New oak barrel, wine stains?

by **OzKev** » Fri Apr 11, 2014 7:18 pm

My new oak barrel got delivered today. Nice clean looking barrel with good workmanship. The only query I have is the bung hole seems to have wine stains? I will contact the supplier tomorrow, but is this some sort of agent/wine to protect the end grain around the hole?

by **OzKev** » Sat Apr 12, 2014 8:59 am

I called the supplier. All their maturing barrels are made from ex wine barrels. They shave both the inside and outside so that new wood is seen and all the wine color is removed, and then rechar the inside. So the wine at the bung hole is the only residual where it does not get shaved.

by **bayshine** » Sat Apr 12, 2014 9:52 am

well i guess its not new than kev
i hope you didn't pay new price :handgestures-thumbdown:

by **OzKev** » Sat Apr 12, 2014 11:15 am

$399 + post, from Roll Out The Barrel. They said ALL their maturing barrels have always been made this way. Technically they don't actually state NEW anywhere. All it says is
Maturing Barrels. 50 & 100 litre spirit barrels for maturing all types of spirits. They can be lightly toasted or a heavy char. American & French oak available. I'm not worried as it is shaved to fresh wood and fresh toasting that the spirit will see, and they have a great reputation for quality barrels so I think the end product will be good.

by **Konzo** » Sat Apr 12, 2014 3:08 pm

New or reconditioned, doesn't hugely matter because it still looks good :-)

by **620rossco** » Sun Apr 13, 2014 5:10 am

Hi Kev,

I have two barrels that I bought elsewhere and sent to Trev at Roll out the Barrel for treatment.
Their service was excellent and the spirits coming out of the barrels 12months later are excellent.
I like it better than aging on sticks, no end grain.
From memory it was approx $500 for the pair but I had to source the barrels and make the stands.
He put in taps too which was great.
I recon you will be very pleased you did this in the long run.
BTW 100litres of 60% is gunna take a while.
Rossco :D

by **OzKev** » Sun Apr 13, 2014 7:48 am

It's their reputation for quality barrels why I went with them. The smell of the barrel is very different to the dominos. With the dominos I get virtually no distinct oak, vanilla or sweetness, where from the barrel it is in your face. The main thing I noticed with the dominos are when I broke one in half it was toasted all the way through. Which when you think about it, with the depth of toasting on barrels and dominos, and on a domino it's toasted from both sides it would end up all the way through. So there is no raw wood for the spirit to penetrate into and pickup these extra raw flavors and characteristics. I plan on filling a jar and dropping in 10g/Liter dominos and aging it along side the barrel to do a side by side taste test.

This barrel is the smaller 50L version, I've got almost 40L in it so far and hope to have it filled in the next couple of weeks. It's been a bit of work to get this much whiskey together as it's all full corn mashes. Depending on how the taste tests goes between barrel vs domino and how much whiskey we do get through, I do plan on getting a 100L on in a couple of years time. The 50L will become rum, and the whiskey will be upgraded to the bigger barrel. It should work out good as the 50L barrel will be milder for the rum, and the whiskey gets a freshly charred barrel. It also makes filling the 100L a bit easier as I will have 50L as a starter fill.

by **620rossco** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 7:08 pm

Good plan Kev, mine are both 100litres, both were started with approx 40litres at the same time and the rum has taken on way more colour.
I have not really used dominoes, I make my own sticks from French and American oak when I need them.
Rossco