Cleaning up a wine barrel.

[Bugeater]

I have a chance to pick up a 15 gallon wine cask for next to nothing. The guy says it is lined with wax and some of that is coming off. Any ideas on whether it would be practical to try to remove the remaining wax and to actually do it? About all I can think of is repeated filling and dumping of boiling water.

Any ideas on preparing the keg after cleaning out the wax before putting beer into it? My plan for using the keg would be putting a few big batches of porter or barleywine through it before eventually keeping an ongoing series of buggy belgian brews in there.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[Petedadink]

just a thought. If you can get some stainless bolts/ washers , throw them in and shake the barrel arround to loosen and break up the wax. think it will work?

[yabodie]

I have never heard of a wine barrel having wax in it. After all you want the wine to be in contact with the wood. I would suggest labeling each stave, breaking the barrel down, sanding off the wax, then putting it all back together. Otherwise, use it as an end table in your bar...

[DannyW]

If you remove the paraffin, will it still be liquid-tight? Sounds like in wax lined barrels (used for pickles or water?) the staves are not fitted as tightly as unlined barrels.

[seanhagerty]

The only thing I would try would be to burn the wax out. This would entail removing one of the heads and using a torch to burn the wax out of there. Short of that I cant think of anything that would remove it from all the pores.

Sean

[JJFlash]

Why would someone line a wooden wine barrel with wax?
The magic is in the contact with the wood.
I suspect it was once a wine barrel that likely dried out and started to leak.
Someone then sealed it with wax hoping to salvage it, that's why the wax is now peeling off.
Wax was never applied to a new, clean, dry surface.
I have a few 60 gallon oak wine barrels.
If the wood ever dries out I can never get them to be water tight again.

[DannyW]

Why would someone line a wooden wine barrel with wax?
The magic is in the contact with the wood.

Sometimes you don't want contact with the wood, such as when filling your barrel with water or pickles.

[BDawg]

Bug-

Seems to me to be more of a pain in the ass than it's worth. That's probably why the barrel is so cheap. Ya gets what ya pays for.

I'd save up and wait for a more appropriate barrel.

My .02-