One of my buddies owns a brewery and ages imperial stout beer in single use bourbon barrels straight from the distilleries in Kentucky. This one sat out back a little too long after use and dried out, so I essentially got it for free. When I came to pick up the barrel the thing completely fell apart from just moving it. I took some individual staves that were about 1 inch wide and cleaned off all the old char and patina from the outside of the barrel with a disc sander, then cut them into 4” lengths with a table saw. I’ve got so much wood from this barrel, I’ll never run out.tjsc5f wrote: ↑Mon Nov 21, 2022 7:35 amDid you aquire an entire barrel and break it down yourself? I'm curious what length of stave stick you used for the quarts, and if/how you cleaned it up prior to toast and char.BrewinBrian44 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 20, 2022 2:55 pm oak barrel stave sticks “Buffalo Trace barrel” with different char and toast treatments.
After cutting them to size, I did all sorts of different toast and charring treatments and organized them in some big zip lock bags with labels. I’m looking forward to using my single use pieces in some other products that want a milder oak flavor, like the apple brandy I’m going to run tomorrow.
The planter barrels from Home Depot are also a great option that won’t break the bank and will provide some very well seasoned oak from the start. This was my original plan until my buddy offered the Buffalo Trace barrel. Cool thing about using these barrels for bourbon is you still get the flavor of “new oak” because only one side of the stave interacted with the previous spirit. The outside of the barrel is still fresh, seasoned oak.