I read something somewhere (maybe radical brewing), about keeping a used wine barrel (50-60 gallon) empty being an issue. Is it actually an issue to keep a wine barrel empty? If so, how much beer at a minimum should be in there?
I was planning on asking some local wineries for used barrels to store my collection of sours I am looking to start. I was only planning on doing five gallons at a time, then beginning to blend once I got an idea of what my beer tasted like, so that I could tweak the recipe until I eventually had a full barrel of blended ages.
I would wait to start collecting the barrels, but I move with my work potentially every three years or so and am in a very populated quality wine area, so I think it will be fairly easy to find what I am looking for.
Appreciate any suggestions...