infection question regarding barrels

[midlife_rebel]

I purchased a barrel from BarrelMill. On the instructions it mentioned that you should do certain things to help prevent an infection in the barrel...can't remember them offhand though.

Can an infection even live in cask strength alcohol? Or are they mainly referring to wine and other low alcohol liquids?
I do suppose that an infection could get into the wood but once filled I am would imagine the alcohol (mid 60%) would kill any infections.
Am I wrong in thinking this?

[blind drunk]

I think yer good to go. They probably through in the instructions for wine, for legal reasons

I see that you're from Ontario - do you know about these folks -

http://www.canadianoak.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[midlife_rebel]

I called them about 6 months ago, BD. At that point they said they were not selling any barrels in the size I was looking for (15 gallons)
I hadn't looked at their website since then, but did so from your link. I notice now that they have the size listed under their whiskey barrel section.
Ordering another 15 gallon barrel in a few weeks, and I will call them again for it. They are only about 90 mins from me so with driving there to pick it up...the cost will be the same of cheaper than a gibbs. I do have a Gibbs to compare it to as well, and also a Barrel Mill barrel.
I will give you my opinion once I pick one up.

[midlife_rebel]

Just dropped by the place in your link, blind drunk. Nice folks there. The lady of the house took me on a tour of their sawmill and barrel storage. They saw the logs right there and stack and age for 3 yrs min.
The large barrels for wine get coopered at a place in Kentucky. The smaller barrels are coopered by Gibbs barrels in Ark.
She had two open barrels there...one American White Oak and one Canadian White Oak. Even though she said that they are actually the same species of tree, the smell was noticeably different. The Canadian one is hard to describe. Kind of a fuller smell. Not stronger but just somehow a deeper scent. I don't think one is necessarily better but they claim that you can actually pick out identical whiskeys that were stored in the two different barrels by the scent.
Oh and they claim the wood is different because of the harder winter season (tighter grain) and the soil ph etc. Sales talk??? Who knows but sounded good.
Oh and they are out of 15 gallon barrels at the time of this post. Every year (August)they trailer the wood south to the coopers, so they will be fully stalked after that again.

Oh and mapquest lied to me again....damn place was only 30 mins from my place!!!

Quality is all Gibbs but price is more. Not sure if its worth it or not but time will tell.

[blind drunk]

Thanks for the right up. Interesting differences in the oak. I did read somewhere that Gibbs was involved, I just didn't know in what capacity. Cheers.

[ROD01]

I contacted canadian oak back in may about barrels staves from which i could make sticks since they are only 15 minutes from me.
Took till last week to get an answer back and they wanted 9.00 per stave.
I am interested in their barrel quality too as i thought their pricing was quite high. I ended up with 2 of the 5 litre barrels and 1 of the 2 litre size from oakbarrels ltd. 49.95 for the 5 litre and 29.95 for the 2 with free shipping to Buffalo where I picked them up at a friends.
I have rum in one at the moment and hope to fill the other 5 litre soon with UJSSM., I am on generation 9 and it smells better each time.hope the cheap barrels don't ruin it.
rod01

[midlife_rebel]

I think Rod01 that the stave price was costly because they have their barrels made in the US by Gibbs. Chances are if you asked for some random trimmings of their oak, it would have been cheap or possibly free.
As they saw their wood right there, you wouldn't need staves but simply pcs of oak that you could char yourself.

In fact ....for them to have staves means they would have to take apart a barrel. They only rough cut their wood on the site.
They don't do any of the planing and fitting.

[moose11]

I think Rod01 that the stave price was costly because they have their barrels made in the US by Gibbs. Chances are if you asked for some random trimmings of their oak, it would have been cheap or possibly free.
As they saw their wood right there, you wouldn't need staves but simply pcs of oak that you could char yourself.

In fact ....for them to have staves means they would have to take apart a barrel. They only rough cut their wood on the site.
They don't do any of the planing and fitting.

From the their webpage I got the impression that they "were" barrel coopers ,"Canadian Oak Cooperage" is their name.
Funny, nowhere on the webpage does it say that they outsource the barrel manufacturing kind of misleading don't you think?
No wonder their prices are high.