Barrel-Aging Project Wrap Up: Team Rum Barrel

Since late 2020, Butler County Brewing Society members have been working on a series of a barrel-aging projects. We sourced a variety of small format barrels and broke into groups to brew and age a series of beers through each barrel. Now, in early 2022, these projects are wrapping. It’s time to check in and see what each group did, and what they learned. Next up…

Team Rum Barrel

For this project, we were able to source two 15-gallon used rum barrels. Two different teams of brewers ran the same beers through each barrel. First beer into the barrels was an English barleywine, followed by a wee heavy, and finally an Irish red.

Pulling off a project like this, with eight different brewers making 120 gallons of beer over more than a year takes a lot of work. “It definitely takes a ‘champion,’ someone to put the recipes together and gather/disseminate the ingredients,” said Jeff Frechtling [EDIT: Sorry; two Jeffs were part of this barrel, and I grabbed the wrong last name originally.], one of the rum barrel brewers. “Club President Chuck Beardslee, did an excellent job with that.”

Another member of the team, Jon Cherry, noted that the project pushed him as a brewer. “For me this project was great, because it forced me to brew when I probably otherwise would not. I learned a ton not just about barreling but about brewing in general from everyone. Loved being part of this group and hope to do it again or something like it.”

The Irish red was just pulled from both barrels this month, so it’ll be a few weeks before we know exactly what those beers taste like. It’s a good bet that they’ll be making an appearance at the next couple Club Meetings. If the barleywine and wee heavy are any indication, however, things are very promising! In fact, the beers have been so good that the club intends to bring one 5-gallon keg of rum barrel aged wee heavy to serve at Homebrew Con 2022 during Club Night!

Barrel-Aging Project Wrap Up Part 1: Team Bourbon Barrel

Barrel-Aging Project Wrap Up Part 3: Team Red Wine Barrel (Coming Soon!)