StillSmart

Re: Ordered a barrel :)

2013-01-05T17:23:29+00:00

foRUM warrior wrote:
looks good there mate, i have had some excellent results from the one i bought [url=http://www.stillsmart.co.uk/forum/topic.php?id=315], though a brass tap on yours dose sound better than mine, but so far mine has not leaked

It's best to stick with a wooden tap as wood is of course self sealing when it's damp. A brass tap will however have a rubber or silicone washer in it. If you must use a brass tap remove the rubber or silicon washer and replace with a felt fibre washer.

Statistics: Posted by RickyRasper — Sat Jan 05, 2013 5:23 pm

Ordered a barrel :)

2011-03-15T00:50:41+00:00

The barrel arrived and it looked generally quite rough but the bottom line is it\'s for rum so it kind of looks authentic if you see what I mean.
The seller was great, packed it well etc but I\'ve run into a bit of a problem with it. The rough finish extended to the filling hole that hasn\'t been cut with any degree of accuracy. If I try to recut the whole I\'m going to end up with a load of sawdust/jagged edges in the barrel that would be a nightmare to sort out. Whilst this isn\'t that much of a problem it means that air can get into the barrel. It can get in the barrel as the tap isn\'t very good and despite me stripping the tap, cleaning it and re-tightening it I have a constant drip from it.
On it\'s own either one of these problems would be ok - if the tap didn\'t drip then that would be ok. I thought to get round this I could stand the barrel on the end that hasn\'t got the tap but when I do then the contents come out from the bung...
Bit disappointed that I\'m going to have to replace the tap...
Oh well, I\'ve got a batch of essencia rum in the barrel so fingers crossed it improves the taste enough to make the hassle worthwhile!

Statistics: Posted by MrCat — Tue Mar 15, 2011 12:50 am

Ordered a barrel :)

2011-02-26T23:03:16+00:00

From what I have read it\'s to do with contact area. The higer the ratio of barrel to spirit the quicker it will \'age\', and the quicker it will \'use up\' what the barrel has to offer. But once the spirit is aged I can bottle it and use the barrel again. this time leaving the spirit for longer etc etc.
I think a gallon of spirit put to one side is plenty in my book - it doesn\'t get used that quickly!
They aren\'t allowed (by US law) to re-use bourbon barrels.

Wiki on Bourbon

Statistics: Posted by MrCat — Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:03 pm

Ordered a barrel :)

2011-02-26T18:57:39+00:00

i thought standard barrels deteriated pretty quickly too, as i seem to recall one of them \"how do they do that\" programs on the jack daniels brewery, and if memory serves me correctly, they dont reuse any barrels. (i may be wrong on this as it was a while ago when i watched it)

Statistics: Posted by foRUM warrior — Sat Feb 26, 2011 6:57 pm

Ordered a barrel :)

2011-02-26T18:20:19+00:00

Hum ? Well I did a lot of looking and reading about oak barrels a while back. It does seem that you want to be careful in how you use one of these small, decorative barrels.
Why? Well the correct amount of oaking is, apparently, calculated with the spirit/wood contact area of an \"industry standard\" 225 litre barrel. While it\'s hard to grasp, the spirit/wood contact ratio is actually higher on smaller barrels, hence once you start using them, you need to check the spirit often to make sure that it\'s not getting \"over oaked\" and starting to produce off flavours of and excessively woody taste.....
Of course, there\'s also the difference produced by the levels of toasting, light, medium or heavy... but apparently the same phenomena applies......
I\'ve had an enquiry/question elsewhere answered, that it\'s often easier to stick to barrels of a minimum of 50 litres. Yes, that was a wine making question, but if you think about it, spirits often extract flavours quicker than wines, due to the higher alcohol content.
Though this isn\'t to disuade the use of them, just to make the point that their use should be watched carefully, to make sure that you get the taste right......
Apart from that, they lose their usefulness relatively quickly, as after a couple of batches of spirit, they start to lose the oak/wood/vanillins/colour producing compounds. So you end up with a glorified display gadget quite quickly......
I\'d have thought it would probably be necessary to use oak chips/cubes/staves etc after maybe 4 o 5 uses of the barrel for flavouring/smoothing reasons. Then it\'s still a pretty thing to use to serve the spirit from........

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Sat Feb 26, 2011 6:20 pm

Ordered a barrel :)

2011-02-24T21:21:59+00:00

Sorry Its Woodbarrels.The one above is German.

Statistics: Posted by short2 — Thu Feb 24, 2011 9:21 pm

Ordered a barrel :)

2011-02-24T16:04:25+00:00

Looking at Barrels in the UK. Oak Barrel Shop does nice ones. Not as Nice as Andys but nice at the price and too your spec.

Statistics: Posted by short2 — Thu Feb 24, 2011 4:04 pm

Ordered a barrel :)

2011-02-24T14:46:04+00:00

You can Mark, either http://www.rolloutthebarrel.com.au or call Craig from http://www.tru-brew.com.au/

Both will be happy to ship.

Oh, if you go through Craig - tell him I sent you

Statistics: Posted by Andy — Thu Feb 24, 2011 2:46 pm

Ordered a barrel :)

2011-02-24T12:19:48+00:00

Awesome barrel.would love to have one like that.

Statistics: Posted by marc83 — Thu Feb 24, 2011 12:19 pm

Ordered a barrel :)

2011-02-24T02:17:10+00:00

Nice one Andy. Drink whats in it and you wont see the TV, you will have your own TV.

Statistics: Posted by short2 — Thu Feb 24, 2011 2:17 am

Ordered a barrel :)

2011-02-18T10:33:07+00:00

Doesn\'t even look "too" out of place in your living room

I am thinking a few more would look better, but it interferes with the TV remote so might need to find a new spot

Statistics: Posted by Andy — Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:33 am

Ordered a barrel :)

2011-02-17T22:53:06+00:00

glad to know i inspired quite like the look of yours MrCat, may have to get annother lol
nice looking barrel there andy

Statistics: Posted by foRUM warrior — Thu Feb 17, 2011 10:53 pm

Ordered a barrel :)

2011-02-17T18:39:51+00:00

Very, very nice Andy. Doesn\'t even look \"too\" out of place in your living room

Statistics: Posted by Capt-Cudellez — Thu Feb 17, 2011 6:39 pm

Ordered a barrel :)

2011-02-17T11:19:18+00:00

Here's my 9 litre new American Oak barrel, I got it 4 weeks ago and filled with bourbon.

I tasted the bourbon last night and its so much smoother without the flavour being changed.

The barrel came from http://www.rolloutthebarrel.com.au/ but I got it from my LHBS

Stainless tap and threaded stainless bung.

Cost me $320 AU

Statistics: Posted by Andy — Thu Feb 17, 2011 11:19 am

Ordered a barrel :)

2011-02-17T06:21:02+00:00

Stripping 6 litres in 3 hours is pretty good I\'ve never timed a stripping run with the SS reflux but I run it full tilt (1400 watt) for the entire run. I\'ll time it next time for a comparison. I think I get 1 1/2 gallons of avg 40% from a 22 litre wash
This time next week I should have 2*60 litre fermenters (one to ferment in and one to rack to) - the aim is to get 45 litres of molasses wash, strip that in the SS reflux over two runs then do one big final run in the T500 which should kick out about a gallon and a half of 90+. I figure I should maybe get three maybe four litres of hearts which once cut back will get me a gallon of 60% to use.
I\'d read your thread fRUMw and it was one of the main inspirations for ordering one of my own.

Statistics: Posted by MrCat — Thu Feb 17, 2011 6:21 am