After about 24 hours since pitching, there was activity in the air lock. In 48 hours it had turned into a foam over. I replaced the liquid once in the airlock only for it to foam up again. Instead of fighting it, I just opened it up to the world. The aroma coming out of the barrel was amazing. It smelled funky and full of oak tannis. I spent a lot of time smelling the bung of this barrel. I immediately wished I had 10 barrels of this stuff.
I left the air lock off for roughly a week. We had a cold spell down here in Texas and my garage was an usually cool 40F. I decided that I should use a heat belt next to the barrel to keep the temperature close 60F. That way I wouldn’t stall the active fermentation.
After 2 weeks fermenting in the garage, pulled sample and it’s down to about 1.010 S.G. I’ve now moved the barrel into the house and it’ll stay at 70F for years to come.