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Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 3:17 pm
by BiersalBrewery
for aging beer? I'm looking for a good website or maybe a cooperage close to Nova Scotia. I'm just looking for 2-5 liter sizes.

Re: Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 10:47 am
by oceanic_brew
I bought a 40L barrel from these guys

https://bochart.ca/product/oak-barrels-5l/

Great customer service, and good prices, shipping was swift.

I definitely would not go smaller than 20l, beyond the ridiculous amount of surface area of oak hitting whatever youre putting in there, after 3-4 uses you end up long aging stuff in there and it’s really nice when I get 40 L of Flanders Red at a time every year!




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Re: Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 11:05 am
by mckay75
You could try New World Foeders...Jordan could likely build something for you (shouldn't say likely...he definitely could...he does amazing work!)

https://www.instagram.com/nwfoeders/?hl=en

Re: Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 12:26 pm
by BiersalBrewery
was he the guy that worked for DME before the layoffs? I read his article not to long ago if it was him.

Re: Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 12:52 pm
by mckay75
BiersalBrewery wrote:
Fri Feb 08, 2019 12:26 pm
was he the guy that worked for DME before the layoffs? I read his article not to long ago if it was him.
yes that's him

Re: Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 1:13 pm
by oceanic_brew
I’m considering reaching out to him to get a couple 15 barrels for the brewery. I’ll have to ask about putting beer in a Virgin foedre. I don’t think the surface area to volume ratio would be an issue on this but I don’t know.


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Re: Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 1:15 pm
by CartoonCod
I second the warning about barrels with small volumes under 20 L. I have a 5 L barrel that I tried using and I was loosing about 10-20% of volume per month. At first I was topping it up weekly but after two or three months it tasted horrible and I gave up on it. Too much oxygen. I had thought about coating the outside with parafin wax to slow down the evaporation but never got around to doing it. I’m convinced you get enough oxygen diffusion through plastic air locks even with a glass carboy if you are looking to get similar oxygenation as larger barrels. And if I want an oak flavour or a medium to transfer bacteria for sour beers I put a few oak cubes in there.


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Re: Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 3:20 pm
by mckay75
BiersalBrewery wrote:
Thu Feb 07, 2019 3:17 pm
for aging beer? I'm looking for a good website or maybe a cooperage close to Nova Scotia. I'm just looking for 2-5 liter sizes.
Totally missed the part of your post about 2 - 5 L sizes. You would be better off aging on oak cubes at that size.

Re: Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 3:29 pm
by BiersalBrewery
not looking for the oak flavours I want to play with a bunch of options like scotch wine bourbon rum liquors etc.

Re: Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 4:40 pm
by Broob
BiersalBrewery wrote:
Fri Feb 08, 2019 3:29 pm
not looking for the oak flavours I want to play with a bunch of options like scotch wine bourbon rum liquors etc.
But you know what's better than 2-5 L of Scotch? 40 L of scotch!

Re: Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 5:45 pm
by oceanic_brew
Hahahha I could think of some reasons why me having 40l of scotch would be bad.. very very bad


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Re: Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 8:38 pm
by RossBee
Glenora sells 180 litre barrels every once in a while, had great success if you're looking for oak. If you haven't realized it yet, wood is hard to deal with, evaporation, absorption, one time use, infection, etc.. Use a carboy and some oak chips you will be better off in the long run.

Re: Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 2:34 pm
by wcturnedec
BiersalBrewery wrote:not looking for the oak flavours I want to play with a bunch of options like scotch wine bourbon rum liquors etc.
You’d be better off blending in those flavours than attempting to pull them out of oak barrels, especially at the volume you are looking at. For example if I want to mimic some wine characteristics in a Saison I’d just blend it with some good wine, that’s the beauty of homebrewing!!


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Re: Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:32 am
by oceanic_brew
yeah a barrel is quite a bit of maintenance for sure. Just getting it to seal in the beginning can be a process. This is why you shouldn’t waste time on the small barrels, that’s too far one way on the novelty spectrum for me. But it’s a great learning process and you get to learn a lot about how the barrel contributes to the beers flavor overtime.

If I were just buying a barrel for the oak character it would seem like overkill. However, just recently I had some friends over and I poured a sample of everything that I’ve sent through the barrel over the last 18 months. It was a great experience knowing that all those batches were connected in some way and even more so when the barrel was turned over to the souring bugs. Right now I have this barrel of a delicious blend of various organisms that keep churning out deliciousness.

Probably has been one of the most satisfying parts of homebrewing for me. Somewhat achievable from oak spirals I’m sure. Both make good conversation evidently.


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Re: Does Anyone Know Where To Buy Barrels

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 3:33 pm
by CPR
I got a 50L from Winemakeri out in Sackville a few years ago. Was $$$ but a great way to start experiementing with barrel-ferm/ageing. http://www.winemakeri.com/