Reviving an old barrel

[higgins]

A friend just gave me an old 5 gallon barrel that originally held Balcone's Blue Corn whiskey. He got it in 2012 when it was emptied and has used it to finish several different beers. It has been empty for several years now.

The plan was to pop out one end and scrape/rechar it. But when I got it it was nearly falling apart - the hoops were loose and wanted to fall off.

So I decided to try to get it to seal - if I can't do that why bother refurbishing it.
I put it in a deep sink and filled it (and the sink) with water, so it was soaking inside and out. While flushing it, there was a whitish film that came out in pieces, almost like a layer of dried paint peeling off. I figured it might be a pellicle that had formed on the inner surface that had dried out. After 2 days I was able to get it sealed, so I popped one end out. It was quite nasty looking.

So now I'm wondering if it is worth it to continue.

I am going to pressure wash the barrel head to see how it does. If it comes out clean and without any off-putting odor I may go ahead and disassemble the barrel, pressure wash and scrape, then reassemble. I've got a gallon of 90% from a sugar wash that I can put in it to kill off any organisms that might still be there. After some time I would again pop a head out and then re-char it.

Anyone have any opinions as to whether or not this will work? I don't want to go thru this work just to end up tossing it on the burn pile.

Am I just wasting my time?

[contrahead]

The wood may be too old to work with, perhaps not. If as you say the rings are loose, then that means that the barrel staves are desiccated, and have shrunken in size. A week long soak in water (rather than just a day or two), might produce results.

If it were my barrel to play with, I'd try a few of these actions.

1) I'd carefully number each stave - before knocking the barrel down (what coopers on whaling ships did when provisioning a ship, before heading out to sea. Hundreds of empty barrels were “knocked down” to save space; then later reassembled as needed).

2) I'd take a belt sander to everything. I'd grind deeply on the inside surfaces – down to the original color of the wood. The side edges could be sanded gently (but this will reduce the diameter of the barrel a little).
3) I'd either scorch the inside of each separate stave with flame, or re-assemble the barrel and build a small fire inside it. (With straw or newspaper – a short but intense flame).
4) With the barrel reassembled and wet, I'd hammer those rings or bands back tightly as possible. Shims or new bands might be needed.

5) I'd consider painting the outside with a oil. Oil penetrates into the cellulose - it re-hydrates and expands a cell's structure. Linseed or tung oil should be fine for the outside. These will seep in an 1/8th or 1/4” and dry out. (because they are “drying oils” / but almost any vegetable oil would seep in and disappear after a time as well. The oil would rejuvenate part of the wood at least, make it swell some but still allow the wood to breathe. If the intended contents were to be anything besides alcohol (food like pork butts or Tabasco pepper sauce) I'd be temped to use a light coating of food safe oil on the inside too.


(Pork butts were actually barrels, and a size of barrel used to transport meat. Even then it held cuts from the shoulder/ not cuts from the rump end (ham).

<this is the only online reference that I could find in a hurry>
https://www.madbackyard.com/camp-chef-s ... ulled-pork

“The confusing name comes from the barrels in which they were transported during the 18th century, known as butts (from the Latin “buttis” meaning barrel or casket)......They were actually considered cheap cuts of meat and stuffed into barrels for easy bulk transportation”.

[higgins]

I should have mentioned my intended use for it.

I've got a solera bourbon system that uses several partially full gallon jugs (with sticks) of 1-2 year old that I use for tier 1 and tier 2, and I currently use a carboy with sticks for tier 3, currently 3+ years old. I bottle from here, replenish with some of each tier 2 jug, then replenish them with some of each tier 1 jug. Tier 1 jugs get topped off with new make leftover from filling badmo clones, and get a new stick or two every year.

The plan is to replace the carboy with this barrel, so it doesn't have to contribute a lot of oak character.

I pressure washed the inside of the barrel and it looks pretty good.

And the only aromas I get are woody. So I decided to proceed without a complete knockdown.

I tightened the hoops without the barrel head, then used a nylon scrub brush and dish soap to vigorously scrub the entire inside, which knocked off quite a bit of char. I rinsed copiously with fresh water, then proceeded to re-char it.

With one end open, I fired up my humongous weed killer propane torch and blasted the inside all around, trying not to char the bottom too much.
It is now reassembled and soaking again.

I have a gallon of 90% sugar shine that I have no use for, so I can put that in the barrel initially. A week or two of sloshing and rolling around should kill any microorganisms that may have survived the process, and the aroma/flavor of the shine will tell me whether or not there are any remaining off-putting characters.

If I decide to use it, I'll pop out the head again and add an SS spigot to the head for filling bottles.

[Bee]

I would NOT be treating it with any oils. The alcohol soaks into the wood and could contact it and draw it into the product.
I also would not use soap to clean it as the soap could soak into the wood too and be drawn out in aging.
I'd just remove the old char, put on a new char, reassemble dry and add your sugar shine as you are doing.

[Yummyrum]

Woow Higgins , I can't believe the difference a pressure wash made

[higgins]

After installing a spigot I had a bear of a time getting it to seal, but I was finally successful.

I just emptied the water and added 3 liters of 62% neutral. I'll roll it around every few days for a few weeks and give it a taste.

If good to go I'll take that out and move the contents of my 3 gallon solera carboy into it and make it my solera vat. I'll probably add a liter or so from each of my 5 badmos of different bourbons to kickstart it.

If there is any off taste or aroma it will become firewood.

[bilgriss]

Great project! Just let me know if you need any help taste testing the results before making any final decision.

[higgins]

Well, I only waited a week before sampling the sugarshine. Here's what it looked like after draining the barrel:

The taste was ... just like sugarshine. Neither my son nor I could pick up any off flavors or aromas, so I called it good and transferred my solera carboy contents into it. I also added 1 pint from each of my 6 bourbon Badmos, then a bit of white dog from my latest bourbon (went in a badmo today). Then I proofed down to 50% ABV, and it currently has about 3.6 gallons in it.

So I'm happy with the barrel. It was not that difficult to recondition it - just a bit tricky getting the leaks stopped.
Not sure what I'll do with the sugarshine. I suppose it is still fine for making gin, but the reason I have it is that I started using AG wheat neutral for my gins. I may add it to the next neutral run.

[zach]

Nice report Higgins!

Would you estimate how time it took for you to re-assemble the barrel?

Did you remove one or two of the metal hoops to get the head off?

[higgins]

Probably 8-10 hours total spaced over 2 weeks.
1. Filled/ soaked (to be sure it would seal)
2. Remove head
3. pressure wash, hand scrub
4. Reassemble, reseal (to be sure I could reseal it)
5. Remove head
6. Add spigot
7. Reassemble, reseal
8. Sanitize with neutral for taste test.

I removed 3 hoops (of 6) from one end. I still had to spread the staves to remove the head.