“Good Wood” Wine Barrels

[Captain Mullet]

Hello,
I need some advice on purchasing wine barrels for aging beer. I have played around with the idea for a while but I do not know where to begin and who to buy from.

Does the age of the barrel matter?

Who can I trust with selling barrels?

I can imagine that wine barrel care is similar to bourbon barrel care or is there a difference?

Who have you dealt with in the past, good or bad?

Are there any concerns in purchasing wine barrels that I have not covered in this post?

[sw341034]

A good question to ask yourself would probably be "what is the goal of YOUR barrel aging?"

The answer to some of your questions I think depends on what exactly you want to accomplish by aging your beers in barrel. Do you want to pull some of the flavor of a barrels past life into your beer (in this case wine). Are you looking to go "funky"? Do you want any "oak" associated flavors in your beer?

For example if you wanted a hint of "oak" in your beers the age of the barrel is very important. Typically in the wine world a winemaker will age wine in a particular barrel for 2-3 years at which point the barrel has given all the "oak flavor" it has to give and is considered "neutral".

In short your goals will dictate what to look for in your search for barrels. I am sure others will chime in here as well.