Hey there,
Just getting into using oak barrels and trying to learn how to deal with sulfuring/sulfating for storage. My first barrel was stored with Potassium metabisulfate and citric solution, which of course is expensive & time consuming, etc.
Recently I recieved another barrel (used, 52gal. Am.Oak, 3-4 years old).
that had already been filled with S02 gas from a compressed gas system at the winery. That was at least a month ago, and since I won't fill it for another month, I decided to try burning a sulfur pastille (sized to create enough So2 for a 60gal barrel) suspended inside the barrel on a homemade disc holder.
The problem is that the discs aren't burning completely. I think in the beginning there was still alot of inert gas in the barrel, which extinguishd combustion. So I left the barrel open overnight, which lead to better burning of the disc, but it still only burns ~ 1/4 of the way through or less.
Any ideas? I'm lighting these things with a regular butane grill lighter - should I be using a torch or something? I read somewhere that mold in a barrel can cause sulfur sticks/discs to go out due to lack of oxygen in the barrel - but I've looked inside and I couldn't find any mold...
Any thoughts/info would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Andy
Just getting into using oak barrels and trying to learn how to deal with sulfuring/sulfating for storage. My first barrel was stored with Potassium metabisulfate and citric solution, which of course is expensive & time consuming, etc.
Recently I recieved another barrel (used, 52gal. Am.Oak, 3-4 years old).
that had already been filled with S02 gas from a compressed gas system at the winery. That was at least a month ago, and since I won't fill it for another month, I decided to try burning a sulfur pastille (sized to create enough So2 for a 60gal barrel) suspended inside the barrel on a homemade disc holder.
The problem is that the discs aren't burning completely. I think in the beginning there was still alot of inert gas in the barrel, which extinguishd combustion. So I left the barrel open overnight, which lead to better burning of the disc, but it still only burns ~ 1/4 of the way through or less.
Any ideas? I'm lighting these things with a regular butane grill lighter - should I be using a torch or something? I read somewhere that mold in a barrel can cause sulfur sticks/discs to go out due to lack of oxygen in the barrel - but I've looked inside and I couldn't find any mold...
Any thoughts/info would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Andy