Barrel filling, emptying, stacking etc

[brendanbrewer]

A bit of an old thread, I know, but with these wooden barrel racks - I assume you're able to fill and empty the barrels in place?

How about emptying the barrels below first? We have bourbon barrels on racks stacked two high. Can we empty the barrels below first? Will they support the weight of two full barrels and a rack? We are a brewpub without room for a pallet jack..

Brendan
Lb. Brewing Co.
Hays, KS

[Smlsound]

We use the MoreBeer one for filling and emptying as well and it's "fine", but will definitely be looking into a Rack-it-eer when we can afford it.

At that point the plan is to turn the MoreBeer one into a sour/wild only kit.

I personally can't understand the draw of this device. It's a pretty sweet $1300 falshlight holder. Honestly, unless the inside of this thing is made from magical fairy dust and makes your beer taste amazing, I can't see the draw. A friend has a barrel fermented only brewery with about 450 wine barrels in use. He uses the GW kent model and has no complaints. I also have the GW kent model. I'll buy the MoreBeer one next. They do exactly what they're supposed to do for a not $1300 price.

My un-asked-for advice: buy three more Morebeer devices, go and get yourself (or tasting room staff) a nice pizza and a massage, use the leftover funds to see a movie and buy a favored child in your life something nice. You can thank me later.

*please note sarcasm*

[feinbera]

The metal racks allow us to move them by forklift or pallet jack – works great if everything you do in barrels is at least a pair of barrels at a time.

[Brewfist]

What does everyone use to lift full barrels when they need to be moved?

[jduke]

A bit of an old thread, I know, but with these wooden barrel racks - I assume you're able to fill and empty the barrels in place?

[ziggy13]

I use this from MoreBeer, cheaper than the GW Kent one and it's worked well for me: http://www.morebeer.com/products/mor...html?site_id=5

I actually use that for filling and emptying barrels.

As for stacking, we're at 4 high with using barrel racks. Seems plenty sturdy..not sure about building your own though. I suppose if your crafty it'll save a few bucks, but definitely make sure they're sturdy.

Just wanted to post a reply here and update the thread in case anyone else out there is looking. We purchased the MoreBeer gas transfer tool and it is awesome. It has a screw on the bottom which allows you to adjust it's height...all the way down will get almost every last drop of beer out of the barrel. All the way up and it will avoid removing the lees and other trub type material that may be left at the bottom of the barrel. We used just 4 psi to remove every last drop of beer. I am also using this device to fill barrels now as well and I couldn't be happier with it. I have no experience with the GW Kent model but on the description of MoreBeer's product they appear to allude to the GW Kent model when they said they basically designed their own to fix some flaws. MoreBeer's is also cheaper so I can say 100% I recommend anyone looking for a similar device to purchase this one.

We also decided to design and build our own barrel racks to save a couple of bucks but more importantly because we like to build and do things like this ourselves, plus we don't really like the looks of traditional metal barrel racks. Our racks hold 5 barrels. Buying traditional metal barrel racks would have cost us $220 for a half rack on the bottom and then a 7" rack on top. We spent around $50 to build ours out of wood plus an hour or 2 of our time and we're able to hold 5 barrels instead of just 4. Below is a picture. It is clearly not the greatest thing in the world, but for the $170 we saved I was able to buy another barrel

[bierstein]

Bless this forum! Was just about to order the GWKent model when I saw this post. This unit is perfect and priced great.

[FourSonsBrewing]

I'm going to get the MoreBeer one, thanks guys! Should I get a 1" sight glass for it, or a 1.5" sight glass for it? I know it's 1.5" tri clamp connection, but I can't tell if it's 1" ID or 1.5" ID and I can't tell from the photos.

The ID of the MoreBeer is 1"

[ziggy13]

I'm going to get the MoreBeer one, thanks guys! Should I get a 1" sight glass for it, or a 1.5" sight glass for it? I know it's 1.5" tri clamp connection, but I can't tell if it's 1" ID or 1.5" ID and I can't tell from the photos.

[CharlosCarlies]

We use the MoreBeer one for filling and emptying as well and it's "fine", but will definitely be looking into a Rack-it-eer when we can afford it.

At that point the plan is to turn the MoreBeer one into a sour/wild only kit.

[FourSonsBrewing]

I use this from MoreBeer, cheaper than the GW Kent one and it's worked well for me: http://www.morebeer.com/products/mor...html?site_id=5

I actually use that for filling and emptying barrels.

As for stacking, we're at 4 high with using barrel racks. Seems plenty sturdy..not sure about building your own though. I suppose if your crafty it'll save a few bucks, but definitely make sure they're sturdy.

[ziggy13]

Hey everyone,

We are picking up our first set of bourbon barrels this week to do some aging. This whole process is brand new to us so I have a few questions.

We're looking to buy this filler: http://www.gwkent.com/barrel-filler-1-1-2-tc.html and the Bulldog Barrel transfer tube from Kent: http://www.gwkent.com/bulldog-barrel-transfer-tube.html to use to move beer from the brite into the barrel, and then from the barrel back into the brite.

Any pro's or con's to either of these devices? Any better options out there?

Also, as far as stacking the filled barrels goes, how high can they go? We can't decide whether to buy the metal racks to stack them or try and build something on our own out of wood to save some money.

If I understand correctly the weight of the barrels should be put towards the ends of the barrels, not all right in the center as if it were laying flat on the ground without a rack?