Wine barrel

[AlFulchino]

12 batches...thank you Mike...so that of course gets my thoughts centered around cost...if you ran 12 batches thru it and i believe you said the cost was around 140 plus shipping if i may add that in there ( correct me if i am wrong about any of the pricing as i am doing this from memory) let us say the ship charge was 30 dollars...so you would be into this for 170....after the 12 batches you into it for 14 dollars and change per batch...if you factor in a carboy purchased at a reasonable price of 25 dollars, the carboy would rate at 2 dollars plus per same batch...in the end by batch 13 you have two neutral vessels, w one requiring a bit more maintenance than the other...fair enough so far

getting back to the original 12 batches we have to add in the cost oak adjuncts to the wine made in carboys...so the 12 dollar difference in each batch is further reduced to under ten dollars difference per batch.....that's not bad in terms of numbers when you think about it!

add of course the beauty of the oak barrels and that has to be worth something in terms of dollar value to the wine maker because afterall while it is about the deliciousness of wine it is also about the craft

long story short...the economics are there to justify the original purchase price

did i miss anything?

 

[ibglowin]

Remember that you are making bigger batches than most of us. For only $20 more you can get a barrel that is almost double in size! So you would want to purchase the biggest you could handle as the cost is not all that much more as you go up in size. Plus they leak less. These small barrels seem to leak just a bit more than the larger ones.

 

[AlFulchino]

agreed...i was making the case as best i could that you had a good deal and anyone considering a 23 liter batch on a reg basis could reasonably justify a barrel such as yours over purchase of a carboy

 

[John Prince]

When I make a batch of wine, I try to make two at the same time. So far, different types. If I drag all the equipment out I might as make it worth it.

 

[LtCellars]

Check out The Barrel Mill. I have been using them for years. They make a beautiful barrel, French and American.
www.thebarrelmill.com

 

[John Prince]

I'll start out with one 23L barrel. It will take a while for me to get the hang of it. There is a company in Hot Springs, Arkansas that makes barrels for over 100 years but they don't make 23L barrels so I'll order online. The company in Hot Springs is Gibbs Brothers Cooperage and seem to be very nice. If I start making wine without kits I might buy a barrel. I doubt I do. I have enjoy making kit wines.<div id="myWatcherDiv" style="displayone;">

 

[Wade E]

If you are making kits you may want to go with the 5 gallon or what ever it is because you are going to need a lot of wine to keep this topped off and you might even start off short depending on if the 6 gallon barrel is a little bigger then stated.

 

[ibglowin]

I would not recommend the 5G. The smaller the barrel, the harder it is to get it to seal properly. I have 2 of the 23L and had a slight leak problem with one and a big problem with the other that took 5 days to seal but it finally did. If your using the 6 gallon "Italian" carboys your already used to having to top off more than normal. The 23L barrel will be slightly smaller than a full Italian carboy so you can fill it and then have about a full bottle to use to top off once a week. You will need to get some Private Reserve" inert gas to back fill the "top off bottle" every week so it won't go bad.

 

[John Prince]

Why would I have to keeping topping off every week?<div id="myWatcherDiv" style="displayone;">

 

[ibglowin]

Because you must replace the "angels share" each week that evaporates through the wood. A small 23L barrel will lose 2-3oz a week. This "concentration through evaporation" is (one of the reasons) what makes wine aged in a barrel so much better than wine aged in a sealed glass carboy.

 

[Wade E]

Yep, that concentration and the micro-oxygenation makes a big difference over glass aging.

 

[John Prince]

I would have to top off with 3 oz of wine every week? I guess I could drink the rest of the bottle but it seems like work.<div id="myWatcherDiv" style="displayone;">

 

[ibglowin]

Thats where the Private Reserve comes in. It will allow you to buy a single bottle and use it just for topping off until its empty without it going bad.

 

[John Prince]

Okay, cool.