Paraffin oak barrel

udiraz · Post by **udiraz** » Sat Jul 30, 2016 10:22 am

Hi guys.

I distill fruit brandies for a few years now, and I bought a nice 15 Liters barrel from this company: http://www.tonnellerie-allary.com/coope ... arrel.html.
Those are very high quality barrels,but, I suspect that the barrel I have is coated with paraffin wax from the inside. you can also read in the link that they have paraffined and non paraffined barrels.

I aged my brandy at about 67% ABV, and after 6 months, I took it out and put in bottles at about 65% ABV.
Only when I dillute the brandy to about 40%-45% ABV, it becomes very little cloudy, and after a few days it becomes crystal clear, but with some solids in the bottom, that if I shake the bottle, are dissolved again in the liquid, and after a few days they sink to the bottom. I have to admit that I did drink the brandy, and it was very good - there was no bad taste or something, and if I understand correctly, it suppose to be food grade paraffin, so there shouldn't be any risk.

What do you think about it ? they suppose to make top quality barrels, but what about this paraffin (or at least, I suspect it to be paraffin) ? how can I get rid of it ? it is very anoying to see those solids there in the bottles.
Maybe aging in less %ABV wil prevent the paraffin to dissolve into my brandy ?
WDYT ?

Thanks, Udi.

Post by **GrassHopper** » Sat Jul 30, 2016 4:45 pm

I have yet to receive any barrels with paraffin. Even a barrel that I could see light coming in at nearly every stave junction when looking down the hole inside with a video scope sealed itself eventually. I don't get why any paraffin is needed at all in a good barrel.

DAD300 · Post by **DAD300** » Sat Jul 30, 2016 4:51 pm

I have put bee's wax on the outside of one that developed a leak.

Whetrock · Post by **Whetrock** » Sat Jul 30, 2016 8:09 pm

I've had the same experience and I think it was the dilution process not paraffin. Probably minerals in your water and the water and alcohol need to be the same temperature. I've asked this before and have been told to add one to the other or the other way around that confused the hell out of me. In the end I found slow dilution of the exact same temperature prevents the cloudiness. I use gallons of distilled water stored for a day next to the booze.

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udiraz · Post by **udiraz** » Sat Jul 30, 2016 10:26 pm

Thanks guys.

Whetrock wrote:I've had the same experience and I think it was the dilution process not paraffin. Probably minerals in your water and the water and alcohol need to be the same temperature. I've asked this before and have been told to add one to the other or the other way around that confused the hell out of me. In the end I found slow dilution of the exact same temperature prevents the cloudiness. I use gallons of distilled water stored for a day next to the booze.

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I don't think this is m case, because it happens only with the barrel-aged brandy.

udiraz · Post by **udiraz** » Tue Aug 02, 2016 6:09 am

Hi
Just to let know what happened...

I cleaned the barrel with boiling water, and that actually cleaned off all the paraffin wax from inside the barrel. There was a lot of it...
Now the barrel is without paraffin wax coating, and I just put 15 Liters of new grapes brandy @67% for a few months. Let's see how it will turn out.
I can only guess that the angels share will increase, and that the brandy will tend to be over-oaky faster, so I will have to watch the aging process carefully not to over oak it.

I'd love to hear if you have nay thoughts or ideas...
Thanks,
Udi.

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Paraffin oak barrel

Paraffin oak barrel

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