Filling a 60 gallon barrel in one day ... valid method?

[EagleDude]

I brew on a single tier stand with converted kegs, so my max volume in any one container is 15.5 gallons. With this size, you are looking at about a 12 gallon max output from any one batch ... or brewing 5-6 times to fill the 60 gallon barrel. Do the math and it quickly becomes an unfeasible goal to fill the barrel in one day.

Solution: Wort dillution. As a test run on the Barrel and on the effect of dilluting wort pre-ferment, I plan on making a berlinerweisse. The barrel is neutral, so don't expect wood flavor coming through. The berlinerweisse does not require hops or boiling, so that shortens the brew day right off the bat. Second, I can easily target my mash for collecting 15 gallons of 1.060 wort. After running through two mashes, I'll have 30 gallons of 1.060 wort in the barrel. Now I just need to pump in 20 gallons of pre-boiled/chilled water to top off the barrel (leaving 10 gallons of space for ferment) and will have about 50 gallons of 1.036 gravity wort ready for the massive lactobacillus pitch. The yeast will be pitched ~3 days later.

I figure this isn't much different than extract brewers doing a partial boil, except that there will be no boil to carmelize the "thick" wort and there won't be hop alpha acid isomerization issues. Plus I'll be pre-boiling the water addition to remove the disolved oxygen which most partial boiler's likely don't do.

I this works, I plan on getting a flanders red into the barrel before the end of the year and let that sit with the bugs for a year or two.

Thoughts?

[BDawg]

You will probably get a better beer if ferment in multiple carboys and use the barrel as a secondary/lagering vessel.
Have you ever tried to get trub out of your bung hole?


(HaHa!)

[EagleDude]

I have a raised stand to hold the barrel and can place the bung upside down while I spray the barrel out ... hope that will work. In any event, I doubt it will effect the berlinerweisse beer, but may cause problems with the flanders red if I don't get a good cleaning. The Flanders will be the Rosealaire blend, so not really worried about fermenting in the barrel for that one.

[EL TIZZO]

like BDawg said, do you really want to do a berliner weiss or why not start with the flanders...brew 2 batches a week for a couple weeks and do primary in carboys (or whatever you use) with neutral yeast and after a couple weeks you have enough to fill your barrel and pitch the roselare for souring?

just a thought...let us know how it turns out

Cheers!

[Bokonon]

Have you ever tried to get trub out of your bung hole?
(HaHa!)

Have you?

I'm not sure I'd ever put a berliner weiss in a barrel, but if someone did I'd love to taste the results. I don't think a berliner weiss would improve from the oxygenation imparted from the barrel.

I'd opt for just doing the flanders red over a few brew days. If you have to do it all yourself then I would do 2 double brewdays fermented in carboys,buckets,whatever then on the 3rd brewday transfer the old beer and the first new wort to the barrel. Take the 2nd batch from the 3rd day and ferment outside the barrel for topping up.

or just find 2-4 people to work on this. Better off that way, then when you finally empty the barrel you don't have to kill yourself trying to fill it up

[Bugeater]

We've done the 60 gallons in one day a bunch of times. Invite you brewer friends over with their gear and brew several batches simultaneously. Here is a shot of one of our sessions.



This particular session was dear to our hearts. One of our club members was recently back from Afghanistan. While over there Jack Daniels donated a barrel of whiskey to his unit. They decanted the contents to smaller containers just before our member came back. He was able to bring the empty barrel with him. We brewed a 60 gallon batch of our "Patriot Stout". We fermented in a couple of food safe 40 gallon trash cans and then put it into the barrel for aging. When the rest of the army unit gets back from deployment in a couple of months we will throw a party for them with this beer.

[EagleDude]

The berlinerweisse is more of a test batch for the barrel to gauge the continued viability of it or if I want to get myself a newer one. The barrel is 7 years old and I don't know it's entire history. Plus I don't know the flavor impacts I will have from brewing then diluting a concentrated wort, which I will have to do again for the Flanders. A berlinerweiss will be a low alcohol, low cost way to test it all out (3/4 of a bag of pilsner and wheat each). I have thought about the oxegen/lacto ferment issue and figured that a short period in the barrel should be fine ... less oxygen than a plastic bucket but more than a carboy/conical. In one month, keg up the berlinner and let it finish souring in the kegs (4 sankey kegs as opposed to 12 cornies or 24 scotties). The shear volume is also why I don't want to pre-ferment ... 12 carboys or with two weeks to ferment time I would be tying up my 14.5 gallon conical for 3 months and be tying up 10 cornies waiting to fill the barrel. Plus, I don't want to severely interupt my homebrew flow and tie up nearly all of my equipment. Worst case scenario, I decide this barrel is done for, hate the beer, and dump 1.5 bags of grain worth of beer (plus yeast costs) ... I bet someone will still drink it. I also want to do this on my own to know that I can pull it off since the flanders will turn into more of a solera where I take out 10 gallons a year and top it off with new wort.

Bokonon --- If it's not a dumper, I'll have plenty of it to send you a bottle.
Bugeater -- That is an awesome way to fill a barrel and great way to support our troups. Cheers and hope they enjoy it!!