Beer Forum

I have been wanting to get into long term barrel aging, but didn't have the space or environment to make this a possibility. Then it hit me ... we have a family home in Colorado with a basement that we just gutted and I have the perfect opportunity to turn one of the rooms into a well insulated barrel/wine cellaring space. I have probably a year or more to research before the Colorado place will be ready to be filled. Does anyone have advice or recommended references for me to research while this project slowly comes to fruition? I do have access to relatively cheap used wine barrels (red and white). I would love to also make wine in this space, but will only be at the place ~week per year. As such, I think beer will be my only option at this point since I won't be around to monitor the wine and stop fermentation at the appropriate times.

Information on:
1) Use of Barrels -- anything and everything I need to know.
2) Beer styles that would work well for this purpose ... Lambics, barley wines, belgian sours, ...
3) Use of the Solera Method
4) Making wine given my limitations of only being around once per year
5) Anything else that I am missing (additional equipment?)

Check out two online sources -

1. The Burgundian Babble Belt (lots of people working soleras over there)
2. The Mad Fermentationist (has been working with soleras and barrel pulling for a while with good ideas, techniques, etc).