Brewing beer in old whiskey barrels! How do I do it?

Question

I've got two old whiskey barrels that are begging me to brew some beer in them. How do I go about this? I've read that sanitation is the main starting point, and you need specialist fermentation equipment and airlocks......it sounds complicated.......is it actually quite easy to do?

Answer 1

You would still want to brew the beer in glass carboys. I would use the barrels for age the beer however.

Answer 2

I am not too sure about using whiskey barrels for brewing beer. It needs a good airtight place to ferment and puts lots of pressure on the container.

You might look here for some answers:

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Brewing is quite easy. It can get high dollar, but is lots of fun. Now I did have to clean about 5 cases of fragmented bottles out of the back bedroom where they had been placed to age after bottling and bottled too soon! Not fun, but we have only had that one mess up using the instructions on the above site.

Answer 3

It depends on how long it has been since their last use and if they have been continuously sealed. You may need to sanitize them first.

You will use them for aging after you have already fermented the beer. Just rack the beer into the barrels. But the beer will become flat so you either drink it flat or use a carbonating stone and force carbonate the beer.

http://madfermentationist.blogspot.com/2...

http://www.babblebelt.com/newboard/threa...

http://brewery.org/brewery/library/OakBa...

A source to gererate some ideas for your project.

http://www.stoutguy.com/beer/tech/oakbee...

Good luck.