I have definitely been posting in this community a lot over the last few weeks/days so apologies if it’s a bit much lol, things should slow down since I’m running out of jars and fermenters though. But here’s my fermenter with plenty of sugar, blue razz jolly ranchers, and lots of nutrient. Along side my meme I’m going to turn into moonshine I’ve also got a fall beer my girlfriend requested. I’ve made the pumpkin ale loads of times but this is the first time I’m doing it without pumpkin (the one I bought was rotting when I cut into it and I didn’t feel like going back out and buying another)
a 5 gallon barrel will impart a ton of wood character to your beer really quickly (compared to a 55 gal or 225L barrel) due to the wood surface area to beer volume ratio. You probably wouldn't want to put a stout into one for an entire year, at least not right away, maybe once you've sent a number of beers through it and stripped out a lot of the wood character from the barrel...
One way to find out, right? Thanks for the info though! Think I’ll play it by ear or maybe do the wood chips like someone else mentioned, at least until I get enough space for a nice wood barrel room lol
Wood chips work well, you can also get cubes, that impart the character a bit more slowly, and a lot of people swear by them over chips.