Depending of how many participants are interested, we could split in 1-2-3 group (depending of who can host the barrel at home) and select which style you want to aged.
Style ?
A big beer (Imp. Stout, Barleywine, Tripel)
a mix-fermentation beer (Brett)
Saison
Fruit beer
Any other style…
Ideally, everyone should provide the same amount of beer but if you are not able to provide the minimum liters, another members could fill in. I’m thinking a minimum of 10 L. Also, we will have to split the cost of the barrel.
Let’s start the discussion and we will start from there.
Cheers!
Participants (13) :
Eric (can host 1 barrel)
Norm
Yacine
Terry
Albert
Sam (can host 1 maybe 2 barrels)
Xavier
David Pelosse (can host 1 maybe 2 barrels)
Kurt
James
Ian
Patrick (can host 1 barrel. Don’t tell his GF)
Mike
Our only barrel at work is from him and he was very informative with us on how to store it. Even gave us barrel wax and a stainless steel nail for samples. The barrel was in great condition had still had a good amount of bourbon in it. Remember you also need a barrel rack to store the barrel or some kind of wedges to keep it from moving too much
De préférence une bière pas trop forte en alcool (genre mixed ferm) mais je vais participer peu importe le style. Je sais bien que les bières fortes se prêtent souvent bien au vieillissement en barrique.
Je peux fournir jusqu’à environ 35-40 litres de moût à la fois. Ma limite est à l’empâtage (cuve de 30 litres donc limité pour la quantité de grain).
I’m in personally for a barrel or two. I’d lean toward a bourbon barrel + high O.G. dark beer in one barrel and something in a red wine barrel for the other (maybe tripel?), assuming we can get them. I would definitely think we can get multiple fills out of them, but my understanding of doing that is we will get less barrel/spirit character out of each subsequent fill AND the risk of infection increases every time. With that in mind, I’d say I’d personally like to try to clean beers on the first fill, then try to turn them into something fun and funky after (preferably at someone’s place who knows mixed ferm).
I can keep at least one, probably two here at my place (though I have no experience taking care of a barrel… I am willing to learn).
I think at this point, we want to gage interest to see how many people would want to put beer in, so we know how many barrels to get. When we have enough the number, we can decide the barrels/beers and make it official (sign up, recipes, fill date, etc)
I’m in! I did this quite a few years ago with a bunch of 'Alers. We brewed a barleywine, aged in a red wine barrel for 6 months, then we filled it with a Imperial stout and aged that for 9-10 months. Both beers came out delicious.
The way we worked it, whatever volume you brought to the barrel is what you took away (minus the angel’s share).
I’m not in a position to host a barrel at this time, but maybe next year.
Thanks Albert. Does everyone need to show up on the same day with their fermenter to fill the barrel? I guess you could drop it off when it’s convenient and then the host can fill the barrel once everyone’s dropped them off… but then you’re without a fermenter for X amount of time and have to go back to pick it up. Maybe I’m getting lost in the details that aren’t important right now.
I might be a little wrong. I looked a bit and saw a few people doing barrel fills with wort for cleaner beers but I think it’s a lot safer to ferment before. Does anyone remember from the presentation?
What if everything was to get kegged? We would have some wiggle room time-wise to make sure all the batches are brewed and could even have some extra stored in case we needed for topping up or whatever. We can then put it all in the barrel at the same time. It could sit for a while if for some reason we had to put it on hold for a reason (Legault I’m looking at you) or if for some reason someone doesn’t get their brew done on time. We would probably have to provide fermented beer in this case and not just wort. I’m sure if someone needs a keg we can help them out. I can free up one if needed.
For now, we are just getting the info of who is interested. We can ask the help from Shawn/Olivier about what can be easier/safer to do. Personally, I would like to ferment in it. Bring the bugs! (the good one of course).
Ça m’intéresse aussi! Je lance l’idée comme ça, mais en ayant plusieurs petits barils au lieu d’un gros (dépendament de combien nous sommes), on pourrait varier les styles et les soumettre aux compétitions pour mettre le club de l’avant encore plus à travers le BOTY Circuit.