Barrel lessons?

[admin]

What lessons have we learned wrt imperial stout in a whiskey barrel?

In my mind:
1. Empty the whiskey out as it's still predominant after 6 mo.
2. Get a fresher barrel or like us you will have no vanillin. Vanillin is created by a reaction between the wood and the alcohol that produces a vanilla flavour. We didn't get any at all, so the conclusion is the barrel needs to be decommissioned or mechanically refreshed. Talking to a whiskey expert it's likely our's was around 36 years old.
3. Don't use Baird's chocolate malt as it's ashy in flavour.
4. While we had no issues emptying the barrel as we had a pump, it would have been easier if it was high enough to siphon out of.

[Saruman (Reuben Gray)]

Would soaking the barrel in water and emptying out, then charring it slightly clean it out?

[Taf]

We did take the whiskey out of ours, approx 1.5 litres, but there is still some wack of whiskey off it, which may mellow in time.

[Saruman (Reuben Gray)]

Lads, the typical ageing/cellaring of an imperial stout, especially a barrel aged one is 1-2 years. The beer needs time to mellow out. It's the same with a barley wine. Buying the current bigfoot is drinkable but it should really be kept to drink in a year or so.

Ours is grand, just give it time!

[Ciderhead]

+1

[Saruman (Reuben Gray)]

Cellared, not barrel aged.
Left in the bottle.