[Mazim]

Hey guys, my name is Osmar and im from Brazil!
Here the numbers of homebrewers is growing a lot in the past few years, and i have joined this wave hehehe

So, i have a small Amburana barrel (5 gallons. btw: Amburana its a common wood used to age cachaça, a.k.a. brazilian rum) and i will do a 10 gallons recipe of a oatmeal stout (all-grain), so my problem here is: How can a age my beer on it? i mean, i must finish the fermentation and then put my beer in the barrel withou primming it? And how can i envase it, since it will not have CO2 production? Primming in the bottle?

Well, thats it! Im doing it just to check the flavor of aged beers.
And sorry about my bad english, im better talking then writing!

Thank you!

[1vertical]

Sir,
Your English is not so bad.  My Spanish is far worse.  In my opinion, you will be well served
with your project to get 2 Stainless Steel Cornielius Kegs.  You can then put your barrel aged
beer into the Kegs and force carbonate them, That would be the best thing I can think of for you.
buenos dios

and
Bienvenido

[FaradayUncaged]

Think of the barrel as a secondary fermenter.  Complete fermentation in your usual fashion, transfer to the barrel for a week or two to your desired level and then you're ready to keg or bottle (for bottling I assume you would normally transfer to a bottling bucket or similar to add your priming sugar).

Has the barrel been used to age cachaca?  If not and it's a brand new barrel you'll need to sanitize with hot water (185*F / 85* C).

[Ethan J]

+1 to the above.

With a 20L barrel, you won't need much time compared to a full-sized (225L) barrel. Finish your primary fermentation as usual, and then transfer to the barrel. If the barrel still smells freshly of cachaça and is still wet inside, you shouldn't need to do a hot water rinse, and doing so would strip some of the flavor out of the barrel. After you're satisfied with the taste of your beer, go ahead and package it in the same way you would normally for any other beer.

In my experience, if you want to get multiple uses out of the barrel, the best plan is to have another beer ready to go into the barrel at the same time you're going to take the first beer out. This should prevent any funky bugs or bacteria from getting a foothold and you shouldn't need to sanitize in-between batches. There are options for longer-term barrel storage solutions, but I personally think the best option is to just keep it full of beer. Just remember, a full barrel is a happy barrel.

If you're an AHA member, there is a presentation from 2013 on alternative wood aging techniques that's very interesting and may help answer some of your questions.

[reverseapachemaster]

Sir,
Your English is not so bad.  My Spanish is far worse. 

Yeah but how's your Portuguese? 

[69franx]

Sir,
Your English is not so bad.  My Spanish is far worse. 

Yeah but how's your Portuguese? 

I think we all missed that, nice catch!

[Mazim]

Sir,
Your English is not so bad.  My Spanish is far worse.  In my opinion, you will be well served
with your project to get 2 Stainless Steel Cornielius Kegs.  You can then put your barrel aged
beer into the Kegs and force carbonate them, That would be the best thing I can think of for you.
buenos dios

and
Bienvenido

Thank you! The biggest problem i have is that 1 Dollar = 3,68 Reais (Real = Brazilian Money), so for now i think i will not buy anything from the US hehehe
BTW, as reverseapachemaster told you, Portuguese is our language. So "Buenos Dias" = "Bom Dia", and "Bien Venido" = "Bem Vindo". But the nice thing is that your Spanish not bad hehehe

Think of the barrel as a secondary fermenter.  Complete fermentation in your usual fashion, transfer to the barrel for a week or two to your desired level and then you're ready to keg or bottle (for bottling I assume you would normally transfer to a bottling bucket or similar to add your priming sugar).

Has the barrel been used to age cachaca?  If not and it's a brand new barrel you'll need to sanitize with hot water (185*F / 85* C).

It is new, but im filling it with hot water and when it got all sanitized i will age for one month 20L of cachaça on it, just to make sure that the wood get used to the flavor of it!

+1 to the above.

With a 20L barrel, you won't need much time compared to a full-sized (225L) barrel. Finish your primary fermentation as usual, and then transfer to the barrel. If the barrel still smells freshly of cachaça and is still wet inside, you shouldn't need to do a hot water rinse, and doing so would strip some of the flavor out of the barrel. After you're satisfied with the taste of your beer, go ahead and package it in the same way you would normally for any other beer.

In my experience, if you want to get multiple uses out of the barrel, the best plan is to have another beer ready to go into the barrel at the same time you're going to take the first beer out. This should prevent any funky bugs or bacteria from getting a foothold and you shouldn't need to sanitize in-between batches. There are options for longer-term barrel storage solutions, but I personally think the best option is to just keep it full of beer. Just remember, a full barrel is a happy barrel.

If you're an AHA member, there is a presentation from 2013 on alternative wood aging techniques that's very interesting and may help answer some of your questions.

Im going to look at it!
One thing that i dont know yet is that i need to clean with hot water the barrel after aging the beer to put another.
And one more question: Can i add the primming  inside the barrel or it will not generate CO2?

Thank you guys!

[flars]

I have not barrel aged nor read very much about it.  Shoot at will for this comment. 

If you would like to have some CO2 produced in the barrel to fill any headspace add 5 ounces of priming sugar before sealing or airlock.  The priming sugar wouldn't change the character of the beer.

[morticaixavier]

if you prime in the barrel you will generate co2 and as flars points out it would fill the headspace nicely. but barrels are not usually meant to hold carbonated beverages so you would not end up with carbonated beer.