Oak Barrels for Aging Homebrew!
Oak barrels can be used to used to age stouts and porters, age other beer styles, make sour beers and more.
New oak barrels can be had in sizes ranging from 1 liter all the way up to 1 barrel/53 gallons. As with most things 5 gallons seems to be a sweet spot for a lot of brewers. Larger barrels can be good for prolific homebrewers or group brews and smaller 1 to 5 liter sizes are great if you’re wanting to give barrel aging a try without a huge amount of expense or space.
More About Smaller Barrels:
Smaller barrels can also be dual purpose: You can age one (or more) batches of still spirits and at that point, the barrel becomes a used whiskey barrel that you can use for beers.
A past description from William’s Brewing re: their smaller barrels explains this well:
“When you distill a spirit, it invariably comes out clear as water. Put the clear spirit in contact with charred American Oak, and it turns amber and mellow over time with toasted wood vanilla-like richness. Want to speed up the aging process? Our new American Oak Barrels are charred on the inside for Whiskey, Bourbon, Tequilla, Rum, and Brandy aging. The large wood surface contact area per ounce compared with commercial 53 gallon barrels means this will age spirits much quicker than larger barrels. Handmade in Mexico following centuries old cooperage methods; the valve is wood and sealed with leather, and the top plug is wood and sealed with a wrap of leather. No plastic, glue, or rubber are used in construction.”
Hard to Find In Stock…
Since I started doing Homebrew Finds 5 gallon barrels have been a tough find. They would generally become available in batches and usually sell out quickly. In the past couple years this has become even more of an issue. I think this stems from distilleries using these smaller sizes less and less. There have been some times recently where I was aware of no in stock options.
As of this posting, Williams has a limited number of freshly drained whiskey barrels in stock. Get them while you can!
Check sale or product page for current availability & pricing
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