Proper way to store soured oak barrels?

[sdgbrew]

What is the best way to store oak barrels that have introduced to souring bugs? I know the best is to put beer into them but I can't do that at this time. They will be without beer for a good 6 months, they happened to come with a purchase of some equipment and would like to use them down the road.

Thanks

[BrewinLou]

This time of year around here it is getting too hot to store barrels empty for over a couple weeks without them drying out and lossening up. It just depends on your temp and relative humidity. Going that long I would forget about it and get new (used) ones down the road. But barrels are pretty easy to get around here.

[beerking1]

I have been told that when I do not have beer in them, they can be stored with just water in them.

[sdgbrew]

I don't mind putting water or some type of solution in them, just need to know if there's anything particular I should do. Think I've read somewhere about a citrix acid solution but wanted others experiences.

Thanks

[Guest]

I've never done it, but read about it in wine books...

You can store them with a sulfite solution and change every so often, or rinse every so often as dries out and burn a sulfur stick inside and seal with a bung. I don't think either would kill off the real hardy bugs living deeper in the wood.

and yes I was the guy asking why his barrel aged beer tasted like eggs a few weeks ago, despite all these sulfury suggestions

[william.heinric]

Sterile Water, perhaps?

Maybe filling it with a mild PAA (1oz/10gal) solution to store it would work. The PAA wouldn't get too many of the bugs (assuming you want to keep them around), plus it would deactivate after a day or two and leave you with a mold spore-free filler in your barrel. I've never tried it, however, so it's just a shot in the cellar.

Good luck.
Bill

[Geoff Logan]

What I'm doing currently is standing the barrels vertically and keeping water on the top of each barrel so that the dry wood below absorbs water as necessary. Works fine for me. However, you have the turn the barrels over every so often. ( Every 6 weeks or so). Good Luck!

Geoff Logan