A barrel source.

[Zephaniah W Nash]

I came across a vendor with barrels at our local Ren faire, and was wondering if anyone here has used them, or heard anything about 'em...

Swish Barrel and/or Thousand Oaks Barrel Co.

Both companies use the same barrels, or they are both outlets for the same manufacturer. They look good -- although sized in liters which I'm not used to. They also have the "bootleg kits" in which one can supposedly turn grain alcohol or neutral vodka into something similar to "top shelf liquors," which I'm almost afraid to admit interests me, a bit.

Any info would be appreciated -- else I may have to invest next weekend at the faire and do my own dang research.

[Captain_MacNamara]

I hadn't ever heard of them a'fore, but by gods, I'm going to give'em a try soon me'self!

[oderlesseye]

The Boot leggers barrel for Rum seems like an intriguing idea.. I just might do that..

[Silkie McDonough]

What I need is the supplier! I need a few barrals but geeze at 150.00 for a 5 liter (that's 1.32 gal)

Conversion Table

[Zephaniah W Nash]

Sure you didn't mis-read it, Silkie...?

The five-liter barrel at Thousand Oaks is only $59.95... Or maybe you added shipping?

The prices are still high, but lower than most others I've seen, for something other than purely decorative.

And I'm with Oderless, I'm seriously considering the dark rum kit...

[Silkie McDonough]

clearly I did ...oops. In fact I can not find where I may have seen that price. Maybe I was looking at the 5 gallon. Wish they had a 10 gallon one ...5 may have to do.

[hurricane]

The be all, do all of barrels... they even do logos on the ends of the smaller casks.

http://kentuckybarrels.com/

-- Hurricane

[Jack Roberts]

For those of us looking for something a little more historical,

Wooden Hoops

These have wooden hoops. How cool is that!

[Silkie McDonough]

I forgot about them! I bookmarked them a while ago ...I just haven't been giving it all much thought until recently. Thanks for the reminder Hurricane.

Jack ...I need one for water ...but one or two of the storage type would be nice ..GAH! one or two! like I can transport them all the time.

[Jack Roberts]

Yeah, the Barrels with wooden hoops are made out of cedar. So you probably couldn't use them for liquids. It would be nice to have some though with wooden hoops.

[Matusalem]

Cask sizes:

gallon = 1 gallon (obvious, right?)/3.8 litres

rundlet =18 gallons/68¼ litres

barrel = 31 gallons/119¼ litres

tierce =42 gallons/160 litres

hogshead = 63 gallons/238½ litres...is this what John Lennon wrote about in Benefit for Mr. Kite?

puncheon = 84 gallons/318 litres

pipe= 120 gallons/477 litres...sometimes called a 'butt'

tun = 252 gallons/954 litres

[michaelsbagley]

Not to be a smart alec... but a US Gallon is closer to 3.8 litres than 4 1/2 litres... 4 1/2 might be correct for Imperal gallons though, you would have to double check that with someone from the land of Eng though.

[Matusalem]

Not to be a smart alec... but a US Gallon is closer to 3.8 litres than 4 1/2 litres...

Thank you michaelsbagley....I corrected some of that I mistakenly grabbed off what looked like the imperial metric table Wine casks from the chart below.

[Capt. Sterling]

Larger sizes, not too cheap though

http://www.kentuckybarrels.com/wholebarrels.html

Just a word of caution, kegs need to stay wet in order to stay together unless the hoops are secured... once the wood dries out the hoops will slide out of place... since no one I know of currently is making wood bound kegs/barrels, I hate to say it, but replace the metal hoops with wood if you can or cover them. The wooden hoops would need to be secured as well...when looking over the wooden bound barrels at Jamestown, the wooden hoops were nailed into place and the nails camouflaged.

[Zephaniah W Nash]

I got myself the 2-liter version of the bootlegger's kit from Thousand Oaks. The barrel, though small (obviously, for 2 liters) seems to be pretty decent quality. I've got water in it now to seal it up, and I'll put a liter of cheap vodka along with the dark rum essence bottle.

It claims to be comparable to Capt. Morgan's Dark rum, so I'll buy a bottle of that at the same time, and run a taste-test after it's set for a couple of weeks. Will post results here at that time...

[Zephaniah W Nash]

Update:

I've let my rum essence age with a liter of cheap vodka (McCormack's, $7/liter). I have to say, it ain't half bad.

It's not as good as Capt. Morgan dark, but it's quite a bit better than the cheap stuff I keep around for mixing (El Dorado at last purchase, $10/liter). I do think it needs another week of aging (there's still a bit of cheap vodka undertaste), but considering the cost of vodka plus essence (about $11), it seems a decent price to me for the end result. Not really the good stuff, but much better than the cheap stuff.

For what it's worth...

[Mad Jack Morgan]

Good to hear. The wife got me one of the spiced rum barrel kits for me birthday and it should be arriving this week.

[Merrydeath]

let me know what you find out... I'm looking for just a water barrel but wondering if the wooden hoops one might be a bit better. I won't be able to keep it wet.

I'm also curious about the alcohol aging..

[Zephaniah W Nash]

We poured up the rum we've been aging yesterday (appropriately enough, into an old Cap't Morgan bottle). I'm sipping a small glass of it right now, and I have to say, I find it some very good stuff. Granted, when it comes to booze, I tend to even like rotgut, but my wife has much more refined tastes, and she likes it enough that not only have we started another batch brewing, she's gonna let me buy another barrel so we can have a couple going at the same time.

I wish I could post the smell or the taste here, but I guess a visual is better than nothing at all...

[Merrydeath]

just wondering about something.. can you have just a water/juice mix, like a limeade, and then just add the rum to your own cup? Would that make the rest of whatever you put in there taste like lime?

some shows I do, ya cant have alcohol while working.. and that barrel is just too pretty to put away.