I've seen that Ceremony Coffee has been barrel conditioning different green coffees in wine and port barrels and started wondering how hard this would be to do at home. They're doing 150 # batches, but I would be doing just a pound or two at a time.

I had thought about buying some toasted wine barrel chunks that I'd seen at a homebrew shop and putting them in a canning jar with the greens, but then I saw Tom's thread about using 1 gallon toasted oak barrels and wondered about that, but they wouldn't have already been exposed to wine first.

I'm still brainstorming this, any feedback is appreciated.

I'm pretty sure 1 gallon barrels are pretty expensive too. I'd either try the used chunks or just go buy a piece of raw oak and toast it yourself if you want it minus the wine. I see no problem in just putting it all in a jar. That's basically how home brewers do it with their brews.

I've got a rye whiskey barrel I'm about to load up with fresh crop from Huila. It'll be about 80lbs or so....

That sounds good... let us know how it turns out.

The Ceremony wine conditioned coffee I tried was pretty profound.

Do you guys know how long they're typically aging these?

"until they are awesome" was the reply I got....

I tried conditioning (flavoring) coffee once for a month, I took most mellow coffee I had and put it in a bag with sweet smelling fruity candy. I kept the two separate, as not to get any sugars on the beans. After a month I roasted the beans, but it didnt work like I has hoped. The beans were still boring... so I'm guessing a month wasn't long enough, or the aroma wasn't potent enough.

The wine barrels arrived today. I did some homework before buying them. Most of the used ones on eBay that are rather cheap are very likely not water tight, and run the risk of having mold or other contaminants in them. The cooper I got mine from makes them new, and they are rather cheap, being made in Mexico. My apartment smells heavenly at the moment. I thought they'd smell smokey and overwhelming, but all I smell is a wonderful warm oak and vanilla aroma.

Anyway, if it's something that doesn't need to be watertight, it's going to be cheaper still to just go with toasted oak chips from a homebrew shop. They are available online too.

I have to hammer in the bungs and assemble the racks that came with mine. They look even better in person than they did from the photos.

If anyone is curious about the barrels, they are from here. Free shipping didn't hurt either. The lettering is an optional expense and they look 10x better without them anyway.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/250898152612?ss ... 1439.l2649#

That's pretty nice, you'll have to tell us how those barrels work out.

I think I'll be going with barrel chunks, I've seen them at my local fermentation supply house, just not sure if I'll go with Whiskey, Bourbon, or Wine barrel chunks, probably whatever they have on hand. I plan to vac seal the green coffee with the barrel chunks in a quart canning jar and then roast up greens that have been stored with and without the chunks for comparison. Depending on the amount of chunks in a package, I may put up two or three different recent origins to try this on.