Michael Tonsmeire joins me this week to discuss aging beer in barrels as well as how to barrel age sour beers.
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Topics in This Week’s Episode (50:47)
- Today my guest is Michael Tonsmeire. Michael is the author of the book American Sour Beer (Amazon affiliate link) and he also writes for his long running blog The Mad Fermentationist. Michael joins me to talk about Sour Beers.
- We discuss how Michael got into barrel aging.
- He shares with us the purpose of barrel aging beers including sour beers.
- We talk about the size of barrels that work best for homebrewers as well as where to find barrels.
- Michael tells us which woods work best with beers, including those from winerys and distilleries.
- We talk about how to inspect a barrel and how to check for leaks as well as how to sanitize it before use.
- He explains the importance of keeping a barrel full for longer beer aging as well as why you really don’t want the barrel empty between batches of beer.
- We discuss how long to age a typical beer as well as how to use a barrel with sour beers.
- Michael talks about other wood alternatives including using oak cubes, oak spirals, chips and powders.
- He shares his new brewery project which is still in the early planning stages.
Sponsors
- Thank you to our sponsor Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine for sponsoring this episode. I encourage you to subscribe to their great magazine!
- And also Anvil Brewing Equipment. Anvil is a new line of kettles, burners and accessories from John Blichmann at Blichmann Engineering. They make top quality brewing equipment built to last a lifetime.
- Also check out BeerSmith, BeerSmith Mobile software and the new DVDs John Palmer and I filmed – How to Brew with Malt Extract and How to Brew All Grain are available now. You can subscribe to the BeerSmith newsletter for free to get some great articles on home brewing.
Thanks to Michael Tonsmeire for appearing on the show and also to you for listening!
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