Getting rid of used barrels

[Diamond_Danny]

Are any winemakers living in Chicagoland getting rid of used barrels? I understand that the oak flavor imparted by the barrel will lose intensity over a few batches. I assume winemakers replace their barrels regularly.

I'm looking for around 5 or 10 gallon barrels for aging homebrewed beer and I think wine barrels would add an interesting character. I can pick up and am open to negotiating a price.

Thanks!

 

[Rocky]

Danny, you may find wine makers reluctant to give up their barrels even if they have lost their oak intensity. There are other advantages of aging a wine in a barrel than the oak flavoring, e.g. micro-oxygenation which improves the wine. If one were only concerned about imparting an oak flavor in an older barrel, he or she could add oak cubes to the barrel and get pretty much the same result. Good luck in your search.

 

[Diamond_Danny]

Thanks for the detailed response. The idea of barrel aging is so interesting to me. I will continue my search, maybe I'll try to befriend some whiskey distillers.

Always good to talk with fellow fermenters!

Offer still stands if anyone is abandoning their barrels.

 

[Rocky]

Whiskey distillers used to be a great source. When I was young and making wine with my family, we used to get whiskey barrels from the Schenley Distillery northeast of Pittsburgh. Many of them had a goodly amount of Schenley Whiskey still in them and they really "enhanced" i.e. fortified, the first few batches that went through them. They used to give them away, but I expect distillers will charge for them now. (They used to give away soup bones in butcher shops, too!)