Whisky Barrel Recipe Inspiration

[Rhodesy]

My friend is a Cooper and has kindly acquired me a small 30L Whisky Barrel which has been charred. I plan to age a brew in this but looking for inspiration of which type/recipe of beer to age. I was initially thinking a high ABV type such as a Belgian blonde? Does anyone have any experience of this or ideas? Any help appreciated.

[Pinto]

Classic style for barrel ageing of course is the Ol' Russian Imperial Stout - but it's not to everyone's taste. How fresh is the barrel ? still got whiskey character ? How about going for a fairly high ABV copper or ruby ale along the lines of an Innes & Gunn whisky barrel finish ?

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=425764

[Rhodesy]

Thanks for the suggestions, would prefer not to do a stout. It still has a a lot of character so all in good order. Whatever route I take patience will be key I think. Will also bottle a couple of the original brews out with the barrel to see the difference made.

[Fil]

would your cooper pal be able to sort me out with an american white oak ex bourbon barrel circa 30-50l ?????

[Rhodesy]

would your cooper pal be able to sort me out with an american white oak ex bourbon barrel circa 30-50l ?????

Afraid not mate.. By luck he was able to spare this one

[Rhodesy]

So I am going to brew this up over the weekend, I seen sense and will do an imperial stout. The problem is I can only do a 30L batch max and the barrel is around 60L from what I can tell. Now aside from the surface area, with no means to purge with C02 is this amount of headspace going to be a big issue? I appreciate with barrels you will get oxidation but can anyone see an issue with only half filling for aging? Also on the amount of time to age it?

[beerlion]

Everything I've read on this subject suggests that the barrel should be as full as possible to avoid oxidation. People even top up the barrel to replace beer lost by evaporation. Could you brew two batches to fill the barrel?

[Rhodesy]

I think on reflection that is going to make most sense. Would just have to store one in a sealed FV when I then do the other one as with a young child brewdays have to he planned.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

The barrel should be filled with fermented beer, not fresh wort.

Make 2 batches and fill it completely. If you can store fermented beer in kegs, do that too.

[Rhodesy]

Yeah, what I meant was I would make one batch, ferment it out, store it and then do another. I wont get away with a double brew day and will need to do them separate.