Oak Barrels

Thank you.

As of this morning, not a leak in site. I'm betting the cold kept them pretty well preserved, haha.

That is pretty firken cool!

Oh that is so cool. I am very jealous and wish I could come and see them tomorrow. Maybe next time...hopefully you will have them full by then.

They made it! At 7 o'clock I checked FedEx's status of the package and it said it was delayed due to weather conditions. So I figured they would come tomorrow. At 9:30 FedEx shows up, apologizing because it's so late, but they had the barrels. Props to FedEx!

We're re-hydrating them right now. It should take a couple days. Meanwhile, we'll be watching to make sure there are no leaks. Everything assembled real quick. Plus, they sure make the kitchen smell nice.

We'll probably do a boil treatment on 'his' since we don't want that one to darken or oak the beers too much.

Here they are:

Updated again, FedEx now says they'll be here Monday. Oh well.

I did contact him about the overland shipping. The reason we went with that versus the quicker shipping was because we ordered 2 barrels. They would have had to have been shipped separately for the regular shipping, and that would have cost more. Overland shipping allowed us to ship them under one fee.

We went with the 6 gallon barrels just because I like to have a bit of an idiot gap, that and I'd like to bottle a few of what we barrel age. I think the 20L and 6gal are both White Oak with medium char.

SWEET. That will make a very nice Christmas gift for you both! Waiting on the pictures! Did you have to email him directly for a 'cheaper' shipping quote on quantity or use the ebay shipping calculator? Also, there appears to be two different styles of 5 gallon barrels available. Which did you choose and why? (if I may ask)

Anyway, congrats on the new addition to your brewing family. I hope they arrive on time and intact!

Ryan

Update from FedEx: Expected Delivery Date is December 10th.

Woohooo!

I split these from the 'Classifieds' post since we we're venturing away from the keg topic. Heh.

Nope, don't have them yet. Since we ordered two we had to go with a slower shipping option. I hope to see them in the next week or so.

I did order them from Clay Johnston. Outside of his ebay reviews (which were all great) I was able to find several forum postings from others who had purchased from him and they were all very pleased with the products. He has his own google group, where he posts links and answers questions too. He seems to really know what he's doing.

He does a great job of keeping in touch. He sent me these photos:


You're more than welcome to check ours out when we get them. That offer goes to anyone that wants to look before they purchase. I know, it's always a risk when ordering online.

So did the barrels get here yet? I'm very interested in these and hopefully I can check them out when I get the kegs. Did you get these from the guy in mexico on Ebay? Have you found any information on the quality of these prior to ordering. I'm just about ready to pull the trigger on a 20L one from them but would like to know a little about the quality before ordering. Anyway thought I better ask.

Ryan

i think that is going to be awesome! i hope the best for you! typically i don't care for oaked anything my self, but there are some exceptions! and i am willing to try anything.

you should do a side by side of your oat brown in, it it think would would kick major booty!

ryanjilek wrote:I'm curios in what kind of barrels...

I'm pretty excited about these. We ordered two 6 gallon Oak Barrels from a craftsman out of Mexico. They are new and medium char. I don't have them yet, because we had them personalized to say 'His' and 'Hers'.

I plan on doing a lot of Scotches, Porters, and Stouts in mine (Hers). I'd love to try something on the lines of Bourbon County Stout.

Mike's been dying to get a barrel to do Belgians in, with all the funk and what not, so he's got 'His' for that.

I'm sure we'll share the barrels, but it was a cute way of keeping them marked.

I'll post pictures when they arrive.

I'm curios in what kind of barrels and where you are sourcing these from? What size are you looking at? Are they used or new and what level of charing? I assume these will be for some scotch ale or something similar. Only say that as it seems to be one of your favorites.