My 8 gallon Portuguese oak barrel is leaking out the end (I think). It feels the wettest on the stave ends that extend past the head at about the 9:00 position. The stain has spread basically around a quarter barrel both onto the head and back along the staves to the inner hoop. Hard to tell exactly though if this is the source.
Anyway, Presque Isle sells a food grade epoxy designed to be applied to barrels to seal up leaks.
formatting link
Has anyone tried this? How much area do I need to apply to, just right where the leak is (if I can find it) or cover a wider swath around it?
I've never had to resort to epoxy to seal a leaky barrel, but I came close last year. The troubles with using epoxy for this application are: (1) It's almost impossible to seal leaks with bonding materials from the low pressure side. IOW, you'd need to get the material to the source side of the leak where the pressure tends to work in your favor to plug the hole. Unfortunately, that's _inside_ the barrel. (2) Epoxies don't bond well - if at all - to wet surfaces. You need to get the leaky spot dry first - and that means first emptying the barrel.
The likelihood is that one or more of the sieve tubes in the wood is where the leak is coming from. It probably isn't a leak at a seam unless it's a borer (earwig) hole.
Sieve tubes are structures in the wood that run nominally lengthwise along the stave. Think of wood as a collection of tiny straws bundled together by glue. One or more of those straws has a breach in it that's allowing wine to enter, run down the length of it and onto the outside of the barrel.
The way to stop it is to first isolate *exactly* where the leak is. You'll need to wash off and wipe the area dry with paper towels and look _very_ closely to find the spot. Then, using a sharp awl or icepick, jab right into the leak to create a tapered hole. Make a small, tapered piece of wood (in the trade this is called a tank spile) and tap it into the hole with a hammer, pointy end first. Putting some carpenter's glue on the spile isn't a bad idea, as that will help lubricate the spile so that it drives in easily and when it dries it will help seal and hold it in place. You'll soon know if that fixed the leak. If it doesn't, repeat the process until it does. Smearing some carpenter's glue on the end of the stave after you stop the main leak(s) isn't a bad idea either.
I had a stubborn French barrel last year that required several "treatments" to work.
Yes I saw this technique on a web site. I just thought it might be easier to take a "kill a mosquito with a bazooka" approach and just slather epoxy over the whole area. ;-)
What's the best way to clean off the stained area of the barrel so I can see where the leak emerges?
Swab it thoroughly with strong sulfite solution (to bleach the color of the wine from the wood) and blot dry with paper towels. You might even consider using peroxide instead of sulfite. The idea is to get the area contrasty enough so that you can see the leak easily. This is red wine, right?
Since this is a small barrel, you might consider wrapping the barrel with duct tape to keep the bung from popping out and standing the barrel up on end while you're working on it. That'll make the area easier to get at, and more importantly allow you to get the wood dry (using a hair dryer?) for long enough that you should be able to seal it with waterproof carpenter's glue after driving a tank spile into the pore. Epoxy is really overkill in this application.
That's what it turned out to be. Once it was wiped off, the leakage point was easily identified and bunged up with the spile. Hopefully won't have any more issues with the barrel.
DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.