my new barrel

[tschmidlin]

I picked this up yesterday, it is now full of RIS.  There is a new distillery in Woodinville WA, they released their first bourbon yesterday.  It's very nice   But they were selling these 5-gallon barrels that the bourbon just came out of a few weeks ago.  I leak tested it yesterday and filled it with the beer today.  I plan to keg it on Wednesday, and in the meantime think about what else to put in it..  Oh, and the distillers autographed it: Dave Pickerell (looks like Cave, former master distiller from Maker's Mark), Orlin Sorensen, and Brett Carlile.  www.woodinvillewhiskeyco.com

[Gribble]

Beautiful

[majorvices]

Well, ain't you just one luck son of a gun! Nice! 

[bluesman]

Splendid my freind! 

[1vertical]

tom, how nice. Now you too can join the ranks of " hey, I gotta brew, I have to keep my barrel full".

funny how this works, you think you own the barrel, uh uh,,,,it owns you!

[EHall]

...brewer's bling...

[tschmidlin]

tom, how nice. Now you too can join the ranks of " hey, I gotta brew, I have to keep my barrel full".

funny how this works, you think you own the barrel, uh uh,,,,it owns you!

I'm trying to decide what to put in it next, I've got a few things that are eligible.  I'm going t try to keep the residence time short for now, so I don't end up over doing it.  I'm not user how a bourbon bitter would taste, or the pumpkin beer, or an irish stout, or if the cider will finish in time.  I'll figure something out.

[1vertical]

HELLOOOOOOOO.... perfect for this thing is Denny's BVIP and you knew that!
 

[tschmidlin]

True, but I haven't gotten around to brewing that yet, and by the time I do I think a lot of the bourbon flavor will be gone.  That recipe is on my list though, from the way people talk about it I think I'm the only one in the world who hasn't brewed it.

[euge]

What I've had straight off the barrel and in the bottle was very intensely flavored and aroma'd with the prior occupant (bourbon). I think though that repeated usage of the barrel would diminish those qualities. Fairly quickly.

[tschmidlin]

Exactly.  I plan to keep it full as much as possible, and since I'm not likely to get to the BVIP very soon it would have to be the 3rd or 4th batch to go into it, by which time I figure the bourbon would have fallen off.

Then again, this will eventually be a sour barrel, so I might need to go get another barrel for more bourbon aged beers.  They're not going to have any more 5s after this, they plan to switch to 8 and 53 gallon barrels.  An 8 would work out nice.  Maybe next year.  It's only a 25 minutes drive, I'll talk to them when I drop off some of the Bourbon RIS, or BRIS (what a terrible name for a beer, although maybe I should leave it in the barrel for 8 days - someone needs to suggest that to Jeremy Cowan).

[morticaixavier]

Exactly.  I plan to keep it full as much as possible, and since I'm not likely to get to the BVIP very soon it would have to be the 3rd or 4th batch to go into it, by which time I figure the bourbon would have fallen off.

Then again, this will eventually be a sour barrel, so I might need to go get another barrel for more bourbon aged beers.  They're not going to have any more 5s after this, they plan to switch to 8 and 53 gallon barrels.  An 8 would work out nice.  Maybe next year.  It's only a 25 minutes drive, I'll talk to them when I drop off some of the Bourbon RIS, or BRIS (what a terrible name for a beer, although maybe I should leave it in the barrel for 8 days - someone needs to suggest that to Jeremy Cowan).

leave it in the barrel for 8 days and then cut off the end of it's... 

[1vertical]

Denny's BVIP calls for an addition of Bourbon back to the beer
so with that, you could try to match the keg's contents and if
you found the oak character dwindling lower than you like,
you could always add back some spirals or cubes...but you could just
go for the wood exposure in your keg and think lengthy time...and you would
definately have a winner.

[tschmidlin]

Denny's BVIP calls for an addition of Bourbon back to the beer
so with that, you could try to match the keg's contents and if
you found the oak character dwindling lower than you like,
you could always add back some spirals or cubes...but you could just
go for the wood exposure in your keg and think lengthy time...and you would
definately have a winner.

That's an excellent idea, I love it!  I got a bottle of the bourbon that was in the barrel (well, same batch anyway) so I can add some of that back.  I think BVIP just moved up the recipe list.

[Pinski]

Wow, very inspiring. I wonder if they would send one with a delivery to the local liquor store.  Just curious, how long can you go between fillings and how many fillings do expect to get from the barrel before you deem it a sour barrel?  Awesome, have fun Tom. I think I'm going to ask Santa for one of the 'age your own' kits. Looks like fun.