I purchased a used bourbon barrel from Olde Hickory Brewery at their recent bottle release. The barrel was used for making their Lindley Park. I've got it in my breakfast area now - makes a nice little table. Curious what I should do to keep in in good shape? I hate to cover the whole thing in screws... but... The barrel will only be used as furniture at this point. Please LMK if you've got any ideas, thanks.
I don't know what you mean to keep it "in good shape." Do you think eventually it will be used to hold liquid again? If not, presuming it has no residual liquid now, I don't think you need to do anything to it to use it as furniture.
Is it falling apart or something? I'm curious because you mentioned screws... I'm guessing because you are using this as furniture that you are not planning on filling this with beer in the future...?
@Mothergoose03 @paulys55 Yes. I'm using it for furniture. I just tagged you both in a post with photos of the barrel. The barrel will never be filled. Because of that, it will eventually fall apart. I'm a brewer - had a five gallon barrel that went unused. Eventually the bands fell off - because the swelling of the barrel went down - and the wood is starting to pull apart. I'd like to avoid that, it would be cool to keep this baby intact. I looked around briefly on youtube - didn't see anything. Cheers!
I believe just keeping a bit of water in it (guessing a gallon or so, and likely need to top it off once in a while as well) and sealing off the bung hole is sufficient to keep the internal seal of the barrel. Otherwise it dried out and shrinks, loses seal, and the bands fall off. I had this happen with a few barrels from 50/50 brewing that were later used as wood in my smoker... also worth noting, if you're buying previously used barrels from a brewery or distillery, bring something to cover the bung hole when you pick it up - generally there's still viable 'product' inside. I got about a gallon of Eclipse out of one barrel, and after removing the charcoal dust in it with a coffee filter was very drinkable... unfortunately we drained the other 3 when I picked them up to avoid more mess in the truck as I didn't expect it was drinkable. Cheers, David
I hate to say this but maybe coat it with spar or marine varnish or polyurethane...I would only be hesitant about doing this because it will change the look of the barrel but that may be the trade off for longevity. Good luck, keep us updated.
I have a Jack Daniels barrel that has a coat of stain on it and its held up awesome. It looks beautiful, no cracking or shrinking and the bands are still tight on it.
If shrinkage is your main concern, maybe you could try filling it with the type of expanding foam insulation that hardens after spraying between studs. Not sure how many cans of that stuff it would take to fill a barrel though.
It's sealed up tight - came that way from Olde Hickory. I tried to pull it out - no dice. I'd have to get after it with some tools. As much as I'd enjoy giving it a good sniff - I'm leaving it sealed tight. Cheers!
Curious about this too. I picked up a barrel from Victory that they made their Java Cask in. It's in our basement bar and came without a plug. I want to get a plug just to prevent mold/bacteria that might grow inside from getting out and going airborne. Would throwing a few gallons of water in there and plugging it up really keep the humidity level up enough to prevent it from falling apart at some point? How long before this thing apparently collapses?
