How do I refurbish this barrel?

[Sam.]

Seeming I can't build a still for shit I might as well see if I can mangle a piece of wood :))

Seriously though I would like to be able to redo my barrels every so often without having to take it back to a cooper.

Here is my victim, a 1.5 or 2L port barrel.

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So the question is: Is it as easy as knocking off the end hoop, cleaning it up in there then giving it a blast with the flame to char it then chuck the head back in?

Sounds too fucking simple for my liking. I'm going to put 2:1 odds I fuck this up royally :laughing-rolling:

But.... I believe there might be some people in the know here that could impart some valuable info, i'm all ears :D

[crow]

not that hard depending on how savage you want to get. Last one I did I went fully out , knocked apart spoke shaved ultra light char and back together easy peasty

[Kimbo]

It may not be that simple Sam, The ends are rebated into the staves which will prolly mean that you will have to pull the thing to bits.
Only coz its a small barrel and the staves may not spring out enough to separate from the ends.
This is not a big drama, just make sure you label all the bits so you know how they go back in the right place :handgestures-thumbupleft:
If you do end up pulling it apart, then I would reassemble the staves without the ends and char it that way. The reason being is that you wont damage the edges of the staves (which you are relying on to seal) ;-)
Edit: Posted same time as Crow :-D

[crow]

Oh yeah you will need to remove both the chime and bilge straps for sure, as Kimbo says you may need to go balls and all on such a small keg number them for sure (unless you just loved the rubix cube to pieces :laughing-rolling:

[r.c.barstud]

I'm a cooper. Did I hear somebody ask for a cooper :-D . Ok at 1.5-2.0 litre keg, is gonna be tough to re-fire, you're gonna burn the crap out of the chime and croze, ( the top and groove) If done whole. Number the staves in a clock wards direction, pull it apart, shave a few mils off the stave, you could use a blowtorch to re-fire the surface, put back together, use chalk on the inside of the hoops to add friction.

[r.c.barstud]

Seeming I can't build a still for shit I might as well see if I can mangle a piece of wood :))

Seriously though I would like to be able to redo my barrels every so often without having to take it back to a cooper.

Here is my victim, a 1.5 or 2L port barrel.

IMG_1043.JPG

So the question is: Is it as easy as knocking off the end hoop, cleaning it up in there then giving it a blast with the flame to char it then chuck the head back in?

Sounds too fucking simple for my liking. I'm going to put 2:1 odds I fuck this up royally :laughing-rolling:

But.... I believe there might be some people in the know here that could impart some valuable info, i'm all ears :D

how old is the keg? has it been used non stop? has it had water in it for more than a week? if its had water in it.... :violence-smack: she a willa be a kaput

[Sam.]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I was hoping you would chime in RC!

It had had port in it when I got it and it has had a DWWG in it for the last year so no probs with that.

When I get to it I will post some pics of my butchering!

[BackyardBrewer]

Is that varnished? I thought varnish stopped them breathing? Is this for aging or storing?

[Sam.]

Is that varnished? I thought varnish stopped them breathing? Is this for aging or storing?

Yeah it does have a coat of something in it, never really thought of that!

I will see what's under the hoops I guess then take the coat off.

[BackyardBrewer]

I'm sure our cooper will weigh in but as crow will tell you aging and storage are different in terms of how much the angels get.

Unvarnished supposedly means more nasties can escape in the aging process and varnished is what you want for stuff that's finished aging and you don't want to lose any more volume.

Anyone want to weigh in?

[crow]

r.c Wrote

she a willa be a kaput

Not 100% sure I would use the term kaput but yeah in need of refurbishment. If for instance it is decided to get the spokey out you are going to be stripping the leached timer off anyway but yes I have made this fuck up before, takes some getting back :angry-banghead: PS I would leave the varnish on, that little barrel may "age" way to fast otherwise

[blond.chap]

Pretty cool there's a cooper on here, by only input is whatever you do be fucking careful with the end pieces. I tried to do this with my little keg and charring the end bits warped them completely. Now the barrel is cut up in to really expensive staves.

[Sam.]

Well I emptied the barrel last night and check ABV and it was 63%, I am sure I put it in @ 65% a year ago :wtf:

That varnish must help to keep the angels out :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Anyway it was a DWWG run through the pot and when watered down to 40% it actually tastes pretty good, will post a pic of the colour :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Sam.]

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[Sam.]

Allright the mangling has been performed :laughing-rolling:

It was eventually an overall fail but I did learn a bit and it may be still useful :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I will load the pics in the next few posts then put up what happened.

[Sam.]

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[Sam.]

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[Sam.]

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[Sam.]

Getting the hoops off was easy, just use something with an edge on it like a drift or screwdriver or whatever and tap them off with a hammer.

The inside looks pretty manky this barrel had port in it before I bought it off Ebay and has had a DWWG in it for a year.

The two staves pictured were the worst of the lot but they came up allright. I started off using an electric planer and I did the end with the tap with it and this is where I reckon I screwed the pooch. I took too much off one side of it :angry-banghead:

Anyway I couldn't use the planer on the staves due to the curve so I chose the quickest method I could think of, a wire brush on the angle grinder :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The wood came up all right I thought :handgestures-thumbupleft:

For the charring I used a mates oxy acetylene kit, we had problems with the medium size tip going out due to oxygen depleting so we got out the Mr Nasty tip :music-deathmetal:

The barrel was starting to catch on fire and we had to blow it out :laughing-rolling:

I didn't want to go too nuts with the charring, not sure what level you would call that but I would say it's light.

Anyway the heat made the staves want to straighten out as you can see which made getting the bands back on a bit tricky. Every time we thought we were having a win you would give it another little tap and the other side of the hoop would spring up :angry-banghead: Even with both of us going on opposite sides we just couldn't get it.

The next day I bought a big hose clamp and put that around the end to help and the hoops went on a lot easier after that, the key I think is still to get them on as square as you can :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Once filled up the the thing was leaking pretty bad from the end, this barrel did leak a bit when I first got it but stopped after a few days.

It has been soaking in water (I know naughty) for about 36 hours now and it has slowed a little but is still leaking at about a drop every 6 seconds.

It is only leaking from the end with the tap nowhere else :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Anyone have and ideas on how to fix this easily?

Or my plan B is to sit it upright and put a cork in the fill port :laughing-rolling:

[r.c.barstud]

:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: yeah, get some plain flour and water and paste the inside of where the leak is in the croze, or use a bullrush reed (dried) when the reed hydrates it will swell and take up the cavity. Wild toasting method :handgestures-thumbupleft: a toast should be sloooooow but keep that in mind for next time :handgestures-thumbupleft: good effort though :handgestures-thumbupleft: