[HopDen]

Here's my experience with one of their barrels. RIS @ 10.5% abv that was ready to go into the barrel when it arrived. I brewed a 10 gallon recipe so I had 2 gallons left over that I kept in one gallon jugs with air stopper. After 2 months I checked the beer and lost around 1 gallon or more to evaporation. Topped up with the extra beer and I let that go 2 more months and checked it again, topping up. One more month and I felt it was ready to keg. After begging the RIS I had a Imperial Irish Red ready to go into barrel. One out the other in. I did not or would not rinse between batches. I can honestly say that those were 2 of the best beers that I ever made and I'm confident that the barrel aging made them the best. I believe I could have put a third beer in that barrel but I was afraid of possible contamination after 2 beers aging for 10 months total. I recently just purchased a 20 gallon electric system and it took me about 3 months to get my basement brewery completely set. I CAN'T wait to brew another monster RIS to put into an even larger barrel and let that baby age 1 year.