DIY Coopering and Leaky Barrel Fixes

[Saltbush Bill]

Anyone one who has owned and used oak barrels long term will know that nothing beats them for aging spirits.
Anyone who's owned them long enough also knows that they can be a source of frustration and worry if they spring a leak.
I'm hoping that this thread can become a source of information and help for anyone who has a “problem barrel”.
I'll kick it off with a couple of leaks that I have successfully fixed in past times, nothing ground breaking, just ways that have worked for me , mostly info I picked up from watching Coopers at work on Youtube.
The methods I've used should be able to be utilized by almost anyone using everyday tools that most people will have or can make.

A couple of years ago I notice that one of my smaller Rum barrels was leaking. It seemed to be leaking from a very small pin hole which may have originally been a knot or other imperfection in the stave.

Decided to have a crack at fixing it using what I had at hand.
Firstly I emptied the barrel and drilled a small hole where it appeared to be leaking.

The first stray chunk of oak that I found was a medium toast Still Dragon domino, I split off about 1/4 off it.
Stuck this in my cordless drill.

Next I put an old rasp in my bench vice , got the drill going and ran the piece of oak over the rasp till the oak was reasonably round and slightly tapered

Gave it another spin and used some sand paper to smooth things off. 006

Next job was to hammer the home made peg home.

The last part of the process was to cut excess peg away and sand smooth.

This repair has now been in place for quite a long time , at least two years , possibly more........no problems to date.
When I have time I will post up the method and pictures of another repair.

In the mean time anyone interested might like to watch the following Youtube Vid, this fella seems to know his stuff......I used one of his methods to fix my next problem barrel.

My next problem involved a stave leaking from its end .....he covers this problem and the fix for it between the 23min and 26min mark.
Note that the wooden spikes/ pegs used for these types of repairs are called "Spile's"

[Wildcats]

Nice work SBB!! I like it. Very good write up as well sir. Will be looking forward to the video you mentioned. People are always talking about using bee's wax and other methods for fixing leaky barrels. I think this is gonna be a great thread.

Looking forward to seeing more from you on this sir. Subscribed!!


Edit to add.. the video link wasn't up when I was posting.

[Deplorable]

This thread is relevant to my interests. Subscribed.

[Saltbush Bill]

I guess this might come in handy sooner or later. If anyone has a better or more accurate link or diagram of the anatomy of a barrel post it up and I will edit this one out and add the better one.

[Deplorable]

Having seen how you made a peg from an old stave; I have a newfound purpose for at least a couple of my stave ends from the whiskey barrel chair I'm building should the need arise. My persistent leak is from a stave joint.

[Saltbush Bill]

From what I've seen stave joint leaks are treated differently.....I've got more youtubes to post up....I'm sure it's covered in one of them.

[Bushman]

Good thread SBB, I have had good luck with my barrels but have also done some research in the past on barrels and getting the most out of them. One thing I have purchased at antique stores are antique bung auger reamers.

[Saltbush Bill]

This fella has a different method , hes the only one Ive seen to date that uses wax in the hole hes about to stick a spile in.
The wax thing makes sense to me, but then why don't the others use it ?
Ive also seen another cooper say that you shouldn't fix leaks in staves with spiles as you can risk splitting the stave.
He suggests using wedges of oak placed across the grain instead.

The fella below shows how to fix some a leaks with a spile , but then goes on to show how to fix another type of leak in a stave using a wedge, also shows how to tell which side of the leak you need to put the wedge.
Deplorabe I think maybe this is the way you might fix yours, that's your call though....watch what he says and does around the 3min.50sec mark.

[Saltbush Bill]

Repair 2
Attempt 1
The next barrel to leak was the one that is storing my first attempt at a Scotch style single Malt, I'm hoping to get this aged for at least 2 years. That aint happening in a leaky barrel.
This 20 L barrel was sourced from a Distillery in Tasmania which I'm told makes Scotch style whiskys, I have no idea how old it is , or how many previous uses it has had.
In the beginning this barrel seemed fine, it wasn't until a few weeks after filling it that I decided to hammer the bung in a bit harder, that in turn sealed the barrel enough so that it started to build a bit of pressure and then started to leak.
One thing I learned from this attempt was to Dry and clean the area thoroughly, then look very,very carefully and to be very, very sure of where the exact leak location is before attempting to do anything. Watch the fellas in the vids above and others that I will post later to see what I mean.
When I first saw this leak it looked like this.

The leak seemed to be coming from a place where two staves met and the head and croze meet.....in short where 3 surfaces met.
My thinking here was that if I smacked the "Head Hoop" down a little, everything should tighten up and the leak would miraculously disappear.
Some of you know that for pocket money I sell old/ antique tools ......in that time Ive found two Coopers Hoop Drivers.......some idiot sold them both thinking they would never get used
Soooo off to the shed , found a chunk of flat bar and a hammer ......turned full barrel on end , had a friend hold the bung in firmly in-case somehow it popped out when I started hammering.
Gave the head hoop a sharp tap in even spacing's around the barrel, first time around not much happened, gave it another round and the whole hoop moved a little further than I would have liked.
What was done was done, no point it going back that I can see.

Note in the photo below how much the hoop has shifted, originally the hoop was flush with the end of the staves.....I just hope that in times to come this doesn't cause other problems......we will see .......and I will learn something.

Once I turned the barrel back to its normal position the leak seemed even worse....but not by much.
After half an hour it had almost stopped .............................the next morning, still leaking.
100% FAIL.
To be continued.

[Wildcats]

Keep at it I'm sure you will come up with a fix. Good luck sir. On a side note... Looks like the guy in the first video smashed his thumb bad... Ouch. Gotta be careful with those hammers

[Saltbush Bill]

This is also an interesting clip, just to be clear I have no affiliation with this or any other cooperage's or Coopers.

[GrumbleStill]

Thanks for posting SBB. I’ve got a similar leak to your #2 repair, and have been scratching my head trying to figure out how to fixit, or whether it’s even worth fixing. This thread will help a lot!

[harold01]

I sanded a barrel and sprayed it with west system epoxy as an experiment six years ago seams to be working OK

[Deplorable]

Deplorabe I think maybe this is the way you might fix yours, that's your call though....watch what he says and does around the 3min.50sec mark.

Yep, I think that's what I need to do to my other barrel. On that one its clear that the leak is in the center of the stave. and it's on the stave opposite the bung.
The other barrel, I'm probably going to have to pull the head and hoops off one end and use some reed or mop cotton. Its leaking at the stave joint.

[Saltbush Bill]

I'm probably going to have to pull the head and hoops off one end and use some reed or mop cotton.

This maybe of some use to you then.

I'm currently trying to work up the courage to pull the head out a a 50L barrel.
It was given to me and has had some sort of moldish shite grow inside, I want to get the head out to give it a good clean inside.
Not sure if I should have a go or send it back to the cooperage that made it.....its a good barrel worth close to $500 Au when new.
I don't wanna bugger it up but equally I don't want to pay someone else a small fortune to do what might be a fairly simple job.
There are a few tutorials out there on taking heads out and getting them back in if you look around, pays to look at more than one.

[howie]

fixed a few leaks in the past after watching those videos.
i've fixed a small leak on the head of my 25l barrel, it was a cant of thing.
found the direction of grain with a chisel, sanded it down and melted beeswax on to it.

fixed a leak in the end of a stave by punching it with a nail punch, then applying hot beeswax.

fixed a couple of persistent leaks on new barrels around the croze/rim.
i waited until the barrel had dried out (i figured the cracks would be biggest when dry)
i flaked beeswax off the stick around the rim, then melted the wax and drove it into the cracks with a heatgun.

$5.95 beeswax bar from the big green shed

i did find that hammering the hoops in made a leak in a rim worse.
instead of tightening, i think it sort of warped the staves.

[The Baker]

I guess this might come in handy sooner or later. If anyone has a better or more accurate link or diagram of the anatomy of a barrel post it up and I will edit this one out and add the better one.
Anatomy-of-a-Barrel.jpg

I noticed the CHINE was wrongly called a chime (like a bell).

Geoff

[higgins]

Sorry Baker, gotta disagree with you on this.

I found over a dozen different diagrams labeling the parts of a whiskey barrel, and in every one it was called a CHIME. And here is a snapshot of a definition from Merriam-Webster:

[Saltbush Bill]

Repair 2
Attempt 2
The next attempt at this leak involved bees wax and a hot air/ paint stripper gun.
I tipped the barrel on end , barrel still ¾ full, and started slowly warming the wood in the area of the leak.
The idea was to try to dry that area of the barrel at least a little bit. I did this on and off for about an hour. Next shavings of bees wax were placed in the area of the leak between the Chime and the Croze, hot air was then applied and the wax melted easily into and over the wood.
A little bit of wax goes a long way I found.
While I was doing that I also rubbed a block of dry way across the ends of hot staves to try to help with sealing those.
This is when things got interesting there was one small patch where tiny bubbles kept appearing and the bees wax wouldnt properly seal there.
Stopped and re accessed what was happening.
The small area that had been bubbling also turned a lighter colour than the rest of the waxed area.
Now I could see exactly were the leak was.
Another failed leak fixing attempt , but not a fail as far as leak location went.

Leak area circled,.... white line below that is where I thought the leak originated.

[Saltbush Bill]

Repair 2
Attempt 3
Time to get serious , made a couple of steel spikes out of an old nail punch and a pin punch.
Made them by turning them by hand on a flapper disk on a angle grinder........the oak spiles were made the same way.

One of the tutorials I watched said not to drive the spile in right at the leak, to go back from it.
For that reason I punched the steel spike in half way between the leak in the stave end and the head of the barrel. I drove it in deep enough that it hit the head hoop on the outside.

Pulled the steel spike out, hammered in a spile and trimmed it off.

Almost instantly NO MORE LEAK.
Didnt really belive what I was seeing …...it cant be that easy.
3 weeks now and still no leak........fingers crossed

[ecir54]

great subject thanks for sharing this thread Bill!!! in the end we should all inspire to save the angels

[The Baker]

Sorry Baker, gotta disagree with you on this.

I found over a dozen different diagrams labeling the parts of a whiskey barrel, and in every one it was called a CHIME. And here is a snapshot of a definition from Merriam-Webster:

chime.png

Sorry, Higgins, I got that wrong.

Geoff

[NormandieStill]

Almost instantly NO MORE LEAK.
Didnt really belive what I was seeing …...it cant be that easy.
3 weeks now and still no leak........fingers crossed

It sounds like one of your staves has a shake / split in it which was channelling booze along the fibres. Your spile blocked the channel with cross grain wood preventing further leakage.

Good work that man. At some point I'll take a photo of a barrel I recovered in the hope of using it as a mash tun. One of the staves had rotted inside and when the Barre swelled up it was literally crushed. The impressive power of wet wood.

[Swedish Pride]

I'm probably going to have to pull the head and hoops off one end and use some reed or mop cotton.

This maybe of some use to you then.

I'm currently trying to work up the courage to pull the head out a a 50L barrel.
It was given to me and has had some sort of moldish shite grow inside, I want to get the head out to give it a good clean inside.
Not sure if I should have a go or send it back to the cooperage that made it.....its a good barrel worth close to $500 Au when new.
I don't wanna bugger it up but equally I don't want to pay someone else a small fortune to do what might be a fairly simple job.
There are a few tutorials out there on taking heads out and getting them back in if you look around, pays to look at more than one.

Just go for it , it'll be grand.
I've had my tiny crappy one apart twice , once on purpose.
Got it sealed both times after a bit of messing about.
No doubt in my mind you'll sort it but number the staves just in case it falls apart on you.

Worst case you bring it to the cooper you were going to bring it to anyways, no difference to him if its in pieces or not

[NormandieStill]

Open Barrel Surgery

Back in spring I bought two barrels for fermenting cider in. Both barrels looked in good condition, but were probably dry having not been used for a few years. After having sat out since I got them home, I finally got around to cleaning up the smaller of the two (~30L) the other day. I thought it might be nice to document the process of cleaning the larger (~180L) for those who were scared to try this. This is full open barrel surgery. Not for the feint <sic> of heart!

This is the barrel as received with a few tools balanced on top. One of the hoops had come off when I collected it which is a sure sign that it had dried out somewhat. These are traditional cider barrels which were filled annually and risked drying out during the rest of the year. The hoops are fixed in place with these nails with weird eccentric heads (It looks like the body of the nail has been bent 90° and hammered flat). Clearly the nails had fallen out or been removed for this hoop.

So first step was to remove the remaining nails holding the other two hoops in place. They just pull out with a pair of pliers. Next you need to remove the hoops. The proper tool is a hoop driver which is a steel body with a flat (some times with a hook to prevent it falling off the inside of the head hoop). In the absence of the proper tool, a piece of hardwood may work up to a point. I used an old pair of all-metal pliers. Not very comfortable to use but effective. Hold your tool against the hoop and tap with a mallet / hammer. A heavy mallet will allow more control as you don't have to swing as far to get the same energy into the hoop.

Now you've got the hoops off, you need to remove the head. Use chalk to mark a point on the head and on the nearest stave (you'll notice that I didn't do this... don't do like me!). Pull on the staves while pushing on one edge of the head until it rotates into the barrel.

Now it's basically detached, you can rotate it perpendicular to the staves and pull it out. The staves will spread enough to get it out. And now you can see what you're working with.

This barrel had been used as a nest by some creature at some point. It was full of fibre glass (a lot of which had already come out when I emptied out the standing rain water through the filling hole!). That second circular shape that you can see opposite the tap hole is the start of a wasp nest. Time to break out the pressure washer!

After a thorough cleaning here it is. Give the outside a rinse. And put on a mask. If your barrel was used for anything other than spirits it will almost certainly have some kind of mold / fungus growing in it. Which means spores that you are going to aerosolise as soon as you start spraying! You don't want to be breathing that shit in! At this point it helps to orient your barrel so that the filling hole is facing down. This will make it self-draining. Once you've cleaned out the worst of it, you want to make sure that you spray each joint between the staves (which will have opened up a little) to make sure that there are no bits stuck in there which will prevent the staves fitting tightly. Also make sure that the croze (the notch where the head sits) is nice and clean.

Now for the fun part (I have no photos of this, partly because I was in a hurry, and partly because I had no spare hands. Push the head back inside. Ensure that the orientation is the same as before disassembly (remember that chalk mark that I didn't make?). Insert one edge of the head into the croze and pull it as far as you can into place without removing your fingertips. Now you need to tip the barrel up onto the open end. By pulling on the staves and swearing a lot at the barrel you can usually get the head to drop into place. Generally, the spring of the staves will stop it from falling too far. If it refuses to go, a length of copper pipe inserted through the filling hole may be used to persuade it into place. Once it's in, without too much manipulation of the barrel, you want to get a hoop on. Depending on the geometry of the barrel you may be able to stick the head hoop on first and pass the others over the top. Or you can use a loadstrap to pull the staves tight, but you may not be able to get any hoops over the loadstrap. Now you just need to tap the hoops back into place, checking that the head is seating correctly as you go. Depending on how dry your barrel is, this will be mroe or less difficult.

[NormandieStill]

I will then steam it to sterilise and to swell the wood. I've not done that yet, but here's a pic of the small one getting the steam room treatment.

Barrel_steaming-sm~2.jpg (16.56 KiB) Viewed 7057 times

How long you need to steam for to swell the barrel will depend on how dry the staves got. For sterilising purposes you want to keep going until it's feeling hot on the outside. That way you can be sure that the inside is up to a decent bacteria killing temperature.

The little one took quite a while and a day of standing with water in it before it finally sealed up. If you have a source of clean running water (a small stream is ideal) you can dump the barrel in the water once suitably attached to ensure it doesn't just wander off. A friend did this with a similar small barrel and after a week in the stream it was tight as can be!

Hope this helps someone. Sorry about the image rotation. They're all the right way up on the computer. Any bored mods fancy waving their magic wand?

[Saltbush Bill]

Regarding the chalk mark on the head and croze, I suspect that it might get washed off with all that high pressure water blasting.
Might need another way to mark position.
The inside of that barrel seems to have cleaned up very nicely.

[Wildcats]

I've just re read this intire thread. And I really enjoyed it, again and love all the information here. Well done guys!!

[elbono]

I suspect that it might get washed off with all that high pressure water blasting.

I think he would figure that pretty quickly.

My question is what uses are there full a full size barrel? I can get some at a reasonable price but there's no way I'll be able to fill a 55 gallon barrel with spirit. Are they better for ferment vessels than the blue plastic barrels?

I've got plenty of irons in the fire, but...

[NormandieStill]

I suspect that it might get washed off with all that high pressure water blasting.

I think he would figure that pretty quickly.

My question is what uses are there full a full size barrel? I can get some at a reasonable price but there's no way I'll be able to fill a 55 gallon barrel with spirit. Are they better for ferment vessels than the blue plastic barrels?

I've got plenty of irons in the fire, but...

This particular one is going to continue fermenting cider for making calvados. That said I'm trying to work out the build for a wooden mash tun / fermenter (a washback for on-grain ferments) which will let me do my whisky ferments without having to carry so many buckets around.

But I'm on a mission to remove plastic from my workflow completely. Certainly I don't put any liquids into plastic that aren't already at room temperature. One advantage of a barrel is it's thermal resistance. It won't swing so wildly due to ambient temperature compared to a plastic barrel, although I don't know how significant an effect the wood has compared to the thermal mass of the liquid in it.