Got a wine barrel, how much time I have to fill?

[Tiroux]

hi there! A winemaker just call me to tell me that the barrel I had asked is ready, I emptied and cleaned it today. It is sooner that I expected. I have few friends that are helping me to brew those 60 gallons of lambic to fill the barrel, but they have not all brewed yet, and some stay pretty far. All that to say, I would not be able to have acces to all 60 gallons before end of january.

So these are my 2 options: Let the barrel empty for 2 months. (What should I expect?) or fill it progressively, but I guess that oxydation could be a probleme here...

Also.. how should I treat the barrel, if I even treat it? The winemaker emptied it, rinsed it good, cleaned it with a powerful ''soap'', then burnt sulfur strips before to seal it.

 

[dcp27]

I would not fill it progressively unless you plan to ferment in the barrel to fill the headspace.

if you were that far off from being ready, why did you already empty & clean it when the sulfur would have kept it?

 

[Tiroux]

I would not fill it progressively unless you plan to ferment in the barrel to fill the headspace.

if you were that far off from being ready, why did you already empty & clean it when the sulfur would have kept it?

I didn't cleaned it, the winemaker did...

 

[dcp27]

I didn't cleaned it, the winemaker did...

A winemaker just call me to tell me that the barrel I had asked is ready, I emptied and cleaned it today. .

sounded differently above. if it's still sulfured it should be safe to store as is for about 6 weeks. a few days to a week before you are ready to fill it you'll then need to begin a swelling process to rehydrate the barrel and make sure there is no leaks. this is basically filling the barrel partially with hot water and rotating it around, and then filling with cold water. see here for more info: http://morewinemaking.com/public/pdf/wobcg.pdf