[bassriverbrewer]

I posted before under cask I am looking for a reliable source for a 5 liter cask I want to try aging half a batch of Barley wine in wood and don't want to risk ruining a whole batch in a five gallon barrel which is the smallest size my local homebrew shop sells.  I figure after a few batches of aging beer I can try making a cask conditioned bitter.

[IHBHS]

Brewcraft has 5L casks for sale.  They are new, but you can get them charred or uncharred.  They are quite expensive though, $200

[beer_crafter]

As someone who has a 5L oak barrel, I'd say if you want to just add oak to your barleywine, you should use oak cubes or chips.  The barrel is a lot of maintenance and unpredictability.  The only advantage to the barrel is that you can serve out of it, if you desire.  I would say in every other way, cubes or chips are superior when it comes to oak aging (not necessarily the case for barrel aging or spirit/wine aging)
 

[majorvices]

Have to agree with the above post. I have a small 5 gallon wood bbl and the surface to beer ratio is way, way to high. I can'ty even imagine how much higher a 5L bbl would be - way, way too high. You are better off using cubes or staves. Trust me, you will only be able to age it in the bbl for about 1 week, 2 weeks tops before the wood overpowers the beer.

I spend about 200 bucks on mine and never use it any more. That said, if you want to try it I got mine from here .... edit: I can;t find where I got mine from but did a google search. I did and there are several.

[deepsouth]

i bought a balcones blue corn whisky barrel (american oak, medium+ char).  two actually.  the first beer i aged in there was a regular ipa, for about 13 days.  it was fantastic.  (got it from a guy over at the homebrewtalk forums for about $120 shipped.)

i have a double ipa in one right now (check the cask section of the forum).

i'm thrilled with mine.   i haven't noticed the wood overpowering the beer at all.

a buddy and i split the cost of one of the barrels and he has aged an imperial stout and a braggot in that one and both of those have turned out fantastic.

this sunday will make three weeks my dipa is in there and i'm going to let it go one more week.  i'll let you know what i think of the results.

[majorvices]

What size bbl was it? Was anything in it before? I soaked mine in water three or four times and still only could age my RIS in it for about 2 weeks before it became significantly oaky. Common sense tells you that the wood to beer ratio is going to be much, much, much higher on a smaller bbl. The only way you can age beer for a long time on wood is if a) the ratio wood to beer is lower (more beer less wood) or b) the bbl has had most of its tannins rinsed out by previous applications.

[deepsouth]

they are 5.25 gallons. 

we drank that braggot at the hbc meeting last night.  it was still quite hot.  i actually could barely detect the oak for the overwhelming heat and honey.

that said, it was fantatic.

[majorvices]

It must have been a well rinsed bbl. If you rinse it enough it will not release any tannins (but then, what's the point of the bbl in the first place, except to oxidate the beer/meed/whatever?)

As always, try it for yourself but a 5 gallon bbl rinsed 3 times for me was still very oaky. And the beer to wood ration on a bbl only around a quarter of the size of a 5 gallon is going to have an even higher ratio of wood to beer.

[deepsouth]

it was actually still moist from the blue corn whisky when we got them.

[majorvices]

"wet" from the corn whiskey obviously implies "rinsed" (even if the whiskey was what rinsed it). Do you have any idea how many times the bbl was used before? Not trying to be a PITA here, it's just that my experience - and that of at least a dozen others I have read or talked to - has corroborated with mine.

Just trying to give the OP an idea what to expect with a new bbl, because I have a feeling he won;t be finding a used one that small. As always, YMMV. If the OP decides to invest in a new bbl - be sure to rinse and soak it several times. But, as was said, you would be better off getting your oak flavor from cubes - if that is really what you are going for.

[deepsouth]

"wet" from the corn whiskey obviously implies "rinsed" (even if the whiskey was what rinsed it). Do you have any idea how many times the bbl was used before? Not trying to be a PITA here, it's just that my experience - and that of at least a dozen others I have read or talked to - has corroborated with mine.

Just trying to give the OP an idea what to expect with a new bbl, because I have a feeling he won;t be finding a used one that small. As always, YMMV. If the OP decides to invest in a new bbl - be sure to rinse and soak it several times. But, as was said, you would be better off getting your oak flavor from cubes - if that is really what you are going for.

my understanding is that these barrels were used only one time.  they are from the balcones distillery in austin, tx. 

the first ipa i spoke of earlier had a "southern tier oaked unearthly" taste going on with it.  quite nice.

[majorvices]

FTR I am sure your beer is great, I'm not saying that your IPA is over oaky. Just stating the fact that if you get a new bbl, in my experience (and that of many others), the oak comes through extremely fast. In my case I had to pull the RIS out after only 2 weeks. this was back in 2006. I still have this beer in the keg. It's a very nice beer and still has a solid oak character. I can't imagine how much faster the oak will come through in a 5L bbl.

Its really cool you were able to get a used 5 gallon whiskey bbl. I had no idea there was such a thing. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one of those as well. 

[deepsouth]

i sent you a pm.

[bassriverbrewer]

I got the size wrong I am actually looking for a 10 liter but do you have a link to the corn whiskey barrel?

[beer_crafter]

What I did to avoid over-oaking my beer (And, upon further review, I have a 10L barrell), is to store another 10L of non-oaked beer from the same recipe, and then blend the oaked and the non-oaked in the serving keg.  One time, this worked great.