I’ve been itching to start my own sour solera project ever since I started making sour beer. Barrels aren’t a requirement for a solera, lots of people make them in carboys or other vessels. But I have a romantic image of barrel aged beers and wanted to try the process for myself.

Prior to this project I’d never brewed with a barrel or even seriously considered getting one. I did a lot of background reading and I want to share what I learned getting ready for my project.

Choose a barrel size

Used barrels come in a wide variety of sizes. A standard American whiskey barrel is 53 gallons. Wine barrels are typically a little larger. 60 gallons is a common size.

Smaller barrels in the 5 to 30 gallon range are also available on the used market. Most come from small whiskey producers. I’m not aware of any sources for small wine barrels or if any wineries even use small barrels. It seems that if you want a small used barrel, you’re getting a whiskey barrel.

Double sour brew day!

I’m still very new to sour beer brewing. Rather than going off and experimenting right away, I want to start with some proven recipes. Today I’m starting a couple of beers inspired by my favorite sours to come out of Sapwood Cellars to date.

First up, Opulence, a sour red that has two separate cherry additions. Aged in a mix of red wine and bourbon barrels, dry sour cherries were added early in the aging process, and then before bottling it was finished on fresh sour cherries.

Before trying it I was a little skeptical of combination of bourbon bourbon aging a sour beer, but the vanilla character of the barrels worked really nicely with the cherries.

The second beer to go into my 15 gallon Dad’s Hat rye whiskey barrel will be an old ale brewed with black treacle.

Old ale is a wide ranging style. For this version we’re shooting for ~7% abv (before barrel aging), complexity from black treacle, and not too much residual sugar. I’m hoping this all plays nicely with the gentle contribution from a barrel that’s already held imperial stout for a while.

The inspiration for the recipe comes from a Beer and Brewing article on old ale.

I’ve always liked Berliner Weisse, but never brewed one. And I’ve been wanting to experiment with kettle souring.

The procedure I’m following comes from this great presentation by Derek Springer: Berliner and Beyond: Sour Mashing and Its Applications

In short:

• Make a starter for your lacto
• Get your wort under 4.5 pH as soon as possible to deter unwanted microbes
• Hold at a happy temperature for your lacto strain
• Minimize oxygen exposure by covering with plastic wrap
• Finally, boil, chill, and pitch yeast as normal to finish the beer

This beer is the first brew to go into my 15 gallon Dad’s Hat rye whiskey barrel. That barrel is destined for sour solera duty, but first I want to brew a couple of big clean beers to make the most of the barrel’s fresh whiskey character.

This stout is based on a KBS clone recipe from Zymurgy that I first brewed way back in 2013. That was a great beer, and I’m excited to try making it again.