Number of uses out of oak cask

[Shavedwolf]

I am sure this has been asked before in this thread, I did some searching and really didn't find much. So I recently got an early Christmas present and it was a 5 liter White Oak cask, with a medium char inside. About how many uses can one maybe expect to get out of it? before it starts to become neutral.

[jedneck]

Use till its spent then bore larger hole and use new stick for flavour. Cask is just for angels share after its spent.
Disclaimer: I use jars and sticks cause I'm to broke to biy a barrel. But if anybody has a spent 3-5 gallon for free I might be able to pay shipping.

[pythonshine]

Not to sure if this is supposed to be here but i thought it might help a few out. http://www.barrelsonline.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow seems cheap, I have not done much research on it yet. Cheers and if i had one Jedneck i would happily ship one to you but alas I have yet to aquire one.

[thecroweater]

Well you can spoke shave and lightly re-char the inside starves or fit the inside with insertion starves.

[Danespirit]

Some go the rocky road of disassembling the barrel and re-char it.
It would be a lot of work, especially for a 5 L one.
If i had one similar, i would certainly try what Jedneck suggested and use some staves.
Before you take your new barrel in use, remember to fill it up with water to let the wood swell.
Let it be in there for a few days and check if there is any leakage, before you fill your product into it.
This step is important to get a good seal...

[pythonshine]

I do believe it was Kiwi bruce that posted in a thred by crankey a proper instruction on how to properly get your new barrel soaked. Not to say that your explination was wrong dane. Just giving your advice a little more body. If you dont mind that is.

[cranky]

I do believe it was Kiwi bruce that posted in a thred by crankey a proper instruction on how to properly get your new barrel soaked. Not that say that your explination was wrong dane. Just giving your advice a little more body. If you dont mind that is.

This is what Kiwi Bruce said about conditioning the barrel over on my thread ( http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =4&t=58860 )

Hi Cranky, I've done this before on a five gallon keg a buddy and I went halves on. Here is my take. The barrel needs to be conditioned. It's not hard to do and if you don't like the results you can still send it back. Put a quart of room temp tap water into the barrel and shake it around, let it sit for five minutes shake it around again and empty. Fill the barrel with room temp tap water and let it sit for an hour then empty it. Put a quart of very hot (not boiling) water in the barrel. Repeat the above procedure with very hot water, Just be careful. After it's empty you'll see that the water smells of tannin. Repeat the procedure with room temp water again to cool the barrel down. Let it sit over night, 10 to 12 hours. Empty it, now smell it. If you don't like the smell now, send it back, because after the next step in the procedure I don't know if they'll take it back.
So lets say you've decided it now smells OK and your going to keep it, the next step is to do the same procedure using low value, 60% or higher ABV spirit, like a sugar wash spirit. Put a quart of spirit in the barrel shake it around, let it sit for five minutes and do it again. Let it sit on the spirit over night, next morning shake it around again, let it sit for five minutes and do it again. Empty out the spirit and save it. From this point forward you have to keep liquid in the barrel, water, spirit or a low spirit-water mix that can't mold. If you don't, the barrel could dry-out and leak.

[Copper Thumper]

Don't forget: if you dissassemble any barrels make sure to number the staves.


Thank me later.

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

Quality barrels and other items can be purchased here or call

404-822-7512

That number is "papa". He owns a company in n.ga that sells non waxed barrels at a better price than the website I listed among other things.

Do not buy the barrels on eBay- you get what you pay for!


Other than reusing the barrel by sanding and recharing, using the staves by cutting then up and char/toasting the pieces you can use the wood for grilling and smoking meats or cutting the barrels in half and using them for gardening planters or decoration...even making a top for them and putting them in your kitchen/patio/porch/man cave/bar or for the decoration aspect by themselves.

[pythonshine]

Thank you Cranky... Im still not fluent on the ways of forum use