Spigot & curing

[Ryan Hubble]

The spigot makes me nervous. No threads just crammed in there by hand. That's gonna hold back 100L? Seems to me it's gonna get pushed out.

Also, to avoid chlorine I'm running water thru two brita filters but at this pace it will take me days or all week to fill the thing up. Is it a problem if it doesn't all swell at the same time?

It's on a wooden stand and dripping on to said stand. Will the stand not mold?
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[Rocky]

Bryan, I would not be concerned about the spigot. We used to have 53 gallon barrels with a spigot that was just tapped in with a mallet. The wood swells with the wine and makes a tight fit.

Do you have a lot of chlorine in your water? Hot tap water is usually fine but I do not know about your specific situation.

As far as mold is concerned, it needs moisture and something organic to eat. I would just spritz it with Potassium Metabisulfite solution (3 T of K-meta to one gallon of water) and dry it with a paper towel.

 

[Ryan Hubble]

I couldn't find my mallot so I used a really small hammer and a hockey puck. I only have it a few light taps. It didn't seem to be moving at all so I stopped.

This time of year I can barely smell the chlorine from the tap and can't detect it at all after a couple hours.

 

[Ryan Hubble]

It had maybe 10-15 litres in it last night and this morning I put another 20L in it. There's a steady stream pissing out at one spot. This is my first barrel but I can't imagine it sealing up. Is this normal?

 

[Rocky]

I have some tools for working on barrels and one is to tighten the hoops. It is like a flat nosed chisel with a lateral grove in it. When we had a "leaker" we would stand the barrel on its head and tap the hoops toward the center of the barrel, then invert the barrel and repeat on the other hoops. This would always stop a leaker. If you don't have such a tool, get the largest slotted screw driver you have and carefully tap the rings down on the top half of the barrel and then on the bottom half. You can do this with water in the barrel. You will have to remove the spigot and replace it temporarily with a cork when you are working on the opposite end or position the barrel over the edge of a bench if you don't remove it.

If this seems like too much to do, just give it some time and the water will swell the woods enough to stop the leak. If you see anything where the leak is that looks like a hole in the barrel, get some round wooden toothpicks, force them into the opening and break them off and trim them flush with the barrel.

Good luck and post some pictures if you can.

 

[Ryan Hubble]

If the binding from swelling holds the spigot in place can it be removed and replaced after the wood has swollen or should the barrel be dried out to install the spigot?

 

[Rocky]

Not sure what type of spigot you have but if it is wooden, it is tapered and would go back in without a problem. To get the spigot out, tap it gently side ways, i.e. on the "meaty" front part, to loosen it. It should come out easily. If this becomes a problem getting back in because it is too tight, you could always ream out the hole diameter a few millimeters.