ordered a 2L from barrelsonline.com. Cheaper than deep south and free engraving. They're proud of their shipping costs though

Looked at those but wanted mine from USA not Mexico.

Try oak barrels ltd. They're based out of Navasota. Great customer service.

Count me in.



I'll be doing some sort of strong porter or stout homebrew to fill this guy up with on the day the bourbon comes out.

Got my barrel in Yesterday. Cleaned it out yesterday, filled with hot warm. Zero leaks from the get go. Will leave water in until tomorrow then going to start my poor mans pappy. Hobby.....Alcohol....doesn't get much better

Ok I have heard Deep South and Oak Barrels Ltd. Can't go wrong with either?

Also, if I am just starting this, is there anything else I should be buying (besides a funnel)? What are these essences that the Deep South Folks have on their page? Thinking about getting 2-3 of the 2-liter barrels to start.

This thread has been a ton of help so far, wife says I need a hobby. This appears to be it.

I think the essences are flavor additions. But mainly to make something like vodka taste like a bourbon.

Had a homebrew stout in one. Does it need cleaning?

had some Jim beam in mine for 50 days. Still has a little bite, but getting way better. Trying a little every 7 days now.

Instructions on mine say if you change spirits to clean, so my plan is to clean after aging a stout or porter in mine. Would be curious to know what others have done.

After about 3 weeks of aging some bourbon I moved it to the garage to a colder climate, and now the barrel is leaking at one end. I've since emptied the contents into a bottle, and have since filled it several times with boiling water and still cannot get the leak to stop.

Its pretty significant, any tips or do yall think this would be a defect? It appeared to be watertight when the contents went in originally.

Barrel wax, never used but see it is offered just for that.

This thread has inspired me to pick up a couple of 1L barrels and play around. Thanks for the notes.

Just ordered from OakBarrelsLtd.com

I'll post pics when I get them next week.

How many times can you use the same barrel?

I had never really heard about these Mini barrels, and then saw a booth at the Houston Livestock show yesterday that had a bunch of different sizes. I'll have to check them out closer next time I'm out there.

The few of us just getting into this need to keep this thread going so we can learn from each other, as well as the vets on this.

I went with 2L barrels aggiefox. We'll see how that works when I get them next week. Going to have to have to get some bottles/canters too.

I bought two cheap barrels and barrel wax saved them. I used a heat gun toward the wood and wax. Melted it on the ends and they have been perfect.

Does anyone know if the Oak Barrels Ltd barrels are made in Mexico? Their website says the fulfillment center is in Harlingen, so I am assuming these are made in Mexico.

Quote from Deep South's website: "Deep South Barrels employs a Cooper (barrel maker) to make each and every one of our barrels to the specifications that we require, and the quality that is expected of American-made products."

Has anyone used both side by side? Prefer to buy the American made product but saving close to $100 on the order may be worth it if the barrels are comparable.

I used to buy from Tuthilltown Spirits (Hudson Whiskey) but they seem to have stopped selling. My latest barrel is from Deep South, and it took a lot longer for the wood to expand so the leaking would stop. It lost 50% of the water the first fill. It seems to be working well now that I have whiskey in it though

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How many times can you use the same barrel?

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Have to rechar them every few years but can reuse for quite a while.

My friend uses 1L barrels and notice a strong oaky flavor Real quick, Ie 30-40 days, I am on day 62 and whiskey is getting better not not overly oaky yet.

Try your sample more often in a small barrel.

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I'm not sure on the science, but I'd think a half full barrel will result in lots of air touching the whiskey, which can cause it to lose flavor. With a full barrel, almost no air touches the whiskey.

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A normal 53 gallon barrel, depending on the location in the warehouse and how long it is left to age, can lose as much as 40% of the volume to evaporation. That is a lot of surface area on a barrel exposed to the air in the barrel. Doesn't seem to have too much of a negative effect.

And with a small barrel, you are talking about a much, much shorter time frame. And if you are rotating your barrel quasi-regularly, you are still getting great exposure to the wood and char.

So anyone barrel age their homebrew? I'm currently doing three batches of bourbon in my 2 liter barrel before putting the beer in (stout and porter), currently on month 1 of bourbon batch 2 in the oak barrel (bought it for the beer but clearly enjoying just the bourbon). I plan to let the active beer fermentation occur in a normal barrel per usual times before bottling and then transfer to oak


My questions:

1) Can I fill the oak barrel to the brim with the beer as my bourbon barrel is smaller than my beer system. Or will more fermentation occur and I need to leave some room for that expansion?

2) Any idea how long to leave it in the oak 1-2 months, more or less?

Anybody make their own fireball whiskey yet??? Going to buy a 2L barrel and try to make my own.

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Anybody make their own fireball whiskey yet??? Going to buy a 2L barrel and try to make my own.

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That's going to be one of the first things I try when I get mine. I've got three 2L barrels set to ship tomorrow, one of my colleagues is a home brewer (a really successful one at that, won numerous awards) so I may try one of his brews in one as well.

Will probably age a cocktail or do up some vodka for the ladies in the last one. For what it's worth, the folks saying customer service with OakBarrelsLtd.com were dead on. I emailed a question and had a reply in 15 minutes.

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So anyone barrel age their homebrew? I'm currently doing three batches of bourbon in my 2 liter barrel before putting the beer in (stout and porter), currently on month 1 of bourbon batch 2 in the oak barrel (bought it for the beer but clearly enjoying just the bourbon). I plan to let the active beer fermentation occur in a normal barrel per usual times before bottling and then transfer to oak


My questions:

1) Can I fill the oak barrel to the brim with the beer as my bourbon barrel is smaller than my beer system. Or will more fermentation occur and I need to leave some room for that expansion?

2) Any idea how long to leave it in the oak 1-2 months, more or less?

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I'm about 2.5 months in on bourbon aging in a 10L. I'll be brewing a strong porter this weekend. Plan:

1) 5G batch, primary fermentation as normal. Remove the boubon once primary fermentation is done.
2) Split ~2.5 g into a secondary or into a corny keg, put the other ~2.5g in the barrell. I'll be aging on vanilla beans in one or both vessels. I am going to leave some small amount of head space in the barrell. I'm debating also making an airlock for this as I'm a bit paranoid.
3) Wait. I'll prob sample at 1 month and see where we are, and keep sampling at 1 month intervals if necessary. If I accidentally get overly boozy, the fallback is to blend back with the non BBA version.

I'm going to order a personalized 1 L barrel from deep south. Do y'all think I could get them to put the A&M seal on the barrels? I'd love to get the seal on them, with my last name warped around it.

I have a feeling there is probably some kind of copyright/trademark issue....what do y'all think?

All of my barrels have a logo. I think they pay the licensing fee.

Bump.

Wife bought me 2 2L barrels from Deep South. One now is loaded with poor mans pappy and the other a Manhattan mix made with Sazerac Rye. That's a crap load of liquor in 2-3 months. T&P for my liver.

Sounds like a fun project!

OK first batch is done. Couldn't find large quantities of Weller so pappy's was out. Aged some 4 YO jim beam instead. here is what I noticed and tasted.

1) Color Is ALOT darker, I mean ALOT!
2) The bite/burn down the throat and gut is GONE! It is actually quite smooth now.
3) Put in almost 2 2/3 large bottles (1.75L) , did pull some samples out along the way. I netted 2 full bottles. 12% evaporation rate is 1/3 a bottle roughly, so looks like we pulled about 1/3 of a bottle out in samples.

Not a huge fan of the taste of Jim beam BUT it appears this does work. Every one who tried it agreed it was V. smooth compared to original JB.

Have fun gents

Just pulled some Larceny that I aged for 4 months and 3 days out of my little barrel.

Letting the first pour air out a bit right now. Looking forward to seeing how it changed.

None

I aged some Stone Arrogant Bastarad in one one time. Made an amazing beer even more amazing

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I aged some Stone Arrogant Bastarad in one one time. Made an amazing beer even more amazing

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Dude... I did the same thing with Dayman! Didn't think that beer could get any better... There wasn't any carb, but the flavor was top notch!