In December I wrote about tips on barrel repairs and maintenance. I was happy to hear the tips in the article had helped a few of my fellow brewers! A few weeks agone I was scrolling through some posts on a forum and came across a thread on barrel cleaning. Chase Healey of Prairie Artisan Ales made a comment along the lines of "five different brewers will tell you lot 5 different ways." He is absolutely correct, everyone has their ain process and there really is no right or wrong answer. The best way to clean or store barrels is the way that works for your brewery or dwelling brewery. But with so many schools of thought…How practice you lot get started figuring out what works all-time? I listed my process below and reached out to a few brewers I consider to be the best in the world at barrel brewing who graciously shared their communication.

Eric Salazar (New Belgium Brewing)-

I prefer to start with a cold water rinse to remove any droppings. For Foeders I utilize a block and bleed matrix, pump, and high pressure level spray-ball.

  • Fill partially with a water and Soda ash solution at 2 g/50… Recirculate, drain
  • Then a absurd h2o rinse.
  • Fill partially with cold h2o and add Citric acid solution at (5 thousand/50)… Recirculate to neutralize, drain.
  • Rinse well

•    Fill partially with cold water, add together Potassium Metabisulfite – solution, 2 grand/50.

  • Rinse and Utilise orfill to the tipy top with Potassium Metabisulfite solution at .2 yard/l pinnacle for storage. Check and/or refill monthly

image003 image006 image007

(ETF- What are your thoughts on using hot water during this procedure? I assume there are cons with using hot water in your procedure. I find y'all specifically say cold water in each step.)

ERIC-I would outset make up one's mind how well everything sits in the hoops. If gaps between staves are minimal then cool water should work fine. Warmer water will hydrate faster but y'all have to sentinel that you don't go too hot for too long or you'll degrade the prison cell structure of the wood itself. That's a leak that tin can't be repaired. I've seen recommendations for water as hot as 160°F just I normally keep information technology below 100°F. Again, if the staves are tight and the leaks minimal, cooler h2o works. That might take a bit longer but the gamble is lower.

Modest barrels generally come in nice and tight. Nosotros really only deal with whiskey barrels from Leopold Brother'southward and those are well kept and unremarkably merely dry for half a day before we fill them with beer.

Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River Brewing)- Nosotros actually never hold barrels empty.  If they are empty, we either make full them immediately or they get into the throw abroad pile.  I gauge we take this reward being in the middle of wine land with access to barrels.  I take this opinion considering even afterward cleaning a barrel with our pressure level washer there is yet some beer, bacteria, & alcohol left in the wood and equally it is exposed to air the risk of the growth of acetic acid is greater.  Of class 1 tin utilise sulfur sticks to eliminate the oxygen but again, when one has access to barrels like we do, it is just easier to grab some fresh barrels.

Cantillon Steam Cleaning Photo: dubman.com

Cantillon Steam Cleaning
Photo: dubman.com

Jean Van Roy- (Brasserie Cantillon)-Nosotros clean our barrels first with steam and so a rotative head linked to high force per unit area water. So with warm water and chains added into the butt. For this last operation, we put the butt on a rotative machine and we let it plough for twenty minutes.
The barrels filled in the next 2-3 days are used fresh. For the ones nosotros have to proceed for more than than 3 days, we burn a sulfur stick inside to avoid moisture.

Ron Jeffries (Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales)- We try to avoid leaving them empty.  Ideally we fill up them directly afterwards emptying, or the next 24-hour interval.  If we do demand to hold them empty longer, nosotros but hurl them up after cleaning – empty; and re clean before utilize.  About property solutions worry me, equally they kill off our resident bugs, and soak into the woods.  Anyone who's made a beer in a freshly dumped barrel can tell you what'due south in the woods will come up out into the next liquid put into the barrel, namely in this example replacing a chip of your beer with the holding solution.

At present that y'all have heard from the incredible brewers above here is what I have been doing at Yazoo:

Hot water fill off our HLT to bank check for major leaks or defects if a barrel looks doubtable. If the barrels look good when I'm gear up to use them, and so many times I'll just get right into the barrel so I can continue every bit much barrel graphic symbol in the barrel equally possible.
If I'chiliad elimination a barrel that had funky beer in it and I know it wont be used for a couple weeks then information technology gets a hot h2o rinse to clean out the left overs then a 1/four to 1/iii full with warm water along with a mix Citric acid and Potassium Metabisulfite.
Well-nigh 1/four cup of Citric and nearly a 1/3 cup of Potassium Metabisulfite per 12-14 gallons makes a nice holding solution or solution within the barrel.

Make certain yous follow Embrace The Funk on Twitter and Facebook.