Mexican handmade Medium-toast Oak Barrels

iguenard · Post by **iguenard** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 8:23 am

A nice reader sent us a link for a guy in Mexico that does medium-toasted Oak barrels at a very affordable price and ships to Canada.

In case you wanted to try out a gueuze or age something in oak where you dont mind not getting residual spirit flavours...

I think I'll be getting a couple of those 20L ones.

http://www.ebay.ca/sch/nopal_verde/m.ht ... =12&_rdc=1

Thought I'd share the wealth

ritzkiss · Post by **ritzkiss** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 10:41 am

Be very interested in hearing your experience with these, it seems like quite a good price from what I've seen.

Tapsucker · Post by **Tapsucker** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 11:19 am

Looks promising. I have been specifically looking out for a barrel that has not been used for whisky/sherry etc.

iguenard · Post by **iguenard** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 12:20 pm

Well they hold their liquid is all I can tell you right now, but we ordered a couple for Bières et plaisirs. I will be ordering a couple more for fermenting lambics and aging them into gueuzes.

I asked the seller if he can make them without a spiggot to ensure they dont leak and to make for easier cleaning.

I'll post here when I get to try em out, or if I hear from our reader about his experience.

markaberrant · Post by **markaberrant** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 2:24 pm

For lambic/gueze, you want used oak barrels with little to no oak flavour left.

The whole point of aging lambic in a barrel is not oak character, but oxygen permeability. A 60 gallon barrel has the ideal oxygen permeability for producing good lambic. A 20L barrel has an increased surface ratio, which allows way too much oxygen in, which promotes acetic acid production (ie; vinegar).

I would never think of using a new 20L barrel for lambic.

iguenard · Post by **iguenard** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 6:54 pm

I'll tell you how it turns out

Tapsucker · Post by **Tapsucker** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:54 pm

markaberrant wrote:For lambic/gueze, you want used oak barrels with little to no oak flavour left.

The whole point of aging lambic in a barrel is not oak character, but oxygen permeability. A 60 gallon barrel has the ideal oxygen permeability for producing good lambic. A 20L barrel has an increased surface ratio, which allows way too much oxygen in, which promotes acetic acid production (ie; vinegar).

I would never think of using a new 20L barrel for lambic.

I'm looking for oak flavour for a couple ales as well as a keller. I hate lambics anyway

Tapsucker · Post by **Tapsucker** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:55 pm

iguenard wrote:I'll tell you how it turns out

What sizes did you go for and what was the final cost with shipping?