Roll Out The Barrel...

I have a habit of buying myself a little something special for Christmas each year.  Even though our economy seems to be on the brink of doom, I stuck to my tradition but certainly didn't break the bank.

Like many other homebrewers, I've dabbled with aging both wine and beer along with oak chips and even bourbon soaked oak chips to simulate aging in wooden casks.  For some reason I always thought of oak barrels as 30-60 gallon monsters that soaked up and evaporated out more than a homebrew sized batch on a monthly basis.  A few weeks ago I was watching a special on one of the Discovery networks about micro-distillers that were using small oak barrels to age their spirits much more rapidly than conventional 30Gal casks.

A quick trip to the Interwebs highlighted many affordable options for the home brewer ranging from 1 liter to full sized 30gal barrels.  In just a few clicks I was the proud winner of a buy-it-now auction on eBay for a 5liter pre-chared american oak barrel.  The following email exchange offered to custom engrave a name or logo on the front of the barrel at no additional cost.   I then emailed the seller a rough picture of a carved "oak man" from a door knocker.   Two days later I recieved tracking information that the barrel had already shipped! Express shipping included, I have less than $60 invested.

The barrel arrived Christmas Eve from Tequila, Mexico.  I promptly filled and soaked the barrel in water and it has proven to be water tight.  I've popped in a couple of camden tablets to sanitize it in preparation of my first real cask aging experiment.   Stay tuned!

Cheers,

-D

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[Raising my Spirits | GrillandB]

[...] mentioned in an earlier post, I treated myself to a small oak barrel for aging experiments.  I began to think about simulating beers aged in oak barrels used by US [...]