My Second Kombucha Wood Barrel

As seen in my previous blog (https://wp.me/pmBQH-yV) about purchasing a Kombucha wooden barrel from barrelsonline.com, I purchased another wooden barrel of the same kind in order to allow a staggered fermentation cycle and not do without Kombucha for a period of time while fermenting.

In the above picture, the barrel on the left is the first barrel I purchased and the barrel on the right is the second barrel purchased.  For the new barrel, you will notice a stainless steel spigot instead of a wooden spigot as the first barrel has.  This is because I chose to try one out 3rd party since the wooden spigot is a bit tight to turn on/off which makes filling a bottle a touch hairy.  I also chose to not use lacquer on the outside to allow kombucha breathing through the wood.

The new barrel has been treated much like the first, except I simply took it outside and filled it with a water hose.  1 hour soaking, emptied, 1 hour soaking, emptied, 48 hour soaking, emptied and brought inside to fill with sweetened black tea.  It’s been in operation now for 1 day starting yesterday evening, and there have been no issues at all.  I’m impressed since this will be my second barrel, and I’ve seen posts from people stating that their barrel was horrid, leaked continuously, & was filled with glue.  Now, I will say the barrels do have wax to seal between the planks along with the ring of wood on the top.  This is apparent when you use hot water while washing/soaking and you can see the wax melting and changing clear while doing so until it cools.  It is also what seals any miniscule leaks that may form, as can be seen in the picture of the old barrel on the left.  The darker streak of color running down the plank seam formed from kombucha coming through as a moisture and the wax sealing that area.  The same occurred around the spigot insert.  That was all, nothing more.  That impressed me – a self-healing barrel.  Note that the inside does not have this since it was washed & rinsed.

Anyway, another barrel without any issues.  I’m happy with barrelsonline.com and their Kombucha barrels.  At least the 5-gallon ones 😛