I just bought a reconditioned 30 gallon barrel today.
I looks and smells great. It smells like french oak.

I seem to be having some problems with reductive ferments this year. So far,
I have been able to control by racking off gross lees a day or two after
pressing and using a lot of areation on racking. I would like to wait
several months before transferring wine from glass carboys to barrel so
hopefully I can rack the carboys as necessary and put relatively clean wine
in the new barrel.

I would appreciate suggestions on what to do with the barrel until I fill
it. I was thinking of filling with water to expand and then draining and
storing dry and burn a sulphur disk each month until I am ready to fill it
with wine at which time I would again fill with water to expand and drain
the water and then fill it with wine. Anyone else have any other
recommendations?

"Paul E. Lehmann" > wrote in message
...
> I just bought a reconditioned 30 gallon barrel today.
> I looks and smells great. It smells like french oak.
>
> I seem to be having some problems with reductive ferments this year. So
far,
> I have been able to control by racking off gross lees a day or two after
> pressing and using a lot of areation on racking. I would like to wait
> several months before transferring wine from glass carboys to barrel so
> hopefully I can rack the carboys as necessary and put relatively clean
wine
> in the new barrel.
>
> I would appreciate suggestions on what to do with the barrel until I fill
> it. I was thinking of filling with water to expand and then draining and
> storing dry and burn a sulphur disk each month until I am ready to fill it
> with wine at which time I would again fill with water to expand and drain
> the water and then fill it with wine. Anyone else have any other
> recommendations?

Fill it with cold water to make sure it's tight. Then empty and gas it
until you are ready to put wine into it. Just before filling it with wine,
rinse it with cold water to eliminate most of the SO2.

Once a barrel is tight, it'll remain so for quite awhile (months, at least)
unless the weather is hot for a long time. Don't bother with monthly sulfur
candling. That's not necessary.

Tom S

When I bought my barrels brand new several years back 2 X 5 gal and 1
X 10 gal... The shop recommended loading them with water and a lite
sulfite mix for several weeks to seal them. I actually set them out
in the back yard in the sun.. they weathered really well and now look
like they been in the celler for a century.

I recently had a batch of vinigar tale off in one of my oak barels. I
loaded it with a meta bisulfite mix and let it sit for a
week....rinced it out thoughly then tried a cheep winekit through
it... it worked fine.

cheers
Marv



On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 23:40:47 -0400, "Paul E. Lehmann"
> wrote:

>I just bought a reconditioned 30 gallon barrel today.
>I looks and smells great. It smells like french oak.
>
>I seem to be having some problems with reductive ferments this year. So far,
>I have been able to control by racking off gross lees a day or two after
>pressing and using a lot of areation on racking. I would like to wait
>several months before transferring wine from glass carboys to barrel so
>hopefully I can rack the carboys as necessary and put relatively clean wine
>in the new barrel.
>
>I would appreciate suggestions on what to do with the barrel until I fill
>it. I was thinking of filling with water to expand and then draining and
>storing dry and burn a sulphur disk each month until I am ready to fill it
>with wine at which time I would again fill with water to expand and drain
>the water and then fill it with wine. Anyone else have any other
>recommendations?

When I bought my barrels brand new several years back 2 X 5 gal and 1
X 10 gal... The shop recommended loading them with water and a lite
sulfite mix for several weeks to seal them. I actually set them out
in the back yard in the sun.. they weathered really well and now look
like they been in the celler for a century.

I recently had a batch of vinigar tale off in one of my oak barels. I
loaded it with a meta bisulfite mix and let it sit for a
week....rinced it out thoughly then tried a cheep winekit through
it... it worked fine.

cheers
Marv



On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 23:40:47 -0400, "Paul E. Lehmann"
> wrote:

>I just bought a reconditioned 30 gallon barrel today.
>I looks and smells great. It smells like french oak.
>
>I seem to be having some problems with reductive ferments this year. So far,
>I have been able to control by racking off gross lees a day or two after
>pressing and using a lot of areation on racking. I would like to wait
>several months before transferring wine from glass carboys to barrel so
>hopefully I can rack the carboys as necessary and put relatively clean wine
>in the new barrel.
>
>I would appreciate suggestions on what to do with the barrel until I fill
>it. I was thinking of filling with water to expand and then draining and
>storing dry and burn a sulphur disk each month until I am ready to fill it
>with wine at which time I would again fill with water to expand and drain
>the water and then fill it with wine. Anyone else have any other
>recommendations?