Breaking down another batch of staves and was wondering if anyone else has a love for the flavor of the bourbon barrel?
The smoke from these white oak bourbon barrels imparts such a mellow flavor that is just fantastic with chicken and pork. I use it mainly for hot grilling cooks like chicken and chops, salmon, pork steak and the like. Chances are if I’m grilling dinner there’s a block in the coals. I really like it when searing steaks and it’s my go to for doing prime rib.
I’ve bone butts with it but find I prefer a heavier pecan for those.
Anyway you save a bunch of money breaking them down yourself as opposed to buying little bags of precut. I find I get about 2 years out of a full barrel. I’ve always bought them from Jim Beam and shipped them home but have found a local place and will be giving them a shot now that my last barrel has been cut.
Anyone who knows bourbon knows the name Jim Beam. The distillery sent us these barrels and now they're ready for barrel-aging or gifting to the Jim Beam lover in your life.
Is it this? Love the idea, not sure how you are saving money though.
I pay much less at the distillery. As for midwest barrel, they are local to me and I can buy a once dumped bourbon for 119 or better yet they sell just the staves from a barrel for 90 bucks.
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I like the bourbon barrel smoke profile. I have four 5 gallon barrels that will soon be used for smoking - I have aged booze in them for a couple of years, need to get new ones.
Actually, there are bourbon barrel pellets out there, WayneT! Bear Mountain Bourbon, Cuisinart Maple Bourbon and a Jim Beam licensed product pops up on a Google search.
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I’ve looked for staves so I could hand them on the wall, like shiplap in a way I guess. I haven’t looked hard enough locally to see if there are any here in NM. But I do have a few staves that are hanging my guitars.
the Depot sells wine barrels, and I do have a full barrel we use as our patio table, with a large glass round on top.
Pretty cool to see some of the uses people have for these staves.
Here’s to the folks that first said, “Let’s hide the moonshine in the nail keg that was scorched when the shed caught fire last year.”
Surely they didn’t know the future of their actions…
So, for those who cut their own or are thinking about it, let's use the info from the thread discussion about Jealous Devil chunks at HD. The Hickory and Cherry were $1 per pound, but JD also sells bourbon barrel stave chunks for $2 per pound (unless you buy the three pack that contains all three at $10 a box). So there's your comparative for trade off.
I cut 89 lbs of chunks from this last barrel including both head and bottom. This barrel had been sitting in my garage drying for almost a dozen years so it was as dry and light as it will get. To replace the barrel with a generic bourbon / whiskey barrel will cost me 119 if I buy the whole barrel and chop the heads as well. 90 bucks just for the staves so probably 80-90- lbs. so Ill be comfortable calling it a bit over a buck a pound no shipping and my labor.
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