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Cleaning a barrel

PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 3:54 pm
by Fishleg
Just bought a 10 l port barrel off gumtree. The bloke I bought it off told me he had kept water in it for about 6 months to stop it from leaking :violence-smack:

So I just emptied it out, the water was quite dark and there was a big blob in there that looked like a greyish slimy turd.
The barrel smells a bit musty, not a strong smell but not too good.

Has anyone dealt with this kind of thing before?
I was thinking of just rinsing with water a few times then fill up with 95% foreshots and heads for a week or so then more rinsing and then maybe let it dry right out before using.

Any ideas would be appreciated

Re: Cleaning a barrel

PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 4:07 pm
by dans.brew
I bought a 20ltr barrel secondhand a while back. It had had port in it for years and had water in it too when i got it.
I just rinsed mine out a heap of times with rainwater, until the water coming out was fairly clear.
I was worried about mine too and just put some neutral in it firstly (about 6ltrs and rotated the barrel every few days). Id rather lose that than some of my good brown spirit if it came to it.

Re: Cleaning a barrel

PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 4:29 pm
by Fishleg
I'm guessing it turned out ok?

Re: Cleaning a barrel

PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 5:15 pm
by dans.brew
Yeah sorry... it did. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
The neutral turned into a light brandy that i have on oak in a bottle atm.

I actually was worried about overpowering my bwko that i wanted to put in there first up so that was the other reason i wanted to use the neutral first... tear out a bit of the port flavour.
My bwko has turned out unreal with a porty undertone that is really blending well after 4 or so months. For a start it was just about porty enough (only put in barrel for couple weeks)