Barrel questions

I would _never_ store a barrel that way! Over the years I've had good luck with simply blasting as much sediment out of the barrel as possible with a hose nozzle, draining, gassing the still wet barrel with SO2 and bunging it tight.

Gassing with SO2 can be accomplished by burning a sulfur wick in the barrel, but be careful not to get any drips of molten sulfur in the barrel - especially if you intend to use it for a fermenter.

Over time, the barrel will dry out and loosen unless you rinse it every couple of months to keep the wood swollen. Then you have to repeat the gassing, of course.

You _could_ simply let the barrel dry out (after gassing and bunging tight) and not worry about it. I've done that and left barrels empty for _years_, but then you have to tighten the hoops and soak the barrel up to get it watertight again.

Nah, I wouldn't worry about that. Besides, that cheap wine will end up in your _good_ stuff too. Diffusion works in both directions.

Tom S

Follow Tom's advice... it worked great for me and my recently acquired barrels. I do wonder where the idea of filling barrels with SO2 solution came from anyway...

Charles H wrote "I do wonder where the idea of filling barrels with SO2 solution

Maybe from "From Vines to Wines" written by Jeff Cox. I have a 5 gallon barrel that I don't use all the time and I do keep sulfite solution in the barrel between wines. I would rather use sulfur strips but have no experience doing so. I bought an 8-inch strip from the homebrew/winemaking shop. How large a barrel would this strip treat? How do you prevent sulfur from dripping into the barrel? Thanks.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas

I turn the barrel so that the bunghole is facing down.... my large barrels are usually on pallets or some sort of rack type thing. I have this little note clip thing I use to hold the sulphur strip... that way, none of the sulfur drips in the barrel. When it's done burning, I bung it up tight and leave it be... I suppose for a smaller barrel you could burn part of the stick. I've never tried to extinguish one of them before though. It's probably a good idea to do the whole affair outside too. HTH

I have a 5 gal American Oak barrel that I treated with sulfur wicks over the summer. My practice was this: I washed out the barrel real good after the wine was out. Then I burned half a sulfur wick (about 4 " worth) hanging from a modified wire clothes hanger. I would bung it as tight as possible while the wick was burning. Pull out the hanger, making sure you do not drop the burned wick in there. Bung it and seal the bung/barrel interface with barrel wax. Put it in a glad bag and cinch it tight to keep as much remaining moisture in the wood. Repeat every 1.5 months or so. When you are ready for wine again, just follow the new barrel procedures with hot water, etc. Fill with wine!

BE CAREFUL WITH SO2 WICK FUMES! If inhaled they can combine with mucous to form sulfuric acid.

HTH, Joe

I expect I will stick with sulfur burning, instead of an SO2 solution.

What do you think of the idea of wrapping the barrel in plastic sheeting to maintain moisture?

Brian

I'd just like to append my other recommendation and say that a small amount of your wick should be burnt... I've read a few pages recently that say 1/2 or 1/3 of a stick for a 60 gallon barrel... so for your little one I don't think too much would be needed at all.

I think it's a good idea, and it should be noted that new barrels usually come wrapped in plastic.

Storing barrels filled with SO2/water is quite common in wineries.

In reality there is no truly correct way to store used empty barrels, the best solution is to always have something ready to go back in them, which of course isn't always possible.

Make sure your barrel is really well cleaned before you SO2 it up otherwise the SO2 will do very little

Rob L

Good idea. New barrels come wrapped in plastic to keep them tight while in transit. Be sure that the outside is dry though before wrapping or you may get mold or mildew growing on it.

Tom S

I've seen this, too. Is it that you can have too high a sulfur concentration in there that could be detrimental to the barrel or future contents, or is it just that it is a waste because ti is overkill? Personally, given the cost of sulfur wicks or disks, I can't say I'd be worried about waste, but I don't want to harm the barrel.

Brian

I'd wager it would just be overkill... but I'm not an expert by any means :^)

concentration

An excess of SO2 won't hurt the barrel, and you couldn't get that from burning a disk in it anyway. Once the oxygen is gone, it would stop burning.

BTW, if you're using a silicone bung in the barrel (which you should), wrap it with Saran Wrap before jamming it into a sulfited barrel. That helps protect the bung from damage by the SO2.

Silicone _hates_ SO2 gas.

Tom S