amitgo »

Hey gang

I just got a 200 liter oak barrel, it as used for red wine previously.
Anyone ever aged beer in wood?
Can anyone give me some tips on how to handle the monster, sanitation, oxygen, or anything else?

Thanks
Robertjm94706
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:48 am

Re: Aging beer in old wine berrals

Post by Robertjm94706 »

I can't speak to a barrell this big for brewing, but when my father used to make wine he was always telling me that using barrels for home winemaking was an issue unless you were watching it all the time.

Evaporation is a big issue. The bigger the barrell, the bigger the issue. If you don't keep topping it off you will get more and more headspace which leads to the introduction of oxygen and oxidation of whatever you were making.

There are definitely pro brewers that age in whiskey barrels, so I'm sure there's someone somewhere that must age in winebarrels, though none come to mind.

A bigger question is how sound is the barrel? How long has it been without fluid in it? Barrells dry out if not filled, even with water. You might have yourself a barrel that leaks like a seive. You should fill it up with water and see if it stops leaking after awhile. Its gonna leak to start with so when its filled with 200L of beer isn't the time to find out about leaks. :mrgreen:

Good luck! I suggest something like a belgian red or porter in case any of the red wine flavors leach out into the brew. Let us know how it comes out!

Robert
amitgo wrote:Hey gang

I just got a 200 liter oak barrel, it as used for red wine previously.
Anyone ever aged beer in wood?
Can anyone give me some tips on how to handle the monster, sanitation, oxygen, or anything else?

Thanks
Last edited by Robertjm94706 on Sat May 19, 2007 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
amitgo
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jan 06, 2007 10:39 am
Location: Israel

Thanks

Post by amitgo »

Thanks Robert,
It is a dry berral and I will fill it up with water to soak the wood, my biggerst issue is moving the thing in order to sanitize it and so on.
I might work with someting smaller and make this one a plantr or something along this line.
the beer in mind is barley wine.

Thanks again for the tip
Robertjm94706
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:48 am

Re: Thanks

Post by Robertjm94706 »

Yum! A burgundy Barley Wine!!
amitgo wrote:Thanks Robert,...

...the beer in mind is barley wine.

Thanks again for the tip
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