Oak barrel first filling. How to prepare an oak barrel for use

Tips and instructions for soaking oak barrels

Oak barrels are used for infusing wine and moonshine, in particular for additional purification of the drink, improving the taste, giving a natural aroma and color.

Before using a new oak barrel for the first time, it must be steamed and soaked. This is done so that the container is washed and gives off excess tannins and swells.

Preparation of a new oak barrel includes several stages:

1. Sealing the end parts of the rivets.

2. Steaming.

3. Soaking.

4. Washing with soda.

5. Washing with hot and cold water.

6. Filling with a drink.

1. Sealing the end parts of the rivets. Some winemakers sometimes paint their barrels with natural oil paint to reduce the evaporation of the wine and make the barrels last longer. Painting will indeed reduce evaporation and extend the life of the wooden barrels. But this process has a rather serious drawback: when painting, the pores of the rivets become clogged. This leads to the fact that the effect of air on the wine stops and thereby slows down and disrupts the correct course of the maturation of the drink.

Some winemakers sometimes paint their barrels with oil paint to reduce the evaporation of the wine and make the barrels last longer. Coloring really reduces evaporation and prolongs the life of wooden barrels. But this process has a rather serious drawback: when painting, the pores of the rivets become clogged. This leads to the fact that the effect of air on the wine stops and thereby slows down and disrupts the correct course of the maturation of the drink.
Oil paint is applied before the steaming process, while the barrel is dry. After soaking, this procedure is difficult to perform, because the wood becomes wet and the paint does not “take”. In this case, it will be necessary to completely dry the container. As a standard, the following parts of the barrel are stained: the end of the staves, the junction of the staves and the bottom, as well as 14 cm of the bottom itself (depending on the size of the barrel) in a circle. This applies to both bottoms.

For white wines green, for red red, for cognacs and spirits white. In private winemaking, paints of other colors, various varnishes, etc. are used. Thus, capillaries are sealed and oak barrels are marked at the same time. Please note that the paint must be applied with high quality, in several layers (improved coloring) in order to close all open capillaries.

2. Steaming.

After the sealing procedure, the oak barrel must be steamed with hot water steam. The steam speeds up the process of swelling of the riveting, and small cracks close faster, and the barrel is disinfected.

To do this, the barrel is filled by a third with boiling water and swayed so that hot water “runs” along the inner walls of the barrel. Then the barrel is covered with a film, on which a thick fabric (a blanket or a padded jacket) is placed so that the barrel is well steamed. Hot water is left in the barrel until it stops emitting steam (about 30 minutes in time). The top cap does not close tightly. After that, the water is drained through the upper (filler) hole of the barrel by opening the tap at the bottom. If there is a cork instead of a tap, then it must be pulled out. This procedure is repeated one more time.

3. Soaking.

Soaking is necessary for the final swelling of the stave and for washing out excess tannins, which can oversaturate the drink with a bitter taste and color it in a dark brown color.

The barrel is filled to the top with cold water and changed after 2-3 days until it stops browning the water and becomes light. This process can take 3-4 weeks. Drain the water through the top hole of the barrel by opening the tap. If there is a cork instead of a tap, then it must be pulled out.

4. Washing with soda.

After soaking oak barrel washed with a hot 2% solution of soda ash (this is 20 g of soda per 1 liter of water or 200 g per 10 liters). The container should be about half full with this solution. Soda should not be poured into a barrel, but poured, previously dissolved in a small amount of water. You can wash an oak barrel by swinging it in your hands or rolling it on the ground for 30-40 minutes.

5. Washing with hot and cold water.

The solution of water with soda is poured out, and the wooden barrel is thoroughly rinsed several times with hot water until the soda is washed out and the water is absolutely clean. Then rinse with cold water to cool. The washed oak barrel must be turned upside down, the corks are pulled out, the tap is opened and the remaining water is allowed to drain, after which it is immediately poured with wine.

Important Details

In the first days of soaking the barrel, water seepage is possible. Think about where it is best to prepare it, because water from an oak barrel can ruin the surface and turn it brown.

If at the beginning of soaking there are small leaks in the product, then the oak barrel must be topped up with water. The final closure of small cracks occurs on the 5th-6th day of soaking. It is important to carefully inspect the barrel on this day. If it still has leaks, contact us.

A large oak barrel can be soaked by rolling it on the ground or on another prepared surface, after considering the flooring so that the wood does not get dirty. It is easier and faster to pour water from the barrel through the upper hole, while opening the tap or pulling out the cork (if there is a cork instead of a tap). When a tap replaces a cork, attention should also be paid to its sealing, namely, to paint the part that protrudes beyond the barrel. Alternatively, you can boil the cork in beeswax or paraffin.

Please note that the aging time of a drink in an oak barrel depends on its size and the number of times it is used. The smaller the barrel and the fewer times it has been used, the faster the drink will mature in it. Therefore, we advise you to periodically check the readiness of the filled product so that it does not stop. Until the first filling of the liquid, store the cooperage product, carefully wrapping it in polyethylene. The film will protect the oak container from drying out if your humidity level is less than 75% and the temperature is above +16 °. Please note that we are talking about a newly purchased product that has not yet been in contact with the liquid.

Attention! Do not store oak cooperage products in a warm and dry place.

Emphasize! Compliance with the instructions is mandatory. Failure to comply with these rules deprives you of the opportunity to file claims for product malfunction.

Why does homemade wine aged in an oak barrel have a characteristic deep taste and aroma? How to prepare a barrel for brewing drinks? How to properly age alcohol and how to store an unused oak barrel? Read about all this in our today's article.

The use of wooden barrels in the manufacture of homemade alcoholic beverages allows you to get premium alcohol. Aging alcohol in oak barrels gives the drink a rich, rich taste, deep aroma and characteristic shade. Most of the well-known brands of elite alcohol are aged in oak barrels - ordinary or charred from the inside. Homemade wine can also be significantly "ennobled" by aging in a barrel.

A new barrel bought at the store is not ready for use. It takes time and effort to make it suitable for aging alcohol. Alcohol in a new oak barrel quickly becomes cloudy and acquires a sharp taste and smell - this is due to the high level of tannins in unprepared wood. Upon contact with alcohol, oak wood begins to actively release tannins, the excessive concentration of which turns the drink into a so-called "plinth". The process of preparing a new barrel for aging alcohol is quite time consuming, but a properly macerated barrel will make homemade wine much richer and more delicious.

Choose the volume of the barrel

Small compact barrels are much more preferable for home aging of alcoholic beverages. A barrel up to 10 liters is much easier to prepare than a larger tank. In addition, in a small barrel, a liter of wine is in contact with a larger area, and therefore matures faster, getting more of the necessary tannins from the wood.

It is reasonable to use barrels with a volume of more than 10 liters only if you are going to age the wine for many years. The fact is that the porous structure of wood contributes to the evaporation of alcohol and liquid as such - in a year the loss can be up to 1 liter of drink. Thus, 5 liters of alcohol poured into a 5-liter barrel will completely evaporate in five years. With large volumes of harvesting and the desire to age the drink for several years, such losses are acceptable, and with a more modest scale of harvesting, the so-called "share of angels" is tried to be minimized by reducing the aging period and topping up small portions beverage during storage.

Separately, it is worth noting the procedure for waxing oak barrels. Wax improves the quality of the barrel - it protects the wood from negative influences, prolongs its service life and reduces the "angels' share", preventing the intensive evaporation of alcohol. At the same time, the wax does not adversely affect the air exchange necessary for the correct aging of the wine. In addition, a waxed barrel looks much more aesthetically pleasing.

Design: with or without tap?

Spilling alcohol directly from a barrel with a tap looks spectacular, but in practice the tap is an extremely vulnerable part of the barrel - even with high quality workmanship, it often leaks and fails. A reasonable compromise would be to store the drink in a barrel without a tap, from which alcohol is poured in advance (before a feast or meeting guests) into a small barrel with a tap for a beautiful serving of the drink.

Step by step preparation of the barrel

After a visual inspection of the product and tamping of the hoops (if necessary, if the hoops have moved), the long process of preparing the barrel for wine storage begins. It is worth noting that for the preparation of the barrel you will need a large number of pure water - ideally spring water, but filtered tap water can be used as a compromise.

1. A new barrel is filled with water by 90%, after which the hole is plugged with a cork, and the barrel is left for 4 hours.
2. The barrel filled with water is carefully inspected, revealing a possible leak. A small leak is not a defect, as it usually disappears after the wood swells. If water flows in a stream, then the barrel needs to be repaired. Drain water after 3-4 hours.
3. The barrel is refilled with water, the hole is plugged and left for three days at room temperature. In the presence of a leak, water is added every 12 hours, achieving swelling of the wood and eliminating the leak. After three days, the water is drained.
4. Once again, the barrel is filled with water for a day, after which the water is drained again. Next, a small amount of boiling water is poured into the barrel (0.5 liters per 5-liter barrel). The barrel is shaken in such a way as to pour boiling water over the entire inner surface. After that, after 45 minutes, the barrel is filled with water to the top and closed.
5. After a day, the water is changed. In the future, the replacement procedure is repeated every 24 hours until the drained water is clean - odorless and of any shade. This procedure may take 1-2 months.
6. Water in the amount of ½ of the volume of the barrel is brought to a boil and cooled to 70 ° C, then soda is poured at the rate of 15-20 g per 1 liter. The resulting solution is poured into a barrel and the container is shaken for 10 minutes. The liquid is then drained off.
7. The barrel is filled to the top with hot water, kept for about 20 minutes, then the water is drained. After the barrel is refilled with cold water for 10 hours.
8. Before filling the barrel with wine, many distillers pour a diluted (about 20 degrees) highly purified distillate into the barrel and keep it for a month. After that, the oak barrel is ready to age the wine.

Brewing homemade wine in an oak barrel

After the barrel is prepared, it must be placed in a cool room with ventilation and moderate humidity. Next, the barrel is filled with wine for an indefinite period, which depends on the specific type of wine and the subjective taste of the drink - you need to take samples from the barrel regularly, controlling the change in taste. With long-term aging of wine, especially strong enough, it is also necessary to control the volume of the drink, which may decrease - in this case, new portions of wine should be added to the barrel.

Service life of an oak barrel

Since the amount of tannins (tannins) in the wood is limited, each aging cycle of the drink reduces their content in the inner surface of the barrel. Therefore, each subsequent exposure of the wine takes a slightly longer amount of time than the previous one. The service life of an oak barrel largely depends on its volume, workmanship and the amount of time it takes for one cycle of aging the drink. When aging strong alcohol, the barrel gives up all the tannins after the 7th cycle of aging, and in the case of harvesting wine, the barrel can last longer, enriching the drink with taste and aroma for 12-15 cycles.

Storage of an unused drum

An empty drum that has previously been prepared for use must be properly stored to avoid re-preparation. To do this, immediately after pouring the drink, the barrel is thoroughly washed from the inside several times. It is most convenient to do this by filling the barrel with clean water by ¼ and shaking vigorously. After the barrel is washed with a soda solution (as in the 6th point of the barrel preparation), and then with cold water. The barrel is dried, wrapped in cotton cloth and placed in a dry, ventilated and cool place. With prolonged downtime, fumigation of the barrel with sulfur is recommended to prevent the formation of fungus.

conclusions

Despite the fact that the process of preparing and operating an oak barrel may seem laborious, the alcohol obtained by aging in a prepared barrel is characterized by high palatability and is often comparable to expensive "branded" drinks.

Barrels for storing alcoholic beverages are used not only in large enterprises, but also at home in cellars. The method is very convenient, but at first laborious. Barrel storage is still popular as it adds a special flavor to the drink. In such a container, not only wine, but also strong drinks can be stored. Before using the container, you need to find out what the preparation of an oak barrel for moonshine consists of.

Preparing an oak barrel for moonshine

The first use of barrels in the history of alcohol storage is not recorded, but this information makes it clear that the technique is really good and proven. And the fact is also noticed that the smaller the barrel, the faster the drink matures. This effect is associated with the fact that a large barrel has a smaller surface of the inner side that comes into contact with alcohol.

For example, a barrel of 5 liters has a surface of up to 2 thousand square centimeters, and one liter accounts for 400 square centimeters of wood. In large barrels, the amount of wood per square centimeter is less. And the substances that are contained in the wall of the barrel contribute to the ripening of the drink.

What you need to know before using the container?

At home, you can store containers from 5 to 50 liters - this is a small volume that is practically not used in industry, with the exception of rare varieties of alcohol. metabolic processes in a small barrel it is faster and the “angel proportion” is high.

"Share of angels" is that part of the drink that is lost through the pores of the container during storage. It ranges from 1.5 to 7%. For a container with a volume of 5 to 50 liters, the "angels' share", or losses, are up to 500 milliliters per month. Therefore, drinks are not stored in such barrels for a long time. After aging the drink for two years or more, such a barrel has the opportunity to empty.

You can reduce the "share of angels" on your own or by buying a waxed barrel - this is also the stage of preparing the container for storing the drink. The main thing is that natural materials are selected for the process, which will not affect the taste of the drink. You can wax the container yourself or buy an already prepared product.

Natural oil can be used instead of wax. If you do waxing yourself, you will need building brushes and a hair dryer. This procedure will help reduce losses to 200 milliliters per month.

Even drinks in a small barrel quickly acquire a rich taste and aroma. The active natural substance is tannin, which is contained in oak. Strong drinks, in particular moonshine, are best stored for up to 6 months. And before you buy a barrel, you need to taste such moonshine, because not everyone likes the saturation of the drink with tannin.

A suitable barrel can be selected according to the following parameters:

• Container volume - from 5 to 50 liters.
• Use as a material split oak from Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine. Select the option depending on the pricing policy.
• Don't forget to wax the inside of the barrel.
• Wood burning should be strong or medium, it is suitable for moonshine.
• Hoops must be stainless steel or galvanized steel.
• If the barrel has a tap, then this is convenient, but the main thing is that the tap is wooden.

How to prepare an oak barrel and fill it?

As an initial stage of preparation, you need to make sure that the barrel is intact, well assembled and there are no through holes in it. The most common problem is the volume of the hoops, but you can put them on the barrel yourself. For this action, you need to use a chisel or hammer. The tool can be used to tap hoops in a circle - from central to extreme. If the barrel had to be waxed, then the deposition of the hoops is performed after this procedure.

And if there are no problems in the design of the barrel, then you can proceed to the first filling. To begin with, the barrel must be filled with water. At the same time, the rivets will pick up moisture and sit tighter, which will positively affect the strength of the container, the barrel will stop leaking. And then the barrel is refilled with water and left for 2 weeks.

Water should be changed every week. After the procedures, the water in the barrel is replaced with a drink with a strength of 18 degrees or more. The method is the easiest, but it looks unprofessional. There are more time-consuming and effective methods, for example:

• The container is filled with cold water by a third for three to four hours. After that, the liquid is drained.
• The barrel is filled with two-thirds of cold water for the same period, and the water is drained again after the time has elapsed.
• They collect a full barrel of water and wait up to five days. The barrel must be monitored: if water flows out, then its volume must be topped up.

If after this action the oak barrel is still leaking, then there is a malfunction in its design. You can try to fix them by waxing a container or pulling off the hoops. In the technique, the main thing is not to forget to change the water. Those who store drinks in barrels talk about the need for rinsing or soaking with soda. That is, you need to take 20 grams of soda per liter of water and add it to the liquid, getting a preparation solution.

Soaking with water occurs relatively quickly, it is accessible and within the power of everyone. There is no difference in the temperature of the soaking water. Sometimes, to prepare the barrel, it is steamed. But the technique is very time-consuming and, by and large, does not make sense. If, after the procedure, you immediately pour strong alcohol into an oak barrel, then after three months you get a drink called “plinth”. It will contain a lot of tannins and other substances that spoil the taste, for example, tannin.

To get rid of excessive tannin in the liquid, you can soak the barrel and prepare it for several more months. Raw alcohol or distillate should be poured into the container after the first distillation. Sometimes even the “heads” and “tails” of a grain or fruit product are poured. In this case, the strength of the liquid should be at a level of 18 to 55%. Sometimes wine or sherry is used for aging, which has a positive effect on the further storage of drinks in a barrel. The only thing that can upset you is that you will have to pour wine or sherry from the barrel, which were there for the first time.

And to control the ingress of tannin into the drink and its amount, you can check the alcohol in the barrel every three to four weeks. For convenience, some containers are equipped with a faucet, although a barrel with a faucet will last less than the same model with a cork.

If it is possible to choose a barrel for moonshine, then do it not on the Internet, but in real life: it will be possible to look at the degree of roasting and select the required one. And also pay attention to metal elements: it is better that they are made of stainless material.

After preparing and pouring alcohol, do not forget to take care of the storage environment. The easiest way to store a barrel is in the cellar. Maintain humidity at 80%, avoid drafts. The barrel should not be exposed to sunlight, and the temperature should be kept up to 16 degrees Celsius.

Storage of drinks in a barrel - difficult process, which requires control and takes a lot of time and effort at the preparation stage. But if someone who brews moonshine likes the taste and aroma of the product, then you can safely use the barrel.

The use of a barrel is a method that only seems difficult at first due to the preparation of the container. But then he will greatly facilitate life, bring something of his own to the moonshine to taste, and the drink will become individual. Good barrel will serve its owner for a long time.

A new oak barrel contains a large amount of tannins, and if you immediately put distillate or wine in it, the drink will acquire a very tart oak taste. Therefore, the barrel is prepared before aging - filled with cold water and soaked for up to 4 weeks. Water is recommended to be changed every 1-2 days. When changing water, it is allowed to fill the barrel warm water(not boiling water), which also speeds up the process of preparing the barrel.

At the beginning of soaking, it is possible to leak through the gaps between the rivets. This is not a marriage. It is only necessary to add water several times a day until the leak stops completely. When soaking, the riveting will swell and tightly close all the cracks.

After soaking, the barrel should be rinsed with a solution of baking soda. Fill 1/3 of the barrel with boiling water and add baking soda at the rate of 2 g per liter of water. Close the hole tightly and carefully roll the barrel so that hot water rinses the rivets. After that, it is necessary to drain the water and rinse thoroughly with clean drinking hot and then cold water. If possible, you can steam the barrel. To do this, you need to fill the barrel with water halfway, add soda, and bring the water to a boil, supplying steam into the barrel through a hose. Further, as in the treatment with hot water.

Your product is almost ready to use. You can pour a strong distillate into it for a short time, or you can continue preparing and soak the barrel with an alcohol-containing mixture (strength 15-25%) for up to 5-6 weeks. After that, a strong distillate can be poured into the barrel for a long time. This is due to the fact that in the “young” barrel the most intensive extraction of oak wood components occurs, and the maximum of them will get into the drink poured into the barrel for the first time, which will give it a rough, sometimes with tones of bitterness “green oak” flavor.

Aging and storage of alcoholic beverages in everyday life

The barrel with a drink must be stored away from heat sources, in a cool, damp room with easy air circulation. In such premises, the evaporation of the product (“angel's share”) will be minimal, 5-10% per year are considered normal. If a keg with a drink is placed in an apartment, then evaporation can reach up to 50-70%. It is important to know that the smaller the volume of the barrel, the greater the area of ​​contact of the liquid with the surface, which means that the aging process is faster, but the percentage of evaporation is also higher.

Recommended air humidity should be 80-85%, temperature 10 - 17°C. The ideal temperature for wine and other light spirits is 12°C, for cognac and other strong spirits 16°C. With an increase in temperature, losses due to evaporation increase, with a decrease, the process of maturation and aging of the drink is inhibited or stopped.
Humidity can be created artificially - put a basin of water next to the barrel. If you need to create humidity not in the whole room, but only near the barrel, then you can cover it with something and put a plate of water under it.

If you plan to carry out the aging of the drink in the apartment, it is recommended to wax the barrel. To do this, beeswax is taken, heated with a hairdryer and distributed over the entire surface of the barrel (which should already be soaked with water and wiped dry), including the chimes and the bottom of the barrel. It is recommended to leave 2-3 rivets at the bottom unwaxed, so that there is a small gas exchange with the external environment. Some home distillers recommend, in dry rooms, placing the cask in a box whitewashed on the inside with lime, and placing a bowl of water in the same place to keep the inside of the box moist.

Storage of an empty drum after use

Rinse the keg from the remnants of alcohol by pouring into it a quarter cold water by plugging the hole with a cork and rolling the barrel from side to side. Drain the water. Repeat several times until the water that comes out is clear. Then pour some hot water into it and sprinkle with baking soda. Ride well for a few minutes, drain, then rinse a couple of times with cold water. Dry your keg and wrap it in a cloth, now you can put it in a dark, cool place for storage.

Before long-term storage, it is recommended to fumigate the barrel with sulfur to prevent the development of microorganisms. Same after long-term storage, before use, it is also recommended to fumigate the barrel. If, over time, your barrel has dried out a little, fill it with water and it will regain its shape.

Oak barrel depletion

During the second, third and subsequent fillings (aging cycles) of young alcohol into barrels, the rate of return of wood components from oak to alcohol gradually slows down. This is due to a decrease in the content of these components in the barrel staves. This happens until the wood is depleted, after which the barrel continues to serve in the future, however, not as a source of oak components, but mainly as a vessel for storing wine materials and cognac spirits without a noticeable improvement in their quality.

Thus, after the third cycle of pouring cognac spirits, the barrel passes into the category of the old one, and on the sixth and seventh cycles, the inner surface of the barrel staves is already depleted up to 90%. In order to continue to receive high-quality alcoholic beverages, it is proposed to use oak chips. Usage oak chips when cognac spirits are aged in depleted barrels, it determines the accumulation of essential components of oak in alcohol.

The best results are obtained when using:

for processing white dining rooms (dose 0.3 - 1.0 g / dm3, exposure time - 6 - 12 days);
for red table fortified and dessert wines (dose up to 1 g / dm3 - aging time 6 - 30 days);
for cognac and calvados spirits (dose 5 - 30 g/dm3, - minimum exposure time - 3 - 6 months).

Preparation of moonshine and alcohol for personal use
absolutely legal!

After the demise of the USSR, the new government stopped the fight against moonshine. Criminal liability and fines were abolished, and the article on the prohibition of the production of alcohol-containing products at home was removed from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. To this day, there is not a single law that prohibits you and me from engaging in our favorite hobby - making alcohol at home. This is evidenced by the Federal Law of July 8, 1999 No. 143-FZ “On the Administrative Liability of Legal Entities (Organizations) and Individual Entrepreneurs for Offenses in the Field of Production and Turnover ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products” (Sobraniye zakonodatelstva Rossiyskoy Federatsii, 1999, N 28, item 3476).

Excerpt from the Federal Law of the Russian Federation:

"The effect of this Federal Law does not apply to the activities of citizens (individuals) who do not produce products containing ethyl alcohol for the purpose of marketing."

Moonshine in other countries:

In Kazakhstan in accordance with the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan On Administrative Offenses dated January 30, 2001 N 155, the following liability is provided. Thus, according to article 335 “Manufacture and sale of home-made alcoholic beverages”, illegal production for the purpose of selling moonshine, chacha, mulberry vodka, mash and other alcoholic beverages, as well as the sale of these alcoholic beverages, entails a fine in the amount of thirty monthly calculation indices with confiscation of alcoholic beverages , apparatus, raw materials and equipment for their manufacture, as well as money and other valuables received from their sale. However, the law does not prohibit the preparation of alcohol for personal purposes.

In Ukraine and Belarus things are different. Articles No. 176 and No. 177 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Ukraine provide for the imposition of fines in the amount of three to ten tax-free minimum wages for the manufacture and storage of moonshine without the purpose of sale, for the storage without the purpose of sale of apparatus * for its production.

Article 12.43 repeats this information practically word for word. “Production or purchase of strong alcoholic beverages (moonshine), semi-finished products for their production (mash), storage of devices for their production” in the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Administrative Offenses. Paragraph No. 1 states: “Manufacturing by individuals of strong alcoholic beverages (moonshine), semi-finished products for their manufacture (mash), as well as storage of devices * used for their manufacture - entails a warning or a fine of up to five basic units with confiscation of the indicated drinks, semi-finished products and devices.

*Purchase moonshine stills for home use it is still possible, since their second purpose is the distillation of water and the preparation of components for natural cosmetics and perfumery.