50 gallon red wine barrels for aging

[Shine0n]

I met a guy who works at a vineyard, he said he would get me 2-50 gallon french oak barrels that has had red wine in them and are being bottled now.
So what I would like to know is would they make a for good ageing sticks or would the wine be no good for my purpose?
I'm not sure of the age or how many times the barrels have been used but free barrels sound good to me!

I would like to age sf and possibly some rum, I do prefer my drinks white but if the barrels are ok I'm willing to give long term aging a go.

[Badmotivator]

You are going to have to deal with tartrate deposits and you are going to want to re-toast the wood. By the time the wine is ready for bottling, the wood has become fairly neutral. The re-toast will generate some more color and flavor for your spirits. Hope that helps.


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[cranky]

I wish someone would give me free used wine barrels. Of course the problem I would have is I would want to fill them entirely with apple brandy and let them sit for a few years (or 10 )

The good thing about using then to make aging sticks is you can try lots of different things, use some as is, sand and retoast, sand, retoast and try different char levels and find out just what you like.

[Shine0n]

I thought about trying to fill one. lol but in reality I thought of making aging sticks and try something different than my usual clear likker.

I'm picking them up next Thursday and see what I have. Maybe try and get some more if possible.

I'm almost positive I'll have to sand and toast them again to get good use of them but free is best as Cranky has mentioned more than once.

I'm wondering if I should soak them in h20 for a bit?

[SaltyStaves]

I'm wondering if I should soak them in h20 for a bit?

The oak was pre seasoned before it was made into a barrel and it has been housing more water than alcohol up to this point in its working life. I'd say its seen more than enough H2O.

[Shine0n]

Over the last 2 days I've read badmotivators thread on oked ends and ss pots. That's the route I'm going to take with the barrels I do believe. Seems he has done his homework and is ever changing ways to improve with design. I'll make one and see how it goes.

[cranky]

I've been sitting here thinking about the barrel thing, mostly because I can still get one for as little as $80 here. So if I got my math right I get around 3/4 of a gallon at 100Pr for every 12 gallons I ferment, maybe a little more but probably around that. So I need 16 gallons of apple juice per gallon of brandy. Multiply that times 60 and it looks like I would need about 960 gallons of apple juice to make enough brandy to fill a barrel Now lets see 16 LBS of apples per gallon times 960 comes to only 15,360 LBS of apples to get one of those barrels full So lets see I get somewhere between 100 to 150 apples per bucket, so figure 125 apples per bucket ...a bucket weighs 23#s...that's 668 buckets for 960 gallons of cider...964 X 125 = 120,500 apples that I would need to pick I managed to get 70 gallons of cider this year, so if I keep it up at that pace it would only take me 13 years to fill one of those barrels Then wait another 5-10 to start drinking it...OK maybe 2 to start, so in only 15 years I could have me a nice barrel of apple brandy, that doesn't sound so bad to me

This is why I shouldn't think too much

As far as soaking staves, in my earliest distilling days I didn't pre soak some sticks after charring and I got a very acrid taste from it. I think if I toast and don't char I will probably not need to pre soak but any time I char something I always pre soak the sticks, at least overnight, before adding it to the alcohol. I know a lot of people don't feel the need but I never want to ruin anything again so I do.

[Coyote]

I cut sticks to fit a gallon glass wide mouth jar, heavy toast/ char all six sides ( yes six, think about it ). I have found that I can use them three or more times with ease and by mixing old with new sticks. Half a barrel will keep me going for several years.

Coyote

[Badmotivator]

Over the last 2 days I've read badmotivators thread on oked ends and ss pots. That's the route I'm going to take with the barrels I do believe. Seems he has done his homework and is ever changing ways to improve with design. I'll make one and see how it goes.

Good man. I highly recommend this. Initially you may be frustrated while you get your processes down but in the long run I think you will be glad you went this direction. As you progress, please share your insights so we can all improve. I'm nowhere near mastery myself.