Can I fix a barrel with bad flavor
Curt Young
Need a little advice.
I bought a cheaper, thinner barrel from someone else in Mexico before I found your store.
The liquor I had in it for about 3 months tasts terrible. Good color despite the medium char, but it has an after taste that I can only describe as Mildew.
I drained the barrel and can't detect any mold or algae. The liquor was 120 proof, so I didn't think anything would grow.
In your opinion, what caused this and can I save the barrel? Or is it only useable as a decoration?
Thanks!!
Clay Johnston
Hi Curt, several years ago a young man from Virginia came to Mexico and saw the potential in the mini barrels made here in Mexico for the tequila trade. In his words “he searched until he found a barrel maker with a work ethic as near to American as he could find and then made a big investment with him.” He furnished the barrel maker with a lot of money and machinery to make a lot of barrels of his own design and exclusively for him. The Virginian designed the barrels to be very pretty; they are mass produced and only come with medium char. He designed them with thin wood which is easier to work with and cheaper to ship. They use paraffin wax in the places that could leak making them easier to store. They use plywood for the heads, who knows what flavor plywood imparts. They make them by the truckloads and ship them to Virginia, implying they are made in Virginia and calling himself the biggest little barrel maker in the world.
When the Virginian left Mexico to sell his barrels from Virginia the Mexican barrel maker started selling those barrels to anyone. They were very popular so I sold them too but it didn't take long for me to discover how worthless those barrels are, they don't even make a good decoration because it doesn't take long for them to warp, crack and the hoops break and fall apart.
The Virginian learned that his barrels were being sold by other people and threatened to sue his Mexican partner, so the Mexican opened other shops under other names making the same cute barrels, but the other shops turn out an even poorer quality. There is another woman seller here in Zapopan, Mexico who started out copying my pictures and item descriptions word for word. She sells the poorer barrels from the other shops. Now the internet/eBay/Amazon is full of people drop shipping those cute barrels from the woman seller here in Zapopan, Mexico who is shipping barrels by the truck load to a distribution point in the USA and the Virginian is drop shipping for anyone too. All those drop shippers know how to use a computer but nothing about barrels. They have finally given all barrels from Mexico a bad name. A few years back an ex- employee of the Virginian copied his business plan and is selling barrels in Texas that he buys direct from the Virginians Mexican partner.
Back to your question “The liquor I had in it for about 3 months tastes terrible. Good color despite the medium char, but it has an after taste that I can only describe as Mildew.” There are many reasons the barrels in question could ruin your liquor, the wood their made of, the wax their sealed with, the heads made of plywood, being mass produced and storing them long periods they can get stale before their sold.
But for sure if you left the liquor 3 months / or long enough to get a good color despite the medium char then the liquor is most likely over oaked. In my barrel descriptions I say; “Smaller barrels provide each liter of spirits with a great deal more oak character than a larger barrel due to the ratio of surface area to wine volume. Because of this the same degree of flavor change may be observed in a far shorter period of time, perhaps only a few weeks. Spirits in a small barrel requires constant monitoring to ensure it does not become over oaked.” What I do when I have a batch that gets over oaked is take a small portion and experiment with diluting it with a new batch that hasn't been aged long or not at all until I find the taste I'm looking for then use those proportions to blend the whole barrel.
Also in the item description; “If you're using the barrel for alcohol that pretty much cleans it.” So you're right nothing could grow in it.
The barrels in question make a good decoration just until the thin wood starts warping, and cracking like in the attached pictures. I hope this helps and I look forward to dealing with you for many years to come. At your service Clay Johnston
