[resto3]

Gents,

I just purchased one of these because I want to age a Fladers Red in it. I'm a bit concerned with the whiskey essensce that will probably leach out into the beer. This may be really good in a porter or stout but what do you guys thing regarding how it will effect the Flanders Red Sour Ale?? I still might go the Imperial Porter/Stout way but I really wanted to do the sour and age it for about a year. I have a 5 gal oak barrel that I have used in the past with great results but it was new and not whiskey cured.

http://stores.intuitwebsites.com/TuthilltownSpirits/-strse-107/Whiskey-Cured-Barrel%2C-15/Detail.bok

Thanks for your thoughts.

Richie

[uisgue]

I think that if you have the patience, it would be a good idea to use the barrel for a couple of non-sour batches first.  The whiskey flavor should start to diminish as it is used a few times.  Also, from what I understand, once you go sour, you can't go back.

[resto3]

WEll I have a smaller barrle thart  used to sour an ale and it wrked great.  This it dried out and I rehydrated it and used it again for another ale but did not use the bugs as I thought the barrel would already be infected.  Well that beer was hardly sour at all.  So if I use that barrel again I will need to use the Reselare strain or some other from of bugs to get the beer where I want it. Still I wouldn't age a clean lager in to or anything like that.  You are right you can't go back!!

[theoman]

I'd say give it a try as-is. Go pretty heavy on the beasties and maybe high-ish on the gravity. That could be one fantastic sour. Hmm... Interesting...

[ryang]

I've had numerous flanders red style sour ales aged on either whiskey soaked oak, or in whiskey barrels.  Very tasty and complex.  I personally think it goes well together.

[resto3]

That's good to know.  I feel a lot better knowing that and since I really wanted to make the Falnder's Red anyway, that's the rout I will go!!

One other quick question.  Do you sanitize the barrels with a Potasium Bisolphite and Citric Acid solution or since they are already Whiskey Cured you don't bother??

Cheers!

Richie

[ryang]

I wouldn't bother unless there's something noticeably wrong.  If that's the case, I'd ask for a different barrel.

[tschmidlin]

I don't know how fresh the barrel is, but since it can leach a lot of flavor I'd recommend getting some of your favorite flanders and dosing it with some whiskey to see if you like it.  It sounds good to me but you never know, and it would suck to have a barrel full of stuff you don't like.

[CASK1]

How big is your barrel? I just kegged a Belgian Dark strong that spent 2 months in a new 5 gallon whiskey barrel and it has TONS of whiskey flavor. A year would likely be too much. A 50 gallon? Maybe OK. I would echo the above recommendation of getting a few non-sour beers through the barrel before souring. My plan all along is to sour my barrel as well, but I've got a Tripel in there now, and I'm going to put a RIS in it for about 6 months and hope the whiskey character is tamed enough to go sour after that. Good luck!

[hopfenundmalz]

Our club has a Barleywine in a Bourbon Barrel.  It was fresh from Kentucky, and a bottle of fresh whisky was put in it and the barrel was rolled around before the beer was put in.  All of the batches were tasted before putting them in the barrel to screen for infections.  It was always kept full.  The barrel went sour anyway.

The beer has turned out to be one I like once the strong bourbon taste mellowed out.

 

[karlh]

I agree that size is important, but much of the whiskey flavor in the whiskey comes from the oak.  With my new oak barrels, most early judging comments on non sour beers regarding oak (as in an oak aged stout or IPA) refer to the relative amounts of bourbon in the beer.  A freshly used whiskey barrel has a distinct and strong oak character and I would recommend (if volume is not prohibitive) to do something like a bourbon barrel stout as a first beer and then follow with flanders.  If the barrel is a 50 gallon + whiskey barrel, the volume issue is less important as surface area to volume is much lower.  Your first flanders may have an overly strong oak flavor.  My 4th batch in a solera (50% each pull) after 2 years in a 10 gallon barrel is still a fairly strong oak flavor.  I just pulled all the beer and am cleaning prior to a new batch of flanders.  My 15 gallon flanders barrel has a much more subdued oak flavor after less then a year.  The smaller your volume, the stronger I would expect the oak flavor to be.