whisky barrels need homes

Hey guys,

I’m a long-time home brewer and the head distiller at Balcones Distillery here in Texas. Hope this is cool to do this on the forum, but I wanted to make it known that we a greater than normal quantity of recently dumped 20 liter whisky barrels available for sale.  With this summer being as hot as it’s been, I’d hate to see them dry out waiting for homes.  These are great barrels for homebrewers not only because of their size, but because they come pretty much sterile and were leak free when they were dumped.  Because they’re used, you don’t have to worry about over-oaking your beer like you would with a new barrel.

Anyway, if there is some interest, especially from home brew clubs or shops, we could figure out a way to find these barrels good homes.  We try to ship them by the pallet (27-36 barrels / pallet) if we can since individual shipping takes so much time.  We’ll try to figure something out if folks out there are interested.

Best,

Chip Tate
Head Distiller, Balcones Distilling

PM sent

PM sent

Me too

How much for a pallet shipped to zip code 49639?  I hate seeing “for-sale” ads etc without some sort of base price… its like driving down the road and you see somebody selling “X” but there is no price on it… just a phone number.  I don’t generally waste my time, just like the Lincoln Towncar I “stopped” to look at this morning on the way to work… it was a total waste of MY F#^@$ *!  time…  ::slight_smile:

He’s asking 45 a piece for the barrels. shipping I don’t know looks like around 300-500 for a pallet.

you should be able to get a much better price than that on shipping. Find out the skid size and weight, get the address of the place, and call around to the various trucking companies. (I used to schedule LTL shipments at a former employer and we would ship skids of steel bar cheaper than that.)

hmm good to know. The best quote we have gotten so far is 230 something for 300 lbs on skid. but from what this guy is saying the total weight is more on the order of 500 lbs. I would guess a skid of steel bar is a bit more than that :slight_smile:

Chip,
    I sent an email through Balcones website & have yet to  recieve a response…
Please let me know if you have barrels for pick up
Dan

Hello Chip. If you would, please contact me and let’s discuss what a pallet of barrels would cost. My local homebrewing supply shop (Adventures in Homebrewing) may be interested. You can reach me either through a message here on the Forum, or at crispy275 at comcast dot net.

Whomever gets a skid, I’d like two barrels…

Hi Chip:

We may have some interest in a pallet to come to the Clearwater/Dunedin area of Florida (using 34683 as a sample zip code).  Several questions:
1)  Shipping cost?
2)  Number of barrels on a pallet (your post says 27-36 - or do we just tell you how many we want?)?
3)  Number of times the barrels were used (I’m assuming one, since it’s for a distillery?)?
4)  How long were the spirits in the barrels?
5)  How long since the barrels were emptied?
6)  Do you know what type of oak, or any other history about the barrels?
7)  Are they the 20L barrels with a single wood bung in the side (when laying on the side)?
8)  Cost per barrel?  (I saw someone else mentioning $45)
Thanks.
You can reply privately if you prefer - to Nelson at DunedinBrewersGuild.com

i could pick up a few.
i am here in in the great state of texas.
i represent a double barrel capacity home brew club named ANONYMOUS ALERS.
We would love even just one.
let us know…thanks!

julian.angon@gmail.com
512-496-8960

I worked with my local homebrew supply store (Adventures in Homebrewing- Ann Arbor, MI) and collectively through a number of local clubs, Jason (the owner) is obtaining 2 full pallets of barrels. He set up a nice on-line pre-order form that allowed him to gauge interest and get financial commitments from club members. We are looking forward to obtaining these in a week or so.

Any idea when they might get the barrels and start selling them?

My understanding is this week, but I think that they were all pre-sold and paid for by members on-line.

We received the whisky barrels last week and I was thrilled wirth their pristine condition, the beautiful aroma behind the bung, and the fact that they came with their own stands! Our local homebrew shop (Adventures In Homebrewing) facilitated the deal, and several dozen of us were able to obtain one or more at a great price. I immediatly racked over an Old Ale that I had sitting in secondary, and when I tasted a small sample just a day later, it had a rgeat flavor already!

Thanks for thinking of us homebrewers these personal sized barrels rock!

Nice, our club is in the process of finallizing an order for a pallet. really looking forward to it. going to have to brew up something big to fill it post haste.

You won’t be disappointed. I called Chip today to thank him, and to ask him some questions about these barrels.

Chip, the Head Distiller for Balcones Distillery in Texas, is the one who posted about these being available for homebrewers on the AHA Forum. He said these were the sort of barrels he wished he could get his hands on when he was homebrewing.

There is a lot of information on one end that has clues about the prior contents, dates of emptying, and alcohol levels previously in the barrels. Mine say’s “Blue Corn” and what I think is an alcohol measurement (60.4% or something like that) and date, then “Malt”, another measurement and date, along with the dump date (early September).

So I am guessing that, along with the info on their website, that these held their “Baby Blue”, a Blue Corn Whisky, and then their single malt. Their website: http://www.balconesdistilling.com/

Does anyone know if Balcone still has barrels available?

I’m considering ordering a barrel from The Woodinville Story – Woodinville Whiskey Co., but at around $55 per the barrels from Balcone are more cost effective.

Unfortunately, I can’t use a pallet-full, but I’d go for two if anyone in Chicago wants to organize a shipment…