I'm considering trying barrel aging a beer, and have lots of questions:
• Barrel size? (I'm thinking 20L/5 gal.)
• Wood species?
• Barrel prep?
• Toasted? Charred?
• Time in barrel?
• Evaporation/topping up?
• Spigot, or no spigot?
I'm not interested in re-using any liquor or wine barrels, just new barrels.
If anyone has hands-on experience at this, please chime in. I'd like to give this a go.
I’ll preface this with “I’m a woodworker, so I know wood, but have no (zero) experience with barrels of beer. So all these thoughts may be exactly the wrong approach.
1. I suggest 7.5 gal for some headroom. Probably not needed. Can’t hurt I guess.
2. Depends on what you want from the process. Oak is great for ‘woody’. I speculate pine might be nice for a piney beer, not sure they make pine barrels though. Cherry has a good flavor, but no cherry flavor - or ither fruit trees I guess. Beech wood is a classic. If you can find sassafrass, it imparts a root beer ish flavor.
3. Clean it with water, a bit of scrubbing. No soap, no pbw, indeed no chemicals is probably a good plan. Soak it for a day or three to swell up the wood, avoiding leaks.
4. If you want smoke flavor, sure. Toasted is subtle, charred is bolder.
5. Months. Years for some specialty ales, high gravity and/or very dark.
6. Nah. It does breathe, and there are losses.
7. Depends. How are you planning to get the beer out? Pouring our a barrel is probably not a great plan.
Also consider carbonation: pressure in the keg will increase losses. I am thinking a little for aging - think cask ale levels - then force carb it after kegging.
