I work in a high volume restaurant. Recently we obtained a red wine barrel that has been used ounce. It has been empty for about 6 months. We want to use it to cask age a pre mixed cocktail. We are planning on filling the entire thing with a mixture of spirits (no juices etc, all alcohol over 40%). Should we use a sulfur stick to sterilize it or will the high alcohol content sterilize the oak cask and all of the nooks and crannies? We plan on leaving the mix of spirits in the barrel for about a month.
Wine Barrel Cocktail
- Thread starter chefbri
- Start date
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you can sterilize, but risk burning your flavor off/adding smoke to your cocktail. I would use the barrel as is with wine flavor in mind for your cocktail. All of my barrel projects effect the next (in a good way). *Disclaimer- smell/inspect your barrel . . .if it is good, use it
microbusbrewery
Senior Member
+1, I wouldn't sulfur it. If it has been sitting dry for that long you're likely going to have some leaking and it will need to be rehydrated. I used the French Method described in the document below and it worked great. If you use 200F water, it will help sanitize as well.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/media/downloads/422/barrel_care_sheet.pdf
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/media/downloads/422/barrel_care_sheet.pdf
