Oak Barrells

[sockmerchant]

Hi guys

I am contemplating getting a couple of oak barrels. There are some new 20L ones floating around, but I'd much rather get a 15 gallon one. Thats to reduce the surface area of oak in contact with the beer, reduced oxygen take-up etc etc.

Anyone know where I might be able to track one/some down? Used would be preferable.

The only peoples who seem to have some are Nelson Cooperage... but... I am not willing to part with a kidney in order to obtain one (ie horrendously expensive).

Cheers

 

[Paul Finney]

I just heard "drink beer"! Erm, what about Friday at Poms?

[Paul Finney]

Do you want me to ask around the group on fb to see if there are anymore keen? I am guessing we are going to need to brew a hell of a lot to fill these barrels up!

[oliver]

I'm away this friday, could do monday, tues or wed evenings next week though

[Crusader-Rob]

We could probably do one brew get it down, and ferment it throuigh then split the yeast cake and do 2 more brews? then the theory would be we can split it into 4 more brews, then it can be all added to the barrel at once? just a random theory, and my concern is the mutation of the yueast overthis period of time.

[Hamish Jones]

my thinking was 4 guys 50L each, so 2 x 25L brews then chuck them in the barrel together and biff in some Brett, I think if you have too many per barrel you can only take of 5 or 10 litres each a year before topping up as you want a fair bit of residual beer in there to really sour the next batch,

What's everyone's thoughts on that idea, how much would everyone want per year, how many years can we keep it going?

[oliver]

Rob: for a flanders red we could ferment all/some of the initial beer without bugs - think you can use pretty much any yeast really, Jamil prefers a clean ale yeast. However we could do some of the primaries with bugs to get a head start on sourness/funk if we wanted to.

Hamish: agreed 4 people would be a good number for solera I would think, only one big brew up front, then little top up brews every year or so, easier to organize a smaller number of people too. I reckon let the beer tell us what amount to take and how often, e.g. if it's really sour maybe we take a bit more, if the sourness is lacking maybe we take a bit less and pitch some more bugs. Same thing timewise I reckon - let the beer tell us when it's ready :)

We can talk details over a beer anyways, heaps of things to consider and think about, looking forward to this project :)

[Paul Finney]

4 it is. I have no experience in this area so am willing to run with the general consensus on this. It sounds like a fun project though.

[Hamish Jones]

Experience is what its going to be, I have a pinot barrel tee'd up for a taste just got to get out and pick it up,

Then we've just got to fill it and wait,

The recipes I've seen have all been neutral ale yeasts then when chucked into secondary they get the brett,

Looks like team Christchurch is on the road to soursville

[Paul Finney]

Soursville here we come!

[Peter Smith]

there is always the outside chance that you end up with 225L of snot...

[Hamish Jones]

thems there fighting words, the trophy is ours all ours, I would evil laugh about now but its not very effective in text

[Rhys Williams]

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