oak barrel

[gizmo]

I fancy making an IPA after christmas and storing it in an old oak barrel. Has anybody tried this? How would I sanitize the inside, would I use an air lock or just a bung in the hole? Any help would be very welcome

[Jim]

There's a chapter in The Big Book of Brewing about using wooden casks, if you can get hold of a copy.

Basically you fill it with sanitizer and roll it round the garden for a few hours.

Then leave it a week, do a test fermentation inside it, sanitize it again, then fill it with beer - then the really tricky stuff starts! Hard shives, soft shives, split shives - you name it, you'll need to know about it.

Oh, yeah, and spiles come into it somewhere, I think.

[PieOPah]

then the really tricky stuff starts! Hard shives, soft shives, split shives - you name it, you'll need to know about it.

Oh, yeah, and spiles come into it somewhere, I think.

eh?

[Jim]

then the really tricky stuff starts! Hard shives, soft shives, split shives - you name it, you'll need to know about it.

Oh, yeah, and spiles come into it somewhere, I think.

eh?

Wikilink

[PieOPah]

ah!

[Scooby]

It took many years in the trade to learn the arcane skills needed to become a good Cellarman, not like today when all they have to do is hook up a few shiny things and turn on the neon lights, yet some still manage to serve up crap

A good thing about beer from the wood is that you have to polish it off quickly

Good luck POP

[PieOPah]

Good luck POP

I'm not going to be doing this Wouldn't even know where to get an Oak Barrel let alone prepare it

[Scooby]

Oops

Sorry POP, thats double good luck to Gizmo then.

[gizmo]

Well here goes, i've got a Tim Taylors Landlord clone that doesn't taste too good, it's drinkable but just not, you know. I will take on board all the information and try. I will post the outcome eventually, hopefully. Thanks for any help

[ColinKeb]

pieopah ;
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WOODEN-WINE-CASK- ... dZViewItem

ive also read the chapter in the big book of brewing , its complicated but not impossible ,i intend to have a go one day too.

cheers
colin

[SteveD]

The problem with those casks is that they're wine casks. I don't think they're suitable for beer. Beer casks have thicker staves to withstand pressure, which wine/spirit/cider casks don't have to do. Plus the bung hole will probably be the wrong size for the standard British shive.

I've been looking for a genuine beer cask for a while now..as rare as hen's teeth, whereas wine casks like that one are easy to get.

As to care..... Use sodium met solution to keep it sound and moist between brews.

Don't let it dry out...it will leak when you go to fill it as the staves would have contracted. If it does, chuck it in a wheelie bin full of water and make sure the cask's full up as well..it'll soon close up

Breweries would use live steam to clean and sterilise, and I'd wondered wether a steam wallpaper stripper could be used in the same way, at least on a diddy pin. (4.5 gallons) by removing the stripping plate and sticking the end of the hose in the bunghole to fill it with steam.

[ColinKeb]

if i had some spare cash and loads of time i would definitely have a go at this , its got to be the ultimate brew hasnt it?

[SteveD]

if i had some spare cash and loads of time i would definitely have a go at this , its got to be the ultimate brew hasnt it?

Well, from a presentation viewpoint, and the feeling of harking back to a byegone era, yes. From a flavour viewpoint, apparently an English oak barrel adds next to nothing to the taste as it doesn't leach into the beer. Neither do Polish and German oak. However, American oak and some French oak does, and that's why those woods are used for wine and whisky making to impart a characteristic taste to those drinks which simply doesn't work in beer.

But, since we drink with our eyes, your friends will be even more convinced that your beer is the mutts nuts when they see it coming from a wooden cask.

[Calum]

I was a presentation by John Alexander (who was promoting his brewing book) and he had a picture of his wooden cask. He said is was nice to fill it when friends were coming around at new year but the work to keep it clean was more a labour of love that a hobby.

He had a photo where he had hooked up a steam wallpaper stripper and was cleaning it out with the steam. He also showed a picture of all the gunk that came out of it (yuk!).