Primary Fermentation in Barrels with Aging

[FourSonsBrewing]

I have some extra barrels coming in, and want to play around with doing some all-brett and sours ferments in them. I have two ideas of the best way to do this, and wanted to get some feedback. I've only used barrels after fermenting with a sacc strain in my fv's, so this is a bit new to me.

Method 1:

- Unfermented wort in barrel
- Pitch wild yeast
- Ferment and age on yeast for ~6 months - year depending on yeast strain

Method 2:

- Unfermented wort in barrel
- Pitch wild yeast
- ~1 month, transfer beer off yeast to empty barrel to age
- Can then add additional unfermented beer to yeast cake, repeat..

Basically what I'm wondering is if I am better off aging the beer on the yeast cake, or getting it off of there and into a clean barrel.

[tjc27]

Assuming when you say wild yeast there is brett, there is no reason to move it but if it helps production in your situation you can. The brett will uptake the oxygen and there is a train of thought that brett doesn't go through autolysis. Just remember to leave some head space or you will have a mess, you can top up after primary.