Homebrewers Association | AHA Forum
General Category => Kegging and Bottling => Wood/Casks => Topic started by: bfogt on May 18, 2010, 10:54:54 pm
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Anyone have experience with a port barrel? I might be getting a couple (one for a solera cider and another for beer) in a month or two. They've held a commercial American Port for a year and I'll get them when they're retired. Lots about wine and bourbon barrels. This seems a hybrid of the two.
Initial thoughts are to age a Wee Heavy or Imperial Stout in it. I don't know that a lighter beer would be bad with the port flavor adding more grapiness. Like a mild or bready brown ale.
Thoughts?
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Barley wine or Belgian Dark Strong would be good possibilities to consider given port's complex profile.
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I've noticed in my infancy stages of playing with solera and beer, that the first
exposure of the barrel to the beer, results in a fairly rapid mainfestation of the Oak
Flavor....I left a BSD in for 1 month...and it has a nice oakiness. It would not
take too much exposure on a new barrel to over oak your beer IMO.
My barrel had red wine in the oak and it went well with the dark Belgian ale.
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I saw a commercial Belgian Strong Pale that was aged in a red wine barrel. It would be nice to spend less than $500 on filling the barrel. But the Dark Strong and Barleywine do have advantages.
I'm curious how much oak tannins are left in a barrel that's been through the bourbon cycle and then held port. I guess I left out that before it went to Port, it had bourbon in it. I think that's typical in the States.
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I saw a commercial Belgian Strong Pale that was aged in a red wine barrel. It would be nice to spend less than $500 on filling the barrel. But the Dark Strong and Barleywine do have advantages.
I'm curious how much oak tannins are left in a barrel that's been through the bourbon cycle and then held port. I guess I left out that before it went to Port, it had bourbon in it. I think that's typical in the States.
Hence the SS nail in the end of the cask...your sampling doorway. You can remove the nail and obtain a taste, then replace
the nail. This provides minimal exposure to oxygen. I still have not put a nail in the end of mine, but since I finally obtained them, I soon shall. Since you are doing a Solera, you will be harvesting periodically and it will be handy to have a known product. I have 2 sizes of nails so if the smaller one does not seal the hole back the next size larger will.
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I just had a Oskar Blues Gordon (Imperial Red Ale) aged in a port barrel at the brewery the other day. It was phenominal.
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I've got a barrel that I had used for red wine and then for a port which I made. I also went through the process of deciding what beer to put into it when I bottled the port. I finally decided on an English style barley wine, SG 82 IBU 50. The reason for that style was that I wanted a beer that would show off the port and not overwhelm it. The port character would overpowered by an imperial stout or a Belgian dark strong. A Belgian golden strong would have been good but my feeling was that it would be less complex after aging than what I was looking for. The barley wine has been in the barrel since April. So far the results are very encouraging.
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Please keep us updated...sounds wonderful!