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Equipment and Software / Using a used oak barrel
« on: March 08, 2011, 02:17:52 PM »
I am the proud owner of a used 55 gallon oak barrel (formerly Heaven Hill bourbon, then used once for a commercial beer).
After using for the commercial beer, the bung was not replaced, and it was rolled outside. I do not know how long it was outside, but would guess less than a week. It was fairly cold (not above 40, I believe) for the time it was outside. It still smells like beer and bourbon (no off smells that I can tell).
The ends (top and bottom) are warped. I am not sure if this is normal, or due to being outside with melting snow on it.
If I were to use this for aging some imperial stout, what are my options? Should I re-sanitize (sulfur stick? sodium metabisulfite and citric acid? something else?)? Should I dump in some fresh bourbon/whiskey/whisky, let it soak in a bit, and fill with beer? Should I pop an end off and re-char the inside? Or should I just consider it no longer useful for beer aging, and convert it to a portable (with enough strong individuals) keg dispensing system?
I tried searching for previous discussions of this, but had a hard time finding anything, so bear with me, or point me to another thread where this was discussed.
Thanks!!!
After using for the commercial beer, the bung was not replaced, and it was rolled outside. I do not know how long it was outside, but would guess less than a week. It was fairly cold (not above 40, I believe) for the time it was outside. It still smells like beer and bourbon (no off smells that I can tell).
The ends (top and bottom) are warped. I am not sure if this is normal, or due to being outside with melting snow on it.
If I were to use this for aging some imperial stout, what are my options? Should I re-sanitize (sulfur stick? sodium metabisulfite and citric acid? something else?)? Should I dump in some fresh bourbon/whiskey/whisky, let it soak in a bit, and fill with beer? Should I pop an end off and re-char the inside? Or should I just consider it no longer useful for beer aging, and convert it to a portable (with enough strong individuals) keg dispensing system?
I tried searching for previous discussions of this, but had a hard time finding anything, so bear with me, or point me to another thread where this was discussed.
Thanks!!!