While barrel aging is popular at the pro level, it can be intimidating for homebrewers. Important decisions and considerations need to be contemplated prior to even acquiring a barrel. Determining size, toast, prior beverage stored in it, sourcing it, prepping it (or not), storage location, length of aging, impact on recipes, etc. Not understanding some of the nuances specific to barrel aging can create uncertainty for homebrewers and potentially leads to avoidance of using these traditional flavor and aroma enhancing vessels. I have sourced, housed and/or contributed to a number of barrels of various sizes, constructions and numbers of participating brewers. Each barrel has provided me with insights and awareness of their own unique qualities, contributions and character. Additionally, from the very first aging in a barrel, to second, third and subsequent batches, each barrel changes, both organically and by conscious choice of the brewer. Through trial and error, word of mouth, discussions with pro brewers, general research and experience gained along the way, this presentation will share lessons learned, some best practices and tips, and general observations on the use, care and feeding of barrel aged homebrews. My experiences have been solely with oak barrels. Additionally, I have only used barrels that have had a prior beverage stored in it. These have included red wine, bourbon, corn, and rye whisky. I have never started with a virgin barrel, and therefore have no answers to any questions regarding these. This presentation is relatively straight forward with a minimum of science. It is geared toward providing clear teachable points to help reduce anxieties and increase member’s confidence and understanding the use of barrels. My focus is solely on oak barrels, and does not touch upon other wood varietals. Nor will this presentation cover aging with chips, spirals, chair legs or other methods used to obtain the desired benefits of aging on wood. I imagine if I put half the time into using these materials versus using barrels, things might have been a lot easier for me. But not nearly as authentic :-) A Homebrewer’s musings on Barrel Aging Chris P. Frey [email protected] Disclaimer My focus and experience is solely with oak barrels, and does not touch upon other wood varietals. Nor will this presentation cover aging with chips, spirals, chair legs or other methods used to obtain the desired benefits of aging on wood. I imagine if I put half the time into using these materials versus using barrels, things might have been a lot easier for me. But not nearly as authentic :-) What this Session won’t be • Highly Technical • Scientific • Provide a chemistry or biology class about barrel aging • Run by someone much more qualified than you (but perhaps a bit more experienced ) What this Session will be • Fun! • Educational! • An opportunity to develop your own epiphanies concerning different barrel aging challenges Musing…what do I mean? musing 1. absorbed in thought; meditative. 2. contemplation; reflection. muse 1. to think or meditate in silence, as on some subject. 2. to gaze meditatively or wonderingly. 3. to meditate on. 4. to comment thoughtfully or ruminate upon. Previous presentations… 1st TIP Ensure the beer is fully fermented prior to filling the barrel… As I said, no science intended here, just practical information Flavors typically attributed to aging on wood include: – Woody/tannins – Vanilla – Spicy – Smoky – Toast – Caramel – Cherry – Almond – Coconut – Tobacco – And of course, whatever was in the barrel prior Thanks to the following for all the help and support… It can take a village… Some Random Tips upfront… • Brew a beer for the wood, don’t just dump beer into a barrel and expect “magic” • Hop character gets striped away pretty significantly when aged in a barrel • Patience is necessary, pipettes are helpful. • Calendars are useless, one needs to actively monitor the beers progress. • Carbonation amps up wood aromas • “Tips From the Pro’s” Yeltsin’s Dark Spot Imperial Stout 6.4 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) 1.5 lbs. Crystal 105L 0.75 lbs. Victory Malt 1.25 lbs. Chocolate Malt 2.4 lbs. Light Dry Malt Extract 1.0 lbs. Roasted Barley 0.50 lbs. Black Patent Malt 2.50 lbs. Brown Malt 0.50 oz. Cluster 60 min. 0.50 oz. Centennial 60 min. 2.00 oz. Liberty 30 min. 1.00 oz. Liberty Dry Hop WYeast 1272 American Ale II Barrel aged in a Woodinville Rye Whisky barrel http://www.woodinvillewhiskeyco.com/barrels/ Recipe co-designed in the late 90’s with Gabrielle Palmer Assistant & Experimental Brewer @ Schmohz here in Grand Rapids Tips from the Pros Ray Daniels- Cicerone Certification Program One thing you might do up front is to clarify the phrase "barrel-aged beer." It is often used as a pseudo style name, but it is a poor one as styles should have some related flavor attributes and the style name should tell you what to expect in the flavor of the beer. I always clarify that there are three possible types of "barrel aging" that use different types of barrels and get flavors from different sources: 1. New wood barrels (which for beer are generally not charred) - you get flavors from the wood itself. 2. Barrels previously used for aging whiskey, wine, etc. - where the flavors you get are mostly from the prior occupant of the barrel. 3. Barrels containing microbes - such as those used for lambic, Flanders Red, etc. where the flavors come from the bacteria and other yeast that populate the barrel Tips from the pros Jim Koch – Boston Beer • One obvious tip is to keep the barrels wet. They are a bitch to reassemble if they get dry and fall away from the hoops. • Be mindful about the multiple things that barrel aging does for the beer. To me there are four noticeable ones. – First, it imparts flavor from the residual liquid left from the barrel’s previous service. – Second, the wood itself imparts flavors, including vanilla, maple and oak notes. – Third, the wood harbors micro organisms, ranging from brett to lacto to pedio to aceto to a whole range of unidentifiable critters, which perform their own acts of flavor creation. – And finally, there is a long slow micro-oxidation taking place through the wood that softens many flavors (I mentioned hops – Griffith Spit IPA) And from the Boston Beer barrel Staff: – Taste regularly, and be prepared to rack as soon as necessary. The maturation curve can end fairly abruptly, and you want to be prepared to finish it based on taste, not some prescribed/recipe amount of time (RIS only a week). – Top the barrel regularly. Keep some of the base beer in a corny keg, and top every couple weeks, or as necessary, based on their amount of evaporation. Too much headspace will cause the maturation curve to end more quickly. Jason Heystek Lead Guitar – Production Planning Founder’s Brewing Co. I’ve never been much of a home brewer, but I have done LOTS of barrel aging in the wonderful world of production brewing. When I speak to home brewers the things that I’m asked are as follows: • How many times do you use a barrel? We generally only use them once – we’ve found that most (pretty much ALL) of the ‘bourbon’ character that is such an important flavor component in our barrel aged beers is zapped out after the first use. Using them again is totally viable, however, especially if you’re looking for more ‘oak’ character and less ‘bourbon.’ Also extraction times are lengthened with each subsequent use, and sanitation becomes a real concern for us. • How often do you sample them? AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE! This is the big one for me – I know I would have a hard time being patient if there was a week’s worth of hard work home brewing sitting in my basement in a big ass wooden barrel, but really anything more than monthly is a waste and creates HUGE potential for infection. Oh. And I don’t even START until they’ve been sitting for at least three months. A word of Caution – Not all wood species are safe to use! • Last year John Gasparine gave a presentation on aging on various species of wood. (http://woodbrew.com/) • He shared a resource to identify some potentially unsafe species, their toxins and possible symptoms – his presentation is in the 2013 AHA NHC presentation archives • Some surprises - please do your research before considering using unusual species Tips from the Pros! Denny Conn – Cheap and Easy… Prepare for an infected beer! Tips from the Pros Tom Schmidlin – AHA GC • Don't burn a sulfur stick in a whiskey barrel. (I think he stole this lesson from Gordon Strong) • In a fresh dumped barrel, taste the beer early and often - otherwise you can end up with something that tastes more like bourbon than beer. If that's what you want, skip the barrel and just add it to the keg. Or to each pint. Or just drink bourbon in the first place. • Accidental inhalation of fumes from a burning sulfur stick (for use in a NEW barrel) can lead to a wicked, days-long headache! For use in a used barrel, see Tom’s response. Gary Glass, Director, American Homebrewers Association The first barrel project: AABGBBBW http://aabg.org/new-member-info/bourbon-barrel-barley-wine/ Old Waloon Ale – 200Years old AABGBBBW Solara Project Recipe Ann Arbor Brewers Guild Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine English Barleywine OG 1.095, 68 IBU, all East Kent Goldings For 5 gallons (65% eff.): 16.5 lbs (84.3%) Maris Otter pale malt 2.0 lbs (10.2%) Briess Special Roast malt 1.0 lb.