I need a barrel

[Phischy]

I'm a big homebrewer. The biggest rage in beers right now are barrel aged beers w/ bourbon barrels being king. I would LOVE a top shelf barrel (blanton's/BTAC/etc...) so I can have it shipped to CA where 3 brewers will brew like mad to make 55 gallons of RIS (a huge undertaking) to then age a beer for 6 months.

How does one go about purchasing a used barrel? Considering the size of our homebrew operation, we don't want a Beam white label barrel...we want the best we can snag. I know there is a big 2ndary market for them that go all over the world. So I'm asking the forum if they have any ideas how to snag one.

Thanks

[Lost Pollito]

Check with your local liquor stores...or at least ones that buy whole barrels to have bottled. They may let you take one off there hands.

[barturtle]

You could try contacting Kelvin Cooperage, they sell used barrels, either broken down or whole.

Boswell is their San Rafael, CA distirbutor.

[wildcatdon]

I was at Buffalo Trace last Dec and they told us we could buy a barrel if we wanted to..call them and see.

[Phischy]

Thanks, I'm going to contact them and find out what needs to be done. If anything, this is going to be a February winter project in order to ferment all the beer (11 batches!) out at proper temps.

I really see this as being overly expensive...

[mobourbon]

I was at Buffalo Trace last Dec and they told us we could buy a barrel if we wanted to..call them and see.[/quote

Buffalo Trace won't ship a barrel, though.

[barturtle]

I was at Buffalo Trace last Dec and they told us we could buy a barrel if we wanted to..call them and see.[/quote

Buffalo Trace won't ship a barrel, though.

For the right price, I could "hand deliver" one in my pickup though...:cool:

[Lost Pollito]

For the right price, I could "hand deliver" one in my pickup though...:cool:

Craving socal I guess? :grin:

[barturtle]

Craving socal I guess? :grin:

Never been there...but it'd give me a good excuse to stop by Longmont, CO, and maybe swing up to the San Francisco and Santa Rosa...Seattle, maybe...

[ODaniel]

I'm a big homebrewer and plan to do a bourbon barrel stout within the next year. I'm going to do a mock with oak chips soaked in bourbon first with my Foreign Extra Stout that a BJCP judge gave me a 43/50. I have a slightly modified version in primary now. I think this might even be better, I hope so. I have my first RIS still aging in bottles. About 4 months since brewday. I heard barrels average $75. I'd like to try to find a hookup on one. I have plenty of time though. Not sure how you could ship one, but it would cost a pretty penny. Good luck man.