Frustration

[ehammonds]

Day 3 of soaking new vadai 23 liter barrel per instructions. Still large wet spot on outside between two hoops. Vadai says a hole may be under one of the hoops, which I'll need to remove. If the hole is found, I'll apply bees wax they're sending, which will take a few days to arrive. So, I'll add sulfited water to barrel to keep it from spoiling until wax arrives, then I'll figure out how to take the hoops off. Meanwhile, I'm losing most of the beneficial oak flavors of the wine while sitting. Guess I'll be starting with a neutral barrel? Not happy

 

[Boatboy24]

Your barrel won't be neutral for about two years, so all is not lost. With my two barrels, I soaked for 3-5 days (the second may have actually gone 6 or 7) before putting wine in. In both cases, the first wine had plenty of oak in about 5 weeks.

 

[ehammonds]

Good to hear. Just hate seeing that oaky water pouring down the drain.

 

[ColemanM]

I hear you about pouring the oak down the drain! Every time I poured out the fill water, it looked like coffee. I am coming up on 48 hours. Hey boatboy, did you sulfite the water during your extended soak?

Good to hear they are sending you out some wax though

 

[Enologo]

Have you tried tightening the hoops? Might have to tap them down to snug up the staves. Worth a shot while your waiting for your wax to arrive.

 

[Boatboy24]

am coming up on 48 hours. Hey boatboy, did you sulfite the water during your extended soak?

For the first barrel, no. But on the 2nd one, I knew it would be a little longer before I got to fill it, so I did. IIRC, the instructions say that if you're going to have it holding water for more than 2 or 3 days to add sulfite.

 

[sdelli]

Day 3 of soaking new vadai 23 liter barrel per instructions. Still large wet spot on outside between two hoops. Vadai says a hole may be under one of the hoops, which I'll need to remove. If the hole is found, I'll apply bees wax they're sending, which will take a few days to arrive. So, I'll add sulfited water to barrel to keep it from spoiling until wax arrives, then I'll figure out how to take the hoops off. Meanwhile, I'm losing most of the beneficial oak flavors of the wine while sitting. Guess I'll be starting with a neutral barrel? Not happy

Did you do a cold soak or a hot soak?

 

[ehammonds]

Hot boiling water

 

[rayaws1]

Boiling may be too much good hot faucet water