Oak Barrel - Is it Wet?

[Rosie]

Hey guys,

I just received a handful of oak scotch whiskey barrels that I plan to put an Imperial Porter in...

After reading some of the posts here, I was just going to go for it and drop the beer into them, but after looking at the barrels I'm a bit concerned.

The seller said they were 'wet', recently (within weeks) taken out of service. If a barrel is recently taken out of service should there actually be some whiskey left in them? When I pop the bung and have a look with a flashlight, there is no visible liquid in the barrels and they just look like dry charred wood...

Thus I'm paranoid of putting hard earned beer in them for it to just leak out in the cellar.

Any thoughts on how wet is wet are appreciated.

Cheers,

Jeff

[Greenbrewmonkey]

Hello Jeff,

We bring in a lot of used barrels here, and if they have dried out they certainly can leak a bit.

We often clean then fill our "new" barrels with water. This will show us any leaks and often swell the wood to a point where the barrels no longer leak within a few days. Of course you will loose a little of the whiskey flavor, but not too much. If you are very concerned by this you can refresh your barrel by pouring a liter or two of your favorite back in the barrel, rolling the barrel a bit, then dumping.

Many of our barrels will seep a bit now and again throughout their life, it seems we are constantly moving little buckets from under one rack to another. A little loss, but not too much. Just part of the fun of barrel aging!

Cheers,
Ron
Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales

[Michael Murphy]

I just did a wet barrel today still I hit it hard with very hot water with a small spray ball, I have put some 16 barrels together in january with an impy stout in it, its still there and no sign of laco B, I just heat the thing up with very hot water, drain and fill....

Good luck

[BrewinLou]

Wet within weeks is all relative to the temp and humidity they were stored at. The real tell is check how tight the staves and rings are. if they are all tight with no movement then I would fill. If you get loose staves then you would want to hammer the rings down and add some water first.