Reusage of old barrels

[RQSBpodcast]

Hi folks! It's my first time here, and i need your help!

The brewery where i am now have 4 barrels of 30 gallons that been used for gin, and 4 X 53 gallons that been used for bourbon. They aged beer in it and emptied them aprox. 2 years ago. But when they emptied, they didn't made anything on them. They have just put them in a corner, and forgot about them.

I'm now asked what we can do with it. A friend of mine told me that anything would be contaminated if aged in those barrels. But he also told me that i could send them to a micro-distiller to store someting, like gin during 6 month, and then take them back to age beer again. In other terms, give them a second life.

I found a distiller i know, and in first place he was down to do it. But then, a "specialist" told him that it would be probably hurtful for his products. He also said that my barrels couldn't be saved. I since asked 2 people about it, and the answer are very different from one to another.

What are your thoughts about it? Is the distiller option viable? Anything else i could do?

Thanks!

[gitchegumee]

Make planters out of them. Barrels don't last forever. Not worth the effort to rehabilitate old barrels. If you just HAD to use these, then steam is your best option.

[Jim Lieb]

Agree with the last rteply, they would probably make malt vinegar if you used them. I used to work in a homebrew and home winemaking shop, saw a few people who didn't treat their barrels and they all ended up with a barrel of vinegar.

[RQSBpodcast]

Make planters out of them. Barrels don't last forever. Not worth the effort to rehabilitate old barrels. If you just HAD to use these, then steam is your best option.

And what would be your method to steam them?

[MikeyB]

Make planters out of them.

Or cut them up for cook fuel. Excellent for the grill or barbecue.

[gitchegumee]

Steam is how some distilleries & wineries prepare their barrels for reuse. They steam the barrels with a steam lance/diffuser and then bung them for a while. The steam condensing tends to pull liquid from the wood. But that is for freshly dumped barrels. Old barrels aren't typically reused. Likely not as expensive to buy a good barrel than it is to throw out a nice beer ruined by whatever.

[RQSBpodcast]

Perfect! Well thanks to y'all for your advices! Really appreciated!