1 Gal. Oak Barrel ?'s

[wineforfun]

Going to move this thread over here and see if I get any responses.

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My son got me a 1 gal. oak barrel for Christmas a couple of years ago. Decided I may try to put something in it finally. I have done some reading on WMT about barrels, etc. but still have a couple/few questions.
I know I have to fill it with water, let it seal/expand, etc. and then use wax to seal up any leaks. Beyond that I am not sure how to move forward.
Once sealed, I gather I can put wine it in.
1. How often should I be checking to make sure it is topped up?
2. How long do you typically leave the wine in the barrel? and will a 1 gal. barrel oak the wine quicker than a 6 gal. barrel?
3. After you empty the barrel, what do you clean the inside with, ie: just water, k-meta solution, one step, etc.?
4. My instructions say to store it 1/4 full of water when not using it with wine in it, sound correct?
5. What type of wine would you start with in this new barrel?

I do realize a lot of the above questions are subjective and up to personal preference, just looking for experienced answers and guidelines.

Thanks for any help or any additional tips/tricks.

 

[JohnT]

IMHO...

1) I would check it every couple of days because...

2) A rule of thumb is to barrel wine 1 week per gallon. A 50 gallon barrel, for example, should be aged 50 weeks. Of course this is just a rule of thumb and your personal preference will either lengthen or shorten the amount of time.

It all really comes down to ratios. The smaller the keg, the more surface area is exposed to the volume of wine. So, the smaller the barrel, the shorter the time you need.

You will find that as you use your barrel over and over, that it will take longer and longer to get the results you need. I would plan on doubling the amount of time for each use (1 week for the 1st batch, 2 weeks for the second, and so forth.

3) Personally, I just rinse the barrel with strong k-meta solution and immediately fill the barrel with the next vintage. My barrels sit open for only a matter of minutes over the course of a year.

4) I guess that sounds ok, but will defer to what others say about it. Again, I work it so that I am never not using a barrel.

5) I would go with either a cab or a nice merlot. A nice zinfandel is also nice. The only real suggestion I would make is to go with dryer wines first. This way your do not need to worry about any sugar trapped in the wood bleeding into your dry wine. Of course, I also suggest to go with your white wines first then your reds. Never put white wine into a barrel that has already been used for red wine (you will end up with a rose!).

 

[wineforfun]

Thanks John, that sheds some needed light on things. I am curious to hear other responses concerning #4, as I will probably have plenty of "down time" with it.

 

[Boatboy24]

I don't have anything to add that John didn't already say. The trick with a barrel is keeping it full. If I found myself unable to do that, I'd probably fill it with a Kmeta solution. But then you're leeching all that oaky goodness into water that goes down the drain.