Barrel Question

[Farmboy71]

Hi all,

I acquired a couple of used 53 gallon bourbon barrels and was hoping to do a sour solera project in one of them. I opened one up and I can see the char but there is also a lot of white stuff where the char seems to have flaked off. It doesn't appear to be mold, but what is it? Attached are a couple of pics.

Is the barrel usable?

 

[TNGabe]

That's some sorta something bad. Kill it with fire. Or really hot water. Or sulphur. Or all of those.

I recently got a tequila barrel that someone fermented and then dry hopped a beer in. Previously it aged rum and originally held bourbon. I don't think I'm going to try a solera, but I'm still looking for a neutral vessel to provide micro-oxygenization. From your pics I'm assuming you have already popped a head? I took a head off and scraped the char out with a putty knife / wire brush, but tried to avoid getting down to raw wood. Now it's filled with potassium metabisulfate and citric acid solution, but if you can steam and then burn sulphur, that should be fine, too. With a fresh barrel, extreme measures like sulphur shouldn't be necessary, but if you're trying to save an old barrel, I wouldn't chance doing otherwise.

 

[Farmboy71]

Thanks for the advice. I haven't popped the head yet as I'm concerned that I'll never be able to get it back together. I'll probably do it now so I can get a closer look at the white stuff and try to get rid of it. It doesn't look fuzzy like mold, but I don't know what it is. I'm planning on making a potassium metabisulfate storage solution as well.

 

[TNGabe]

Thanks for the advice. I haven't popped the head yet as I'm concerned that I'll never be able to get it back together. I'll probably do it now so I can get a closer look at the white stuff and try to get rid of it. It doesn't look fuzzy like mold, but I don't know what it is. I'm planning on making a potassium metabisulfate storage solution as well.

It's a little intimidating if you're not dumb. I say that because I assumed it would fun and I wouldn't have any problems. I ended up with a slight leak from the croze, but I jammed some toothpicks in there and added some wax and it seems mostly ok now. It's not leaking solution with a solid bung in, but will seep if the bung is loose. I assume that some nice sticky beer will seal it up and if not, then I'll figure it out.

http://www.americanlambic.com
Check out Matt's blog. He makes some great beers and has a post about refurbing a barrel that helped me out. It's down a bit, July 6 of last year (I think).

 

[Farmboy71]

Thanks for the info and the link. I got the head off and got a better look at what I'm dealing with. It's not pretty. Attached are a couple of pics.

I think it's some sort of white fungus growing inside. I was able to wire brush most of it off the head, but even if I brush the entire barrel, I don't think I want to risk the time and effort to fill this thing. I put it back together and it's holding water, but it's probably going to become a rain barrel or patio furniture.

The other barrel seems to be swelling and getting better so I have some hope that it will be usable. We'll see.

It's a little intimidating if you're not dumb. I say that because I assumed it would fun and I wouldn't have any problems. I ended up with a slight leak from the croze, but I jammed some toothpicks in there and added some wax and it seems mostly ok now. It's not leaking solution with a solid bung in, but will seep if the bung is loose. I assume that some nice sticky beer will seal it up and if not, then I'll figure it out.

http://www.americanlambic.com
Check out Matt's blog. He makes some great beers and has a post about refurbing a barrel that helped me out. It's down a bit, July 6 of last year (I think).