Bain Marie Oak Aging Barrels

[hjubm2]

As I have mentioned before I picked up about 4 pallets of French & American Oak fonds from a local keg factory that closed down awhile back. The fonds are from 300L hogs head wine barrels so they are about 70cm across and all brand new cooperage seasoned wood.

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The aim all along has been to turn them into Badmotivator style barrels to age spirits in. I've finally had a chance to look at knocking one up as a trial so thought people might like to see the process.

First, I was feeling lazy & since I'll be making a few of these I thought I'd try to make the process as quick & easy as possible so I designed up a quick design in AutoCAD & converted it to gcode to cut out the circles on my CNC router. Once that was sorted I did a quick test cut on a few bits of MDF before testing on the oak for the first time.

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A couple of bits to change on the gcode before cutting out the next head (need to cut deeper & make the diameter a bit smaller for less sanding) but it's useable.

I'm lucky with the fonds being coopered already ready to use in barrels it meant I can skip a heap of steps that would usually be needed. I don't have to plane any of the pieces or join then as they have already been done & have grooves to join together the pieces which should seal wothout further work.

So onto sanding the head down to size. I double checked the angle on the edge of the Bain Marie inserts before I started sanding to check how close the edges were to 90 degrees to the top edge. Best I could measure was the edge being out of 90 by 1mm after about 150mm so because of this I am not worrying about sanding a slight bevel on it as I wouldn't be able to do it accurately enough to make it worth while.

So I made up a jig to be able to sand the circles on my disk sander. It allows me to move the enter of the circle closer or surther away from the disk to reasonably accurately make the circle the correct size. The head started out at 220mm when it came off the router & ended up being about 207mm when finished sanding.

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Almost there, just a little adjustment to the sander needed.

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That's better, that should fit perfectly!

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So that's where I'm up to so far. Tomorrows job is to drill the tap hole & the bung hole. Being that this is a test piece I'm not sure if I will toast or char this head, I still need to work out what I am going to use for that process & how I will control it so it is accurate & repeatable. I also have to work out what I'm going to make the bung out of. Badmotivator ones use a pine bung but I don't like the idea of that so I may end up buying some oak bowel for the bungs (which is quite expensive) or try to turn the offcuts into bungs.

Cheers guys

[BigRig]

What will the volume of these be, where did you get the SS barrels and when do you start taking orders :laughing-rolling: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[hjubm2]

Haha have been tempted to make & sell a few of them to cover costs. The Bain Marie inserts were from a wholesale catering mob in NSW. These ones are 8L containers so will be around 7.5L I'm guessing once finished. Will measure the volume once done. I'm also hoping I can find some larger ones to do 15 or 20L ones... see how we go.

[RC Al]

Cut a keg down to whatever litres you want

[hjubm2]

Finished off the barrel today. Started by drilling & reaming the holes for the tap & bung.

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Was going to tap the hole for the tap to make it easier to screw in but I couldn't find a tap with the right thread so ended up screwing the tap in so it made it's own threads.

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Once I had the main parts sorted I decided I might as well toast the inside so I can use the barrel. So I found an old electric frying pan to toast the oak with. Let it heat up & tested what temperature it could maintain. On full power it would maintain about 165 degrees. Bit lower then I wanted (would have preferred 200+) but it will do for now. Ended up toasting the oak for about a hour.

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As you can see the toasting is average at best, not even at all. I'm trying to decide on the best way to do the toasting now, trying to decide between buying a new electric frying pan/griddle to use or building an infrared temperature controlled toaster...

From here it was an easy process of screwing in the tap & retaining nut.

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And then pressing the head into the stainless container.

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Easy as that!

Have some pine dowel laying around so made a temporary bung to test that the barrel seals. Will make a new one out of oak when I work out the best way to do it.

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Just filling the barrel now to test the seal/expand the oak...

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[BigRig]

I love this. Watching intently

[Wellsy]

When does the bidding start HJ :laughing-rolling:

[RuddyCrazy]

Eh Mate just a thought bubble here :scared-eek:

how about leaving the wood end solid and on the rear just cut hole and tig on the tap and use a 90 degree fitting for the top bung so filling is easier :handgestures-thumbupleft:

for the tigging part you know i can do that for you and eh for one of them I can do the lot :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan

[bluc]

Nice work :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[hjubm2]

Eh Mate just a thought bubble here :scared-eek:

how about leaving the wood end solid and on the rear just cut hole and tig on the tap and use a 90 degree fitting for the top bung so filling is easier :handgestures-thumbupleft:

for the tigging part you know i can do that for you and eh for one of them I can do the lot :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan

As usual Bryan can't understand what your trying to describe there :laughing-rolling: but might have to take up your offer to get a bit of machining done to make a tool to cauterize the bung hole :laughing-rolling:

[hjubm2]

The first barrel sealed up fairly well, was only one small leak down the bottom near the tap which sealed itself after swelling overnight. Not happy with how the head is sitting in the container though so going to make up a jig for a hydraulic press to be able to press the head down further & more even.

Also cut out another couple heads to start on a few more more barrels... just need to sort out the toasting jig for them... started planning it & pulled out all the parts I'll need to build it (which were already sitting here from a past life...) so when I get a chance I'll be putting that together...

[hjubm2]

Too hot for work today so nessed around with the barrels again. Made up a part for the press to be able to press the heads in straight/evenly & then repressed the head on the first barrel.

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Refilled the barrel with water to test for leaks now that the head was in straighter & the little drip leak has been fixed. Sealed up perfectly now without having to even swell the wood.

After that I continued work on the wood toaster. Nearly finished with it, just need to finish up the wiring & then test it out. The power cable I was going to use with it turned out to be way too thin, wouldn't trust 10 Amps going through it so once I get a new power cable I'll be ready to test it all out!

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... once that's sorted it's then time to toast some heads & get building more barrels! :happy-partydance:

[howard]

After that I continued work on the wood toaster. Nearly finished with it, just need to finish up the wiring & then test it out. The power cable I was going to use with it turned out to be way too thin, wouldn't trust 10 Amps going through it so once I get a new power cable I'll be ready to test it all out!

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... once that's sorted it's then time to toast some heads & get building more barrels! :happy-partydance:[/quote]
great work, i wish i could source some aged oak for the head.
did i notice that Bad protected the edges of the head from char ?

[hjubm2]

great work, i wish i could source some aged oak for the head.
did i notice that Bad protected the edges of the head from char ?

Thanks mate. Yea when he makes the Badmo barrels he toasts the whole face of the oak, cuts out & sends the head to size & then puts a shield over the head which covers the outside edge and only allows the centre of the head to be charred, the thinking being that you don't want to effect the shape/seal of the barrel head from burning it.

That's my last job though, making up a shield so I can char the heads. I'm going to have to find someone to make one for me though as I don't really have the right equipment to cut an accurate circle out of stainless... unless I use aluminium for the shield instead

[hjubm2]

Picked up some American Oak dowel today while I was in the city to make the bungs out of. Have plenty of offcuts but no way to turn them to make them into bungs so until I get a wood lathe or something I'll have to keep paying too much for the dowel.

I also got the rest of the parts I needed for the oak toaster today so finished wiring that up & gave it a test. Didn't want to push it too much but still need to be able to get high enough temperatures to be able to toast the wood correctly so I plugged it in & slowly increased the temperature until I finally set it to 250 degrees. It got there easily & maintained the temperature well so once I get a thermocouple holder sorted I'll be toasting the other heads I've cut out :handgestures-thumbupleft:

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Advantage of the oak toaster with the ceramic elements is that I'll have accurate repeatability and be able to do different profiles to be able to bring out different flavours in the wood. Eg starting at 120 degrees for 30 mins then raining to 180 for 15 then 220 for 45 mins, whatever I decide...

[Wellsy]

I have said it before and I will say it again,when does the bidding start :happy-partydance:

[hjubm2]

I have said it before and I will say it again,when does the bidding start :happy-partydance:

Well once I've got all the processes sorted & repeatable then I'll be looking at sell a few of them so you might get lucky & be able to get your hands on one :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[hjubm2]

Last couple days I've been trying to get the toasting profile dialed in. Quite a few variables that go into it (position of the wood in relation to the elements, height from the elements, temperature itself, length of time etc) but slowly making some progress.

Cut some of the waste oak into rectangles & tried toasting at different times/temperatures to see the outcome. Overall the toast is a lot more even then the first one I did with an electric frying pan but I still need to try to minimise a few more variables so it's more repeatable.

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These pieces of oak were all done at 200 degrees. The one on the left was 15 minutes, middle was 30 mins and the right one was 45 minutes toasting time. Bit hard to tell the colours in the picture but the right one is close to a heavy toast so they don't look too bad so far with fairly even toast... slowly making progress...

[RuddyCrazy]

Mate I showed you that domino I had and that was fully toasted 5 kg lump of French oak and 2.2 kg result so really to revamp your toaster a gas flame thru some copper pipe with 0.7mm holes will provide a full even toasting setup.

So here's a thought fully toast a inner section to connect to the outer section then out the back have the fill/drain ports so no holes are done in the wood.

Just my thoughts

Cheers Bryan

[hjubm2]

... and this is why you have to make sure you sand the heads to the right size/angle... wanted to test how the wood swells so made this head a close fit, only went in about 1/3rd of the way itself before having to be pressed in....

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