Our First Barrel Aged Beer

We've wanted to experiment with barrel ageing for a while as we love big barrel aged imperial stouts. These home brew size 10L oak barrels with a medium char are a perfect starting point. 5 months ago we brewed a highly experimental Christmas pudding and brandy stout as our festive special video and this provided the beer we needed for our first barrel aged home brew experiment. Next time we'll brew a serious imperial stout!
#barrelaged #imperialstout #homebrew
-BUY A BARREL:
whisky-barrels.co.uk/
-HOW WE DID IT:
1) We filled the barrel with cold water and let it cure for a few days.
2) We poured two bottles of brandy in the barrel and stored it for 6 weeks with regular movement and changes in position.
3) We emptied the barrel and filled it with 80°C plus water for 30 minutes to sanitise.
4) We added back a cupful of brandy before siphoning the beer in.
5) We stored the beer around cellar temperature for 3 months.
6) We transferred to a corny keg via a silicone tube fitted around the tap barrel.

[@TankardBrewing]

Cracking video lads 🍻🍻 that t-shirt looks brilliant on Gandy 👀👀 looks perfik! Have a good weekend 🍻

[@BrewBrosUK]

Cheers amigos 🍺 glad you approve of the t shirt appearance!

[@jonseyboi83]

Would love one of those tiny glasses for my whiskey 😄😄😄

[@BrewBrosUK]

Those bad boys are in very high demand 😉

[@TankardBrewing]

Do I spot a certain T-shirt in the start of the video 👀👀👀

[@westcoastbestcoast7683]

MALCOLM!

[@BrewBrosUK]

We call him Kojak….

[@ericv00]

Did you need to sanitize the barrel with hot water? I figure the brandy did the job already.

[@twolittletanks]

Came to comments to ask the same question.

[@BrewBrosUK]

Good question. We originally hoped the brandy would do the job (it would certainly assist the flavour and aroma) but we did some reading and at ABV 60% and higher alcohol kills off bacteria but below this level it doesn’t. We might trial a brew with no hot water and see how it turns out but there’s a chance it’ll end up down the drain. Most barrel ageing vids involve sanitising (not that there’s many of them). Work in progress 🍺

[@BrewabitRick]

Epic video with some proper effort put into the brewing. Looks like it would make me fall over at that % 🤪nice one cheers 👍🍻