Those who like to cook homemade wines and pickles know how important it is to choose the right container for storing these products. Judging by the numerous reviews, it is best to use a wooden barrel for this purpose. Plastic and nylon products are undesirable, since the alcohol contained in moonshine or wine will react with synthetic materials, which will adversely affect the taste of the product. A wooden container for storing wines and pickles can be purchased from a specialized store. You can also make an oak barrel with your own hands. In this case, the home craftsman has the opportunity to save. It will only be enough to purchase consumables. Of course, the process of making an oak barrel with your own hands is considered quite laborious, because cooperage is a real art. A decent professional level is required from the master. About how to dodo-it-yourself oak barrel, you will learn from this article.
What is the keg for?
Before you make an oak barrel with your own hands, you need to determine for what purposes it will be needed. Pickles, dry foods, honey, etc. are prepared and stored in wooden barrels. In addition, strong spirits, wines and beer are well fermented, aged and stored in such containers. Read more about making your own oak barrel below.
Wood selection
For those who are interested in how to make an oak barrel with their own hands, experienced craftsmen advise you to choose the right wood. Of course, the product can be made from spruce, pine, cedar, linden and aspen. These varieties are considered the main ones. They have both advantages and disadvantages. For example, pine and spruce are easy to handle due to their softness. At the same time, they smell like wood resin. Aspen is considered a strong and cheap material with antiseptic properties. The downside is that it swells with moisture. In terms of strength, cedar practically does not differ from pine and spruce. In addition, it does not smell of resin. Oak is considered a classic material, according to coopers. This material is antiseptic, has high strength and flexibility. From moisture, the walls of the barrel become even stronger. For this reason, the operational resource of oak barrels is not tens, but hundreds of years. According to the reviews of the owners, drinks stored in such a container have a pleasant aroma with a touch of vanilla.
Where to start?
We make an oak barrel with our own hands as follows. You need to start with the preparation of the details, namely the boardsriveting. They are represented by rectangular or sawn or chipped boards tapering at the edges. They are grouped into three groups. Walls are made from the main group. The other two are considered bottom. Then you need to decide on the parameters of the product: recreate a sketch of the stave and the bottom, draw up drawings of an oak barrel. It will be much easier to make a barrel according to the scheme with your own hands.
In order not to make a mistake with the exact number of rivets, you should do the following: multiply the bottom radius by 2 and the constant Pi (3, 14) and divide by the width of the rivet. It is better if the blanks are from the bottom of the trunk. Next, the trunk is sawn or split to make chocks. They should be 7 mm longer than the desired length of the boards. Judging by the reviews, chopped chocks are stronger, since during the splitting the structure of the wood fibers is not destroyed. In addition, a handmade oak barrel will have greater impermeability.
How to split a deck?
There are two ways to split the workpiece:
- Radial. The split will go through the core of the trunk. The process is considered less labor intensive.
- Tangential way. The split will not touch the core. Hardwoods are not recommended for pricking in this way.
Work will be much easier and faster with raw, freshly cut material. For those who happened to use ready-made boards, the craftsmen are advised to inspect the annual rings: they should be located on the same plane without cuts.
Preparing chocks
Before making rivets, the chocks should be dried. This process will take up to two months. Home craftsmen stack chocks in a well-ventilated room with a moderate temperature. It is important that the design follows a checkerboard pattern.
In this case, the workpiece will dry on each side. If this procedure is neglected, then cracks will soon form in an oak barrel made by oneself. For those who do not have time to wait two months, we can recommend using already dried blanks. Artificial drying is as follows. Paper is glued to the end parts of the workpiece. Next, the product is placed in the oven. The process will take no more than a day.
How to pull off the rivets?
In order for an oak barrel made by hand at home not to crumble, it should be equipped with several hoops. This design detail is very important, because it helps to connect all the rivets into a single whole. Hoops are made from stainless steel. They are fart (located near the center), morning (placed at the edges) and cervical. The latter are optional, since they are equipped with barrels with a large volume. What size the hoop will have, the master determines by the thickness of the product. Making hoops is easy. It is necessary to cut several strips of sheet steel up to 2 cm thick. Then twoholes. Rivets will be inserted into them.
Begin assembly
At this stage, the home craftsman will need to pull off the rivets with the help of hoops. Assembly is carried out on a flat surface. First, three pieces of wood must be attached to the extreme hoop with a clamp. The distance between them must be the same. After that, the remaining free space between them is filled with the rest of the blanks. Judging by the reviews, during the insertion of the last riveting, the master may have a problem - the space turned out to be too small and the workpiece simply does not fit. This riveting, in order to attach it to others, will have to be cut a little. For the bottom you need a solid piece of wood. To insert it, you need to slightly loosen the tightening hoop. Having equipped the barrel with a bottom, the hoop is pulled together and with the help of a hammer and a small cone-shaped blank with a flat end part, it settles as much as possible. It should sit as tightly as possible on the skeleton. Then a second hoop with a large diameter is attached to the barrel. This structural element is upset, like the first one.
Progress of work
Now the master needs to connect the bottom of the product with a hoop. This will only be possible with steamed wood. To do this, the barrel must be placed for half an hour in hot water. According to experts, it is possible that the blanks will have to be held longer. Everything will depend on such parameters as the thickness and density of the rivets.
When the barrel is sufficiently steamed, it must be turned over with the side already fastened with a hoop down. Thus,loose rivets will be at the top. They are fastened with a strong thick rope, both ends of which are pre-hooked on a hook driven into the wall. You will have to tighten the rivets with a piece of iron pipe, a crowbar or a wooden stick. To do this, the crowbar should be passed between the stretched and twisted ropes and twisted towards you. As a result, the rope will intertwine even more, pulling together the rivets. At this stage, it is better for the master to work with assistants. At the end, the rest of the hoops are put on the curved rivets and securely fastened. After completing these steps, the barrel is considered ready. However, it is too early to use it for its intended purpose. The fact is that drinks contained in unprepared containers acquire an unpleasant tart aftertaste over time. Moonshine and wine can only be filled with a thoroughly washed and waxed barrel.
About flushing
The barrel should be washed with clean water without special products. The purpose of this procedure is to rid the wood of tannins. According to experts, it is from them that the drink begins to taste bitter and has a tart taste. After thorough washing proceed to steaming. The barrel is filled one quarter with boiling water, tightly closed with a lid and turned. As a result, the tree will swell, and all the cracks will be tightened in the container. Experienced craftsmen recommend steaming at least 4 times.
About soaking
This procedure is the longest. The home craftsman will have to be patient, since this work will take at least a month. Soaking the barrel is easy: just fill it with water, which needs to be changed periodically. For example, in the early daysevery 10 hours. Then the water is changed every two days. At the end of the period, the water is drained, the barrel is rinsed with an alcohol 30% solution. At the end, many masters douse it with boiling water and clean it with soda. To do this, bring a liter of water to a boil, dilute soda (2 g is enough) and pour it into a barrel. Next, the product is again washed first with boiling water, and then with running water. Now the container can be put to dry. When the barrel is dry, it will be ready for use.
About waxing
If the product with moonshine is left in a warm place, then intensive evaporation of the distillate through the walls will occur. To prevent this, you need to wax your hand-made oak barrel. To do this, put beeswax in a water bath and gradually melt it, while filling it with linseed oil and mixing thoroughly. Next, using a soft and wide brush, the composition is applied to the surface of the barrel. In order for the wax to lay down evenly and better saturate the wood, it needs to be slightly warmed up with a building hair dryer. If this tool is not available, then you can limit yourself to a regular hair dryer.
Firing
Judging by the reviews, some coopers burn their products. Do it in the following way. Turn the barrel on its side. Then sawdust or shavings are placed inside and set on fire. In the course of burning, the barrel is slightly rolled over so that all the walls are covered with fire. If there are no sawdust on hand, a burner or blowtorch will be an alternative.
Repair
Based on the reviews of the owners, ifdo not use a wooden vessel for a long time, it will dry out. The reason for this is the ability of wood to absorb moisture and expand. As a result, the liquid from such a container will begin to flow out and you will have to repair the oak barrel with your own hands. Masters first tighten the hoops and fill the container with hot water. When it cools down, it is drained. Then the procedure is repeated again. According to experts, each time the barrel will leak less and less. At the very end, water is poured into the barrel and left for several days. During the procedure, the hoops are periodically tightened. Repair is considered successful if the barrel has completely stopped flowing. This method is effective for containers that do not have physical damage. Due to the fact that during long-term operation the distillate is absorbed into the wood, the owners have a desire to freshen up the barrel a little. Restoration work is done with a hammer, coarse sandpaper and oak sawdust.
The master's task is to remove a small layer of wood (1-2 mm). First knock out the bottom. To do this, the barrel is placed vertically. Next, you should dismantle the fart and neck hoops. To prevent the barrel from crumbling, the main hoop is tightly upset. Now the walls from the inside are cleaned with sandpaper. Next, the barrel is subjected to the firing procedure: a small fire is made from sawdust. After that, the barrel can be collected and used.
