Cask conditioning questions

[mortong]

My girlfriend just got me a 1 gallon oak cask for Christmas (yes, she really is the best woman ever).

I've got a few questions before I get started, though. I did a search in the forums and found a few half-answers, but I want to clarify:

1. When do I put my brew in? I'm assuming after secondary, when I bottle the rest of my batch.

2. I need to soak it for 10 days or so, to let the wood expand. Will plain water start to mold during this period?

3. How do I sanitize it? It seems that sanitizing solutions or cleaners could possibly leave some sort of aftertaste, since the wood would soak it up.

4. How long can the beer age in the cask before it's opened?

5. I was thinking of putting some Scotch in the cask to add a hint of that wonderful flavor to my beer. It seems that one gallon of it would be overwhelming (and way too expensive for my budget). Has anyone ever tried this?

6. If I were to fill this cask completely with Scotch, would it continue its aging process again? I'd love to put away some casked Oban and let it age another 10 years. Long-term investment, but it might be worth it!

Sorry, I've got a lot of questions, I know. I've just got three weeks before I'd put anything in the cask, so I'd like to learn a bit before then.

Thanks in advance.

[mmmBeer...]

Wow! Tough questions, I am curious to see what the answers are and who comes up with them.

[brewmonkey]

#1- You would want to rack it to the cask as a secondary. You could use it as a primary though if you wanted to do say a Belgian/French Farm ale like a saison.

#2- Not sure about the moldy water. I understand the concern though as stagnant water is no fun.

#3- I assume the barrel is not charred or pitched. This is one of those cases where you get to throw caution to the wind and just "go for it". The only barrels I have used all came from a distillery and were charred and had bourbon in them at one time.

#4- You can age as long as you like, but watch out for the oxidation factor. The longer it stays in the cask the more likely you are to oxidze.

#5- Great idea. Buy a cheap brand like McCormicks (whose barrels I use as they are 5 minutes from my house) and let it soak for a week or so.

#6- I doubt it. They are usually aged in charred barrels which is where they get all their color and most of the distinct smoke character from. I would hesitate to experiment like that with a high dollar spirit.

What kind of wood is this made from? Is it American or French oak?

If you use the whiskey/burbon method to cure the barrel I would think about aging a barleywine, Oatmeal or Imperial stout in it. These are the beers we age in one and with the added flavor of the wood (vanillan) and hints of bourbon they come out very nicely.

You may get some suggestions to fill it with water and use campden tablets to sanitize the wood and keep the water fresh, but IIRC the sulfur notes will also be absorbed into the staves and later the beer. I would have to read some more about it as it has been awhile. You might look at BYO for some of those answers.

To fight the effects of oxidation, if you have the ability at racking time, purge the cask for about 5 minutes with a slow dose of CO2. Then when you rack, it will be under a blanket of CO2, just like if you were kegging.

[mortong]

Thanks for the reply.

The cask is American Oak. I got a small chunk of the wood out that was banging around inside - it was fairly blackened.

The instructions that came with the cask said it was specifically for aging spirits, wine and brandy for longer periods of time. But just because the instructions say something, doesn't necessarily mean it's true, so I thought I'd ask.

Anyway, I just bought ingredients for a Scotch Ale today. I'll probably brew tonight, and have it in the cask when it stops leaking.

MY LHBS gave me some stuff for sanitizing it using Lye, soda ash and sodium bisulfate. It's labeled as a wooden cask and barrel cleaner. I think I'll probably put a few ounces of Glenlivet in the barrel when it's done curing and rotate it over a day or so to instill a scotch flavor in the wood.

I'll post again to let you know how it works.

[brewmonkey]

Please do as I am sure some others would like to see how it goes.

If it was black then I would assume they charred it. Should add some character to your beer, especially if you are going for a strong scotch ale.

[mortong]

I brewed it yesterday. It's bubbling away beside the hefe I made the day before. Here's the recipe:

7# Alexander's Pale LMS
1.4# Alexander's Pale Malt kicker
1# 80L Crystal Malt
1/4# Toasted Malt
2 oz. Scottish Peat Smoked Malt
2 oz. EKG
1 tsp. Irish Moss
Nottingham Dry Ale Yeast

Soak specialty grains in 150 degree water for 30 minutes. Sparge the 1 qt. 160 degree water.

Boil the EKG for 45 minutes.
Add Irish Moss 15 minutes before the end of the boil.

OG = 1.072

I DIDN'T make a starter, just rehydrated the yeast. It was bubbling nicely when I got home today - about 20 hours after the pitch.

[Stodbrew]

Where did she get the cask from? I would love to have one. I have some distillate laying around that I would love to age in oak for several years.

[mortong]

She picked it up at a local winery. You might be able to find one selling them near you, or I think there's a few online HBS that sell them.

One question about this Scottish Ale though, can anyone tell me what type it is? Scottish ales are rated in 80/-, 60/-, etc. How do you determine which it is?

[Stodbrew]

It's pretty much based on alcohol content. You can go to www.beertown.org, go under the craft brewing heading, and click on beer styles. That will show you all the specs of a certain beer and you can match your beer the the corresponding style. Hope this helps.

Cheers!


Steve

[Stodbrew]

Sorry, let me amend that. beertown doesn't really explain it. Instead, check out www.bjcp.org/styleguide05.html. That explains it quite nicely.

[mortong]

The OG of mine is 22 points higher than the maximum OG for an 80/-. So it won't be quite authentic, but I like heavier beers anyway. =) I can't wait to try it.

[SLOSHomebrewers]

I posted to the other thread on this subject before reading this thread. I have some answers for you...

1) I would not recommend using the lye on your cask. The lye is designed to "mellow" or "break in" the cask. this means that a lot of the great oaky flavor you are looking for will be removed by the lye. I suggest puting something in there that can handle a VERY strong oak flavor, or do primary fermentation in there before using the cask for long term aging. It sounds as though your Scotish ale will be able to handle the oak, a couple of weeks ought to do it.

2) Add the Sulfite to the water that you are soaking the cask with and the water will not turn. Use the Sulfite to sanitize the cask before adding beer/wine/spirits for aging. When using Sulfite, use no more than a teaspoon for the one-gallon cask. If you have added too much sulfite, the cask will smell like rotting eggs, simply wash it away with more water to dilute it. If you want more accurate measurements on the Sulfite, let me know.

3) While you are aging be sure you keep the cask "toped up" This means beer/wine/spirits full to the top. When you put the bung in liquid should gush out. Any air inside the cask will allow spoilage microbes to get a foot-hold. Pound the bung in tight to minimize loss.

4) keep the cask in a cool, humid place like the basement.

5) keep the cask full all the time. You are now committed to always aging something in oak. Part of your mothly routine will now be topping up the barrels. I do it when I pay the rent to remember. You could just keep water in there, but you would be wasting oak flavor. I believe all the stuff you read about burning a sulfur stick in the cask to store it dry is hog-wash.

6) do not waste scotch. There is no reason to add scotch to the cask in hopes the flavor will come out in future aged beer/wine/spirits. You will have to build the flavors you want in your cask. The Scottish ale is a great start. Every subsquent batch you age in there from now on will be better and more complex.

7) Do not stress, this is a long, long, long term project. Distill something and let it age a few years...

[mortong]

55) keep the cask full all the time. You are now committed to always aging something in oak. Part of your mothly routine will now be topping up the barrels. I do it when I pay the rent to remember. You could just keep water in there, but you would be wasting oak flavor. I believe all the stuff you read about burning a sulfur stick in the cask to store it dry is hog-wash.

My LHBS told me to sanitize it with the same stuff after each batch. Do you mean that I shouldn't do this, and just continue to add new batches to the leftovers of the previous batch? MY LHBS is great, but I know they don't cask-condition, so it's nice to have input from someone who does.

As far as not using the lye, soda ash, sulfate sanitizer, it's a bit too late for that. It's sitting in the cask right now. The bag recommends using a rinse of citric acid and another type of sulfa(i)te afterwards, then a few water rinses.

I'll have it filled with beer tonight, so I'll let you know how it turns out!

[SLOSHomebrewers]

I don't really sanitize between batches, but I am putting strong (16% abv), tannic Zinfandel in the casks. Every year I rack last year's batch out, rise the cask, and add the new year's batch.

You may want to hit it with sulfite before throwing in the next batch, but I don't think it is really all that necessary. It's like racking beer out of a carboy and immediatly racking another beer into that carboy. All the flavors will meld into one great flavor.

But, I digress.

Let me know how it turns out!