MidTNJasonF
Well-Known Member
I took part in a multi brewer barrel project and today was barrel filling day.
The barrel was originally a Jack Daniels charred oak whiskey barrel before it went to a near by vineyard. The vineyard strips/steam cleans the barrels and preps them before filling them with a two year old rich red wine that was aged in french oak prior to the going into the Jack barrel.
The brewer housing the barrel for us waxed the top half of the barrel to prevent some oxygen transfer in the headspace area. The bottom half of the barrel was left raw. The barrel was rinsed with clean water and just for good measure a bit of vodka was poured in and rolled around for a day or so then drained out.
Time for pictures.
The waxed barrel ready to be filled.
The vodka being drained out into a pan. Yes we passed this around and sampled as we filled.
The barrel wash in the glass. The light in the barrel room was poor so this does not really show the ruby red color of the liquid.
In goes the beer.
Oh I guess I should talk a bit about the beer.
There were eight individuals who brewed beer for the barrel. A few did 10 gallons and the others did 5. We sampled each batch for quality control before filling the barrel.
The beer is an Imperial Wit. OG was 1.086-1.088 although we had a couple folks not get good efficiency and come in a bit low in the 1.082 range. Final Gravity ranges were from 1.010 to 1.014 across the batches. Yeast was WLP400. Fermentation temperatures were 66 to 68 for all brewers.
We plan to let the beer age for 3 months and then sample to see how the flavor has developed. The plan is to let it go longer though and try for 5 months.
The barrel was originally a Jack Daniels charred oak whiskey barrel before it went to a near by vineyard. The vineyard strips/steam cleans the barrels and preps them before filling them with a two year old rich red wine that was aged in french oak prior to the going into the Jack barrel.
The brewer housing the barrel for us waxed the top half of the barrel to prevent some oxygen transfer in the headspace area. The bottom half of the barrel was left raw. The barrel was rinsed with clean water and just for good measure a bit of vodka was poured in and rolled around for a day or so then drained out.
Time for pictures.
The waxed barrel ready to be filled.
The vodka being drained out into a pan. Yes we passed this around and sampled as we filled.
The barrel wash in the glass. The light in the barrel room was poor so this does not really show the ruby red color of the liquid.
In goes the beer.
Oh I guess I should talk a bit about the beer.
There were eight individuals who brewed beer for the barrel. A few did 10 gallons and the others did 5. We sampled each batch for quality control before filling the barrel.
The beer is an Imperial Wit. OG was 1.086-1.088 although we had a couple folks not get good efficiency and come in a bit low in the 1.082 range. Final Gravity ranges were from 1.010 to 1.014 across the batches. Yeast was WLP400. Fermentation temperatures were 66 to 68 for all brewers.
We plan to let the beer age for 3 months and then sample to see how the flavor has developed. The plan is to let it go longer though and try for 5 months.
