You bought a liquor barrel for the purposes of imparting that liquor flavor on the beer. For this reason, do NOT soak water inside it.....you will lose the flavor you paid for.
Also, no reason to sanitize the barrel. Liquor is stored in the barrel at a high proof (even if it is to later be cut for bottling). The high alcohol proof will have prevented any critters from considering it a good home.
Here is what I would do. Bung the top of the barrel and fill up a bath tub. Set the barrel in the bath so it is floating. Rotate the barrel for 5 minutes and then pull it out. Wait until it appears dry and repeat. By doing this, you will essentially be swelling the barrel from the outside, preserving the precious interior. Don't soak it too long initially as if there are any stave joints not sealed, it would allow too much water to enter the barrel. (if you hear water inside, you've soaked it too long). Repeat this until you feel it is good an swollen.
Again, allow it to sit until it appears dry, and then pour a bottle of the same liquor the barrel was into the barrel. When you bought the barrel, they leave liquor in there to keep it hydrated, so you are just replacing what evaporated. Bung the barrel and rotate it again. You are looking to see if any seeps through to the outside. If none does, pour out the liquor (back into the bottle it came from). If you did notice a leak, repeat the bath step.
Do this all the day you are ready to fill the barrel with your beer. Once you are ready to fill the barrel, fill it with 1 gallon first and rotate it slowly making sure there are no leaks, then fill the remaining. It is fine for fine weeps to occur briefly, these will disappear (usually in a matter of minutes), you just don't want to have large leaks. When the barrel is full, you can lose a lot of beer waiting for a leaky stave to swell, thats why i'd say do these stages.
Last edited by levifunk; 02-21-2012 at 05:22 PM.
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