Barrel sealing

[AbeSoto]

I put this into the equipment category because oak barrels are equipment, right?

So I somehow recently managed to acquire an oak barrel from Buffalo Trace Distillery in KY and I obviously would love to age a beer in it. The barrel was in bad shape, so I filled it with water to reseal it, which worked perfectly on the whole barrel except one little crack almost opposite of the bunghole. Does anybody have any experience sealing oak from the OUTSIDE? E.G. smearing some tar or the like across the crack in the wood, or is a Buffalo Trace Porter just a big pipe dream?

[spiderwrangler]

Sealing the barrel on the outside would be iffy. Did it get dried to the point that it got a crack? Soaking may re-swell the wood. Not sure how much BT character you'll get if you have to do lots of water soaking though.

[NHBrewer]

I know this sounds a little strange but bear with me. I got a 59 gallon Cab Sav barrel and filled it with a Oude Bruin. There was a very small "hole" on one end of the barrel where the head meets the staves, called the croze. At first I shoved a paper towel in the crack created by the overlap of the staves over the head and that worked ok, slowed the leaking to almost nothing. I did not like the look of having a paper towel holding all the liquid in the barrel so I removed it thinking that the hole must have sealed itself. Almost instantly I had Oude Bruin leaking out again. Looking at the hole I somehow thought "Hmmmm... looks like a toothpick will fit perfectly" so that is what I did. I shoved a toothpick into the hole and broke it off. Viola no more leak. It has been 5 months and no more leak. Moral of the story, it can be done. If you can get the right shape piece of wood shoved in there, then let the liquid swell it in place I think you have a shot.

NHB

[spiderwrangler]

That's basically the same idea as the 'sampling nail' that Vinnie and others talk about having to take samples without disturbing the pellicle on their sours.

[Hoser]

I don't exactly know how it's made, but I do know there is a wine trick with a garlic paste that they use on leaky barrels. One of the local breweries did it here and it seemed to work. I believe the brewer learned the trick from Vinnie at RR? I imagine it could be found with a simple google search or email Vinnie himself?

Edit: Did a little research and it is a mixture of garlic paste and blackboard chalk/calcium carbonate. Mix until it is a thick paste. Maybe a 1:1 ratio? Dab a little on the leak after it has been patted dry. Vinter's use it all the time. No ill effects of your beer tasting like garlic.

[Quin]

If none of the above works and depending how desperate you get, you might could make a "patch" by screwing another piece of oak over the crack using stainless steel screws or just tightening using a ratchet strap. If you wanted to get fancy, you could make a gasket out of a silicone baking mat or some silicon tubing cut lengthwise.

[BrewerJ]

You can try beeswax melted over crack as long as there isn't much pressure it will hold. When the beer is in the barrel the sugars will crystalize in the crack and help seal it also. If its major to the point you can shine light through it you are going to have to have a major repair to fix it.