Using a barrel the second time... Hot water rinse?

[therainmaker]

I picked up a 15 gallon dad's hat the whiskey barrel and have had an Imperial stout aging for 2 months. I'm bottling this weekend and have another batch ready to put in.

My question is in regards to a hot water rinse. I know folks do this for sour beers to kill most of the microbes, only leaving the strongest ones. But somewhere I recall hearing you have to do it every time to make sure there isn't beer soaking in the wood that will turn sour.

At any rate, I'm looking for some advice, as the second batch I'm putting in totaled almost 200 bucks with all the additions (coffee, vanilla, cacao nibs) and I don't want to botch it up.

 

[Takuie]

I remember as a kid, my uncle used oak barrels for his wine. Not sure if this would apply to beer or not, but after every batch he burned the insides of the barrels for a few minutes. He said it was for several reasons but sanitation was the main reason.

 

[therainmaker]

Def not looking to rechar the barrel. Just trying to figure out if I can fill it right back up or need to do something first

 

[tally350z]

Never used one personally, but I would say that if you didn't get any sort of infection from the first batch as long as you add the next batch in right away you should be good. Or since it was a whisky barrell you could buy a cheap bottle of whisky and put it in the barrell for a little between batches. Not sure how feasible it would be to swirl it around in there though.

 

[robotinc]

I also just acquired a 15 gallon barrel, and just filled it for the first time. I was thinking I may give it a cold water rinse between fills. I don' t want to wash out the bourbon flavor, but i do want to remove any trub that has settled

 

[thisisbeer]

They don't rechar the barrel. They burn sulfur in the barrel so it will keep during storage.

If you're putting beer directly into the barrel then give it a few rinses with hot water to clean everything out. Then rinse with cold water after to cool things back off. You will be good to go then.

It would be fine to rack out of it and dump the new beer right in if you're not worried about things mixing. They don't drain all the bourbon out of the barrel before filling them with a nice stout or something else.

 

[Johnny9]

I have a 5 gal Balcones whiskey barrel. For what it is worth, here is my experience.

First beer through was a 1.091 old ale. It is now in a carboy rounding out. The second was a typical ESB which I am drinking now. Before each use, I filled with 180 deg water for 1 hr. In fact the barrel got 2 rinses before the ESB because the barrel sat empty for 2 weeks and I didn't want to risk any funk (1 when I racked the old ale out and 1 before the ESB went in). Also I needed to make sure it was hydrated and didn't leak before adding the beer.

The point being is that the ESB still has a very pleasant dose of bourbon even with the multiple rinses (it was in the barrel for 2 weeks). The bourbon is mainly present in the nose, while I get a very pleasant yet pronounced woody favor when drinking. Being an ESB, i didn't want anything over powering and to my taste it's spot on.

The barrel is empty right now, but if you put your nose to it, there would be no mistake what was originally stored in it. There seems to be lots of bourbon flavor available although I am sure the 3rd beer will spend more than 2 weeks in the barrel.

Obviously every time it's is rinsed or used, the flavor will fade. But my experience says that it's not a deal breaker. I would rather store the beer in the barrel longer vs risking any unwanted bugs (that will be for later)

Just my $.02

 

[robotinc]

I ended up racking the first beer out(stout) and the second beer (quad) in without a rinse. Both beers are stellar. Now to finish the last 5 gallons of Flemish wort and sour this sucker

 

[MyakkaRiver]

I figure it won’t hurt to revive a 5 year old thread to see if anybody’s experience with this matter has changed? Especially considering the various barrel options we as homebrewers have compared to then, as the number of craft distillers has significantly increased, giving us easier access to small format barrels. I’ve had an imperial stout sitting in a 5 gallon west fork wheated bourbon barrel for 14 weeks now and tastes like it’s just about ready to pull. I anticipate pulling it next weekend and will be racking a barleywine into the barrel the same day. I do anticipate the barleywine being in the barrel for several more weeks than it took for the imperial stout to finish up. So to rinse or not to rinse with 180 degree water prior to racking the barleywine?