Introducing ourselves as a supplier of French Oak Wine Barrels

[Nobbie]

Our core business is the making of furniture from newly retired French Oak Wine Barrels or Whiskey Barrels.  Using "semi-retired" craftsmen in our small family-run Company they custom design quality indoor and outdoor furniture to exact specifications.

HOMEBREWING

The use of oak and other woods in flavoring beer has enjoyed resurgence recently among some home brewers and some micro-breweries.  Oak aged beer is rapidly growing in the craft beer market today.

I would welcome any thoughts, positive or negative, from the National Homebrew Club members for the using of oak barrels for the aging and flavouring of your beer.

Nobbie

www.saferetailing.com

[Ciderhead]

Hi you would need to post a few sizes and prices cheers.

[Rossa]

I know some French manufactures do small barrels. These are perfect for home brewing. Bloody hard to come by though.

[Greg2013]

+1 on what CH said, a few sizes and attached prices would be handy 

[RichC]

I just Pmd a guy on HBT about 5 gal whiskey and rum barrels a few days ago, no response yet. I'd love a small one I could put a RIS in and forget about

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[Will_D]

The problem with small casks is that nobody (commercial) uses them!

You can buy them new from artisan cask makers but the are NEW and will have such a small surface area to volume relationship that the would inject a MASSIVE amount of wood-i-ness (be they oak, chestnut or whatever) You would need to condition a new 5 gallon cask with say 2 or 3 batches of red wine to break them in!

I assume you can't afford 5 gallons of cheap whisky! ( A's or L's finest)

[Will_D]

Of course as "drink has been taken" lets think outside the box:

A cooper could re-engineer a 40 gallon whiskey cask into smaller size casks. Chould in theory cost less than coopering a new one as the oak (s/h) may be cheaper, however it would already be steeped in 30 years of whiskey!

So:

Cut staves in half, reduce the thickness (plane the outside) by say 40%, re-shape, re-steam/fire, new hoops, new ends (from old ends) and Bob is your father's brother!

You can send me the first one for "review" for this brilliant idea

[imark]

When considering the volume to surface area bear in mind the oxygenation also. Small barrels will allow a much higher amount of oxygen through... Probably similar to plastic.
Would be interested in hearing more about the condition of the barrels?

[Nobbie]

Many thanks for kindly taking the time to send messages.  Have to say I'm new to "forum" talk so forgive me if I get the basics incorrect. Again any suggestions from anyone on how I can improve with my reply please advise.

The wine barrels we have are 3 years old and the whiskey barrels are from Bushmills, 6+ years.  At the moment we have only 225 Lt barrels and the cost of these are 60 Euro for the whiskey & 110 Euro for the wine barrels.

Nobbie

[Greg2013]

225 litre barrels ? Where would most home brewer even fit that size of a barrel ? Nobby i think you will find that for the most part you are going to have to reduce the size of the barrels somehow if you hope to sell any quantity to home brewers, that size of barrel will not fit through and household doorway that i know of. 

As a beginner myself my advice is get the size down to 60 litres and below and you have a great chance of selling some to home brewers, you will still sell some in that 225litre size but holy cow that's just too big m8

[Greg2013]

Greg, a lot of us have whiskey barrels in our sheds at the moment. 200+ litres is probably too big for one homebrewer, but not if you have 8+ people brewing to fill it.

Not everybody has a shed or a garage these days, plus groups is not really what i was getting at, one home brewer would not be able to handle a barrel that size though agreed. And competition or group brewing is kinda outside what i was on about, i am not saying they are a bad idea just IMHO not suitable as is for the vast majority of home brewers that are brewing by themselves, once off group brews not being counted 

I am delighted to see these guys coming on board, club brews or group brews will be easier now.

[imark]

In the case of the wine barrels... Can you describe how they get from winery to you? Duration, treatments and storage specifically.

[Greg2013]

Just so there is no misunderstanding, i actually would get one of these myself if i could get a suitable used one around 5-10 gallon capacity though

[Nobbie]

Take your point Greg with regard to smaller barrels, this is something we are in discussions with special vineyards.  Most of these vineyards use 225Lt plus.  Again most interested and learning from you guys.  We ship these in directly from France.

[RichC]

I just Pmd a guy on HBT about 5 gal whiskey and rum barrels a few days ago, no response yet. I'd love a small one I could put a RIS in and forget about

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Should have joined in the barrel in Leixlip!

My schedules too unpredictable to hold up a barrel. Been planning my next brew since Christmas! I think its finally going to happen next weekend