I got my first barrel this year, a French Oak 50 litre. I pre-soaked
it to swell the staves and it leaked a lot. I had to run a garden hose
into it all day and over night. I soaked it saturday and sunday and by
monday morning, the leaking was nearly stopped but still leaks about a
half a liter per night. This seems excessive to me. Over a three
month aging, I don't have enough wine to keep it topped up.

Will wine seal the barrel better than water? Is this barrel defective?
Should I just be a little more patient?

Your help is appreciated.

Dan

when we 1st got our barrel, our vino compare (read: goombah-ray) had us do
the following:

1) get a cheap kiddie pool or large size shallow vessel. stand barrel on end
in same
2) pour & soak top of barrel with hot (we boiled) water once a day until the
top held the water.
3) turn over barrel & repeat process
feel free to drain pool as necesssary
4) set barrel horizontal in pool; pour 2-3 gal boiling h2o into barrel &
seal w/ solid bung. roll around if practical. let steam swell staves.
drain.
5) when filling, boil 2-3 gals wine & pour into barrel to finalize the deal;
don't drain, then fill

this worked for us with 50 gal. barrel. maybe you need to use hotter
water... hope this helps...

> wrote in message
oups.com...
>I got my first barrel this year, a French Oak 50 litre. I pre-soaked
> it to swell the staves and it leaked a lot. I had to run a garden hose
> into it all day and over night. I soaked it saturday and sunday and by
> monday morning, the leaking was nearly stopped but still leaks about a
> half a liter per night. This seems excessive to me. Over a three
> month aging, I don't have enough wine to keep it topped up.
>
> Will wine seal the barrel better than water? Is this barrel defective?
> Should I just be a little more patient?
>
> Your help is appreciated.
>
> Dan
>

> wrote in message
oups.com...
>I got my first barrel this year, a French Oak 50 litre. I pre-soaked
> it to swell the staves and it leaked a lot. I had to run a garden hose
> into it all day and over night. I soaked it saturday and sunday and by
> monday morning, the leaking was nearly stopped but still leaks about a
> half a liter per night. This seems excessive to me. Over a three
> month aging, I don't have enough wine to keep it topped up.
>
> Will wine seal the barrel better than water?

No!

> Is this barrel defective?

Possibly.

> Should I just be a little more patient?

It would have been better to do this at the outset, but one thing you could
try is draining the barrel, setting it on end and tightening the hoops,
starting with the bilge (largest) hoops and working your way toward the
head. Reposition the hoop nails so the hoops don't slip back, and then turn
the barrel on its other head and repeat the process - again starting at the
bilge.

Use a chunk of steel bar stock and a small sledge to drive the hoops,
working your way around the barrel so as to drive them down evenly.

Fill the barrel with water and see if that does the trick. If not, I'd
return the barrel as defective. My guess is that it sat around too long
empty and dry after it was made.

Tom S
www.chateauburbank.com

Tom,
We found my grandfathers 'hoop-tool'; it's a piece of rod stock bent
with a parallel offset and then flatened on 4 sides on one end. I put
it to good use on my barrel. It's my new favorite tool; it;'s got to
be close to a hundred years old if it was made on this side. It really
works well. (I'm sure it's homemade, he was a miner when he came over
here.)

Joe

That's quite excessive leakage, Dan.

The suggestion from TomS will stop pretty much any leak that comes from
between the staves, but if it's leaking through the stave, a little
more aggressive action is required. Wedging pieces of wood into the
leak is a general fix. Mind you, this only works for "through the
stave" leaks.

With all that said, I'd call the person who you bought it from. A well
coopered barrel will not leak at all. For point of reference, I fill
my barrels with wine without *any* presoaking, and have never seen
anything more than a slight ooze that stops within a day.

clyde

"Clyde Gill" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> With all that said, I'd call the person who you bought it from. A well
> coopered barrel will not leak at all. For point of reference, I fill
> my barrels with wine without *any* presoaking, and have never seen
> anything more than a slight ooze that stops within a day.

True enough, Clyde - but this is a really small barrel, and I'd guess it's
not a recently coopered one. It probably sat drying out in a homebrew shop
for quite awhile as sticker-shocked potential buyers walked by it on the way
to the StaVin beans. :^/

Tom S
www.chateauburbank.com

Oh my, You have hella wikkid humor, Tom <grins>
Gene

Tom S wrote:

> "Clyde Gill" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>
>>With all that said, I'd call the person who you bought it from. A well
>>coopered barrel will not leak at all. For point of reference, I fill
>>my barrels with wine without *any* presoaking, and have never seen
>>anything more than a slight ooze that stops within a day.
>
>
> True enough, Clyde - but this is a really small barrel, and I'd guess it's
> not a recently coopered one. It probably sat drying out in a homebrew shop
> for quite awhile as sticker-shocked potential buyers walked by it on the way
> to the StaVin beans. :^/
>
> Tom S
> www.chateauburbank.com
>
>

"gene" > wrote in message
.. .
> Oh my, You have hella wikkid humor, Tom <grins>
> Gene

Thanks for the compliment, Gene, but I was only _slightly_ kidding. Even in
60 gallon sizes, new French barrels are getting close to $15/gallon.
Smaller sizes are, as they always have been, increasingly more $$$/gallon
than 60s the smaller you go.

Lots of wineries are either switching to Hungarian, Oregonian or other
American barrels. Others are very quietly moving toward so called "barrel
replacement" systems or foregoing barrels entirely in favor of oak chips and
the like.

Tom S
www.chateauburbank.com

Yeah, this barrel was the floor model and had the plastic wrap
partially removed and yes it was expensive, so probably sat there for a
long time.

The barrel eventually did stop leaking and I have my wine in it. I've
got a second run made with kit juice and my skins in the barrel now.
The grape wine is aging in a carbouy and when the second is well oaked,
I can put the grape wine in for a longer period.

I'll use this barrel for a while and when I'm ready for another one
I'll make sure to get a new cooperage.

My hobby is getting out of control but my wine is getting a lot better.

Dan

Tom S wrote:
> "Clyde Gill" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> > With all that said, I'd call the person who you bought it from. A well
> > coopered barrel will not leak at all. For point of reference, I fill
> > my barrels with wine without *any* presoaking, and have never seen
> > anything more than a slight ooze that stops within a day.
>
> True enough, Clyde - but this is a really small barrel, and I'd guess it's
> not a recently coopered one. It probably sat drying out in a homebrew shop
> for quite awhile as sticker-shocked potential buyers walked by it on the way
> to the StaVin beans. :^/
>
> Tom S
> www.chateauburbank.com

Dan,
I have a 5 gallon American oak that was unwrapped similar to yours, it
took forever to swell. It goes through phases where I see a leak,
tighten the hoops, etc; keep an eye on it. It was untoasted so it's
just not right for wine. I took it apart and toasted it myself which
helped.

Those first batches can get over-oaked very quickly, it's nothing like
beans or chips. I grossly over oaked a few batches initially but they
came back with time and a bit of work.

Taste it regularly. The next barrel I get will either be PA made or
Hungarian; we have a cooperage within 100 miles and they make real wine
barrels, not like mine.

Joe


> The barrel eventually did stop leaking and I have my wine in it. I've
> got a second run made with kit juice and my skins in the barrel now.
> The grape wine is aging in a carbouy and when the second is well oaked,
> I can put the grape wine in for a longer period.
>
> I'll use this barrel for a while and when I'm ready for another one
> I'll make sure to get a new cooperage.

Clyde Gill wrote:
> That's quite excessive leakage, Dan.
>
> The suggestion from TomS will stop pretty much any leak that comes from
> between the staves, but if it's leaking through the stave, a little
> more aggressive action is required. Wedging pieces of wood into the
> leak is a general fix. Mind you, this only works for "through the
> stave" leaks.
>
> With all that said, I'd call the person who you bought it from. A well
> coopered barrel will not leak at all. For point of reference, I fill
> my barrels with wine without *any* presoaking, and have never seen
> anything more than a slight ooze that stops within a day.
>
> clyde
>
You can use the wedges to stop a leak between the staves by putting the
wedge in to the grain of the stave next to the leak. This will expand
the stave joint and stop the leak. You can buy wedges and cones to stop
leaks

Kentucky Barrels
http://www.kentuckybarrels.com