Tag Info

I emailed Russian river, Avery, Boulevard, The Breury, and Lost Abbey From Vinnie at Russian River The first thing you’ll need to do is make sure the barrel is water tight, try cold water first, after that if it still leaks you’ll need to revert to hot water, the hotter the water the more flavor will leach out so start with warm water and ...

See this question: Keeping a barrel Our club put 55 gallons of Russian Imperial stout in a Merlot barrel a few weeks ago. We pumped 20 gallons of boiling water into it to sanitize. I sent an email to Russian River a few weeks ago. Here's what Guy, an assistant brewer, said: Hi Dean, We always try to get the wine barrels straight from the ...

Send an email to the folks are Russian River. Tell them your situation and I am sure they'll give you some advice. You may even get a response from Vinny himself. If the barrel has been stored dry, you may want to recondition it with some water. First to make sure its water tight still. Secondly, if you use boiling water this will help sanitize the ...

Sorry just got to this. Looks like you have some great info from some of the best people who would know. Did you have this barrel for 4 months or you got it after it was sitting for 4 months? Either way for future reference. If you aren't going to use a barrel for a few months you need to either burn a sulfur stick in it or fill it with a sulfur solution. ...

I would say don't add it to secondary at all. Add it a little at a time at bottling, mixing and adding to taste. Track the amount you use and if you make the beer in the future, you can just add that entire amount again. That said, I have had good luck pitching a 12oz-16oz of bourbon into 5 gallons and getting decent flavor. Depends really on the flavor ...

if you live in the US, you should probably be careful about admitting on the internet that you're distilling anything. the ATF wants their forms filled out and their fees paid. and they're not afraid to put an exclamation point on how they feel about things. that being said, i doubt that sanitization would be a problem with a distilled spirit, because ...

If you're talking about Scotch whisky, the answer is yes! And it's known as "distiller's beer", made from just barley, yeast, and water. Some more info here: http://www.maltmadness.com/malt-whisky/beginners-guide-04-distilling.html

Whiskey is typically made primarily from corn (fermented in the same way as beer) and then distilled. The trick is, after distillation it has to be aged in wood barrels for a couple years, which is what gives it the flavor and color. Technically you can distill beer. If you do it a couple times you'll basically end up with the same spirit, which can then be ...

I'll go out on a limb and say that there's not a prayer you could tell the difference between 2 similar types of whiskey, like Jimb Beam vs Jack Daniels, or 12 vs 18 year anything. There's just too little actual whiskey in the 5 gal of beer. Now you might be able to distinguish say, and American Sour mash bourbon from a peaty Scotch.

I don't think the age of the Scotch would make much difference, but some Scotches have more of a peaty, smokey smell to them than others, and that flavor should carry over to the beer. But if that's what you're going for, you could just use smoked peat as part of the grist (I'm not a fan of this, but you might like it as it imparts a bacon-like flavor). As ...