Ageing in ex food grade steel drums

[vqstatesman]

Hi Guys,

Just wondering peoples thoughts on ageing in one of these babies:
http://www.paramountbrowns.com.au/hardw ... 44-gallon/

[Zak Griffin]

Stainless or glass for storage... Food safe doesn't mean high-proof alcohol safe ;-)

Edit: oak is ok as well, obviously!

[Urrazeb]

No way would I pour my hard earned into that mate.

Glass, stainless, ceramic, oak :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[MacStill]

:violence-smack: :puke-huge: :teasing-nutkick:

[northernbrewer]

They generally have a plastic coating on the inside, so no good for us.

Check out Gumtree for kegs (corny or otherwise) or demijohns. Cheapest place to get them. I picked up a 20L, 2 34L and a 54L demijohn for $80 the other day. Using them for low wines and aging in the 5 L ones I used to have my low wines in.

[Hava]

What are you trying to age?

If you've gone too the trouble of an all grain, barrel it. If it's a neatural glass it.

With your listed equipment it would take more runs than i care to count to fill a container of that size.

[bt1]

Sorry vq,

Those drums have a epoxy type coating on the inside. I checked them to work out if the coating could be removed with a solvent = way too hard.

SS beer keg would be nice. One thing with long term SS storage it does make your spirit a bit "dull"/"flat" so aerating it be fore bottling after being stored is a good move.

bt1

[huggy_b]

Aside from the plastic coating - as mentioned above, the logistics and time to distill enough product to justify buying a 205L aging vessel would be immense. Bear in mind that you'll get 2 - 3L of 90% per 50L wash - depending on yield that's going to be 50 - 70 runs (2500 - 3500L of wash).

That is why aging in a standard 205L barrel is way beyond hobby spec.

[vqstatesman]

Thanks for all the responses guys. BT your comment sorta flips this idea on its head, I didn't realise they had a coating on the inside.