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3 new oak-barrels in my brewery, what are the changes to contaminate the brewery.

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  • 3 new oak-barrels in my brewery, what are the changes to contaminate the brewery.

    My best homebrew is one that has been sitting in a oak barrel for at least 3 months (not fermented in it). I know after a while I had 'things' growing in my barrel, by the looks of it it was a candida, but I wasn't worried about any 'infection', it just added to the flavor.

    I have three new barrels laying around (I used to sell them) and I was playing with the idea of replicating my favorite homebrew.
    Now, even if I don't use any of the (bottling)equipment, what are the changes whatever is, or will, grow in the barrel will infect the whole brewery?

    Cheers,
    Wilbert

  • #2
    Pretty slim, I would say. First of all, the only way anything that isn't already in the air is getting into or on those barrels is if you put it there. So if you are just aging clean beer in barrels it shouldn't really change the exposure in your brewery at all. Remember that there is always plenty of bacteria and wild yeast floating around in the air anyway, is it infecting your beer with no barrels present? If your sanitation is good you shouldn't have anything more to worry about than you do already.

    Even if you are going to inoculate barrels for a sour/wild beer, infections pretty much always come from a dirty or contaminated piece of equipment like a hose or (more often I think) a bottling machine, not from something living in a barrel getting airborne and somehow getting into a closed fermenter. Some breweries like to go beyond using seperate equipment for sour and clean beers and actually use separate buildings, but it isn't strictly necessary and I think it is really more about convenience and the size of their sour beer programs than risk of contamination even in those cases. If you have open fermenters then maybe worry, otherwise you should be fine.

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    • #3
      Thanks Nick,

      Your words make sense, I was thinking the same and I think I will go for it.
      (Although, just to be sure I won't use the same bottling equipment).

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      • #4
        The grain dust floating around from mash In has both wild yeast and acid producing bacteria (two beer spoilers) if your not worried about grain dust, why worry about a few harmless barrels??

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        • #5
          Not so much

          Are they clean? The Oak is self sanitizing, assuming food sources are removed, there should be no problem.
          Chris Noel
          Round Barn Brewery - Baroda, MI
          chris.noel@drinkmichigan.com

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          • #6
            Xrisnoel - are you able to expand upon your comment of the oak being "self-sanitizing?"

            I agree with the previous posts regarding the slim to zero chance that anything inside the barrel will become airborne and contaminate other equipment. As mentioned, this really happens most often with shared hoses, fitting, gaskets, gloves, etc.


            Thanks,
            Tom

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