Oak ageing

After selling some parts of another hobby of mine I managed to find just over £100 to invest back into this hobby. I've always had the essentials of homebrewing but it's time I started a long term project so as the title suggests I have decided to start ageing my mead. I'm going to start the whole process from scratch and see where it takes me but every step I take I shall record here so I can improve in the future, and anyone else can have a go should they also find that £100 magically appears! Firstly the equipment: I originally thought about trying to source a pre-used barrel that had already had a life of ageing whiskey. I emailed various suppliers within the UK but unfortunately I either didn't get a reply or found they reuse them. After more digging and research I resigned to the fact I would have to buy a new one (which also probably makes the task easier in terms of hygiene for the storage of the mead inside). Yet again, more research followed and I eventually decided to purchase from ebay and from Italy.

Ebay Link

Some keen brewers may have noticed I said barrel above and are nitpicking right now saying a barrel is specific and must be 36 gallons. Yes I know but the "barrel" I have chosen is only 15 liters so I can't even call it a pin so for all intents and purposes from here on in it shall be referred to as a cask. As of writing this I ordered it yesterday so it is still on its' way to me.

The next task on my list is to sort out the ingredients and equipment for the mead itself. I want to make 4 demijohns up with as close to identical contents as possible to age altogether (and have a touch left over for sampling!) . Over the next week or so I shall be writing myself a detailed recipe which I must not stray from so I can get this as exact as I can and, most importantly, repeatable.

I shall be spending a lot of time at home over the winter period too so I shall be adding a few other experiments here too including a burnt mead or bochet which I am really looking forward to trying. Others to look out for include a raspberry mead (this time with syrup rather than reducing the raspberries myself) and the chocolate mead from my earlier playing around with cocoa beans and vodka.

Thanks for reading :)