I didn't do the amount of research I should have and now I have two 5 gal whiskey barrels that made my last beer taste like bile.
The plan was to use them for clean beers to get some of the oak/whiskey flavor out of them and then transfer a sour into them to colonize the barrel with bugs. I let them sit in the garage for a couple weeks full of water while my christmas beer was going through primary. I know (now) I should have had potassium metabisulfide in the water to keep anything creepy from getting in there.
Is there anything I can do like sulfur strips or something? Or is the most likely answer the bad bacteria has penetrated the wood too deep and I should just start over?
The plan was to use them for clean beers to get some of the oak/whiskey flavor out of them and then transfer a sour into them to colonize the barrel with bugs. I let them sit in the garage for a couple weeks full of water while my christmas beer was going through primary. I know (now) I should have had potassium metabisulfide in the water to keep anything creepy from getting in there.
Is there anything I can do like sulfur strips or something? Or is the most likely answer the bad bacteria has penetrated the wood too deep and I should just start over?