8-gallon whiskey barrel from Tuthilltown Spirits. Gnome not included.

Looking for a whiskey barrel to age your homebrew, but don’t want to invest in a 50-gallon barrel? Upon the recommendation of a man whose name I can’t remember from a recent beer dinner at American Grocery, I came across Tuthilltown Spirits, a small distillery in Gardiner, New York.

Tuthilltown is a small micro-distillery started in 2001. Their tininess is to homebrewer’s benefit, as they resell 6, 7 and 8-gallon whiskey cured American white oak barrels. I’ve been on the lookout for small barrels to age homebrewed sour beer, and this is the best deal I’ve come across for used barrels. (Now, full disclosure, my research usually lasts for five minutes, so there may be better deals out there. Feel free to comment if you find any.)

I recently ordered an 8-gallon whiskey barrel that Bobby C and I plan to use to age a batch of sour homebrew. We plan to brew the beer on July 30, so I’ll keep you posted as to its progress. The cost of the barrel with shipping was $162. I had seen other “new” 15-gallon barrels for around $200+, but that was almost too big for what I wanted.

Tuthilltown had the “Goldilocks” offer. It was just right…