SC - kegs and barrels

[Mark Harris]

Greetings,

I said:
<< Good luck in finding a useable barrel. I believe the Townsend catalog that
others have mentioned here may have some. >>

To which Noemi replied:
Yes Jas. Townsend does carry oak kegs, the prices are as follows:
<snip>

They also carry brewer's pitch (which is the whole reason I got the catalog)
which may solve the flavor transfer from the wood.

>>>>>>
Thank you for posting the prices. I guess they are not as bad as I had remembered.
However, my concern was not the wood flavoring the beverage, for you may well
want that. My concern was that it works both ways. The beverage will also soak
into the wood and then back out into the next beverage you put in the barrel.
If you always put the same beverage in the barrel then you may be fine, unless
one of those batches goes bad for some reason. But I can imagine some really
horridenous transfers. Like kumiss into ale. Or ale into a white wine.

Coating the inside of the barrel with brewer's pitch may be the solution since
it would not only keep the beverage from soaking into the barrel, but would
also help keep the barrel from leaking beverage out or air in. But since the
original message was about whether the fizz would be retained in beverages
stored in a barrel, I would want to verify that brewer's pitch was indeed used
for this use in period. Then there is the question of whether the modern barrels
even if they look like period barrels are as tightly sealed or more so than
period ones.

Remember also, if you are looking at barrels and kegs that not all barrels
and kegs are meant to store liquid items. Some are made, then and now, to
hold dry items only.

Stefan li Rous
mark_harris at email.sps.mot.com

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