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Once used 10 liter oak charred barrel. I used it for a run of scotch that I emptied on 5/28/2019. Filled barrel back with water and added the campden tablets. I did fail to keep the barrel topped off with water. I dumped it today as I have another batch of barley spirit to go in and it had some brown scum like material in the water that came out. Looks like about enough to have covered the top of the water in the barrel. It has no smell. Should I boil water to rinse it out? Maybe a little citric acid in the hot water? Any help appreciated.

I’d flush the cask out with clean water several times until the water doesn’t come out “dirty”. I wouldn’t try to use any chemicals because the alcohol will be an adequate antiseptic.

It’s better to bottle out a bottle and add back a bottle’s worth of fresh spirit. That way you’ll have a continuous flow of aged liquor and your cask will stay in service.
ss

Campden tablets are only effective for a few days. For longer term let the barrel dry out then rehydrate before you use it.

For the future (and other readers), if you want to empty a barrel and refill, you need to do it with spirit so you need to plan ahead and have that next batch cut and ready at aging strength. Great fun can be had deciding what follows what in a barrel, but depending on the size it can be a big task. I don't remember the wording but I remember getting a Gibbs barrel and the message was basically don't leave it dry and don't store water in it for more than 24 hours (because things will grow).

I've used bark tan to add tannins to wood for an ebonizing finish and that bark tan gets a nice funky little microbial growth on it, I bet a water-filled barrel will do the same.

pope, that sounds like great advice. No reason why you can't have the next spirit ready and waiting in glass.

What the consensus of how much to fill at a minimum? Have enough spirit to fill the barrel at least 1/2 way to start with then keep adding more spirit as each new batch is prepared?

Excellent feedback and much appreciated. I use the barrel solely for Scotch. It takes 110 pounds of grain to get enough spirit to fill it. The first run took only about 35 days on oak to achieve the level of oak and the color I wanted. I struggle with the size of my cooker/boiler to make the 40+ gallons of wash it takes to make the run. 10 liter barrel. So I have some decisions to make. Emptying and re-hydrating is probably first option. I could go to 5 liter barrel. As the 10 liter barrel is used up the time in the cask will increase so that might allow me the time to prepare the next charge. It takes me the better part of 4 days to grind, convert and then run the strips and one spirit run. After the spirit run I am basically using everything but about half the tails jar which is 20% abv and lower. It came out too good last time as I could not keep my hands and my buddies hands off it. Pope I am interested in the term "ebonizing" finish and need to do some research on that or if you could expound. Gratitude.

cayars wrote: ↑Tue Nov 26, 2019 4:08 am What the consensus of how much to fill at a minimum? Have enough spirit to fill the barrel at least 1/2 way to start with then keep adding more spirit as each new batch is prepared?

This is just my unscientific observation but the angels seem to take more when the barrel isn't full. Or maybe I take more.. anyway I would think halfway into a still-wet barrel will be enough to keep it sealed. I have a barrel that's now half full which is partly my fault, but it still holds just fine even if I roll it around a bit.

Nothing like having that barrel sitting there and checking it every week or so for color and taste. I have disciplined myself by having a glass of wine sitting by as i check my product. That way I am not as tempted to take a bigger sample size than is needed. I actually have poured a little back in after drawing out. I have a 5 liter barrel that is in its second use for muscadine brandy. Unlike the scotch which tastes pretty awesome at cask strength the muscadine is fiery and begs a little water and the fruit taste is allowed to come out over the ethanol.

How about this twist? I filled about 2/3rds of a 5 liter barrel with a corn/wheat spirit and let it age for about a month. Turned the barrel every few days. Did another run of almost 5 liters of UJSSM that I wanted to put in the barrel so I emptied it with the intention of bottling it. What came out taste fine with a decent color but it is cloudy. Look kind of like tannin stained river water.I strained it through coffee filters twice but that really didn't change the cloudiness. Thoughts and/or suggestions to clear it up?

Tlcopeland wrote: ↑Tue Apr 07, 2020 11:57 am...Thoughts and/or suggestions to clear it up?

Protein haze. You’ve pushed a lot of tails into your cask. The goodness....a lot of hearty grain flavors. The bad news...haze.

To reduce it, you can put the bottle of spirit into the freezer for a couple of days. Then, filter it through coffee filter(s), most likely doubled to improve filtering. Also, you can rack it off of the sediment resulting from the freezer rest...it will give you a clearer bottle.

But...the sediment/haze is flavor. So, if appearance is that important...cold filter it. If flavor is paramount...enjoy it!
ss

Thank you for the explanation. Makes sense to me. For the small amount I have left (about 1/5th) I think I'll enjoy the flavor!