oak barrel sample ports

[gdebisschop]

Hello all-
I'm looking for a relatively simple and reliable way to install sample ports into oak barrels as to sample prior to blending while minimizing disturbance of the product. Any ideas, or better yet success stories?
cheers
geoff

[Rosie]

I'm interested in this one as well. Our limited experience:

We've drilled holes in the head of our barrels the size of a stainless steel part that we have off of some other bits in the brewery. It is effectively a stainless 'nail' that we are able to pull out to sample. Be careful drilling holes...we have some that are too tight and some that are too loose, causing them to leak.

What we are thinking of doing on the next go around is to drill a hole and fix a 5/16 stainless tube (using a corny dip tube) into the bottom of the head. We will then be able to put a John Guest on/off valve, using for sampling and also to quickly be able to hook up to pump the beer out when it is ready.

Cheers,
Jeff

[MatthewS]

Hey Geoff,
Go with a drilled holed with nails.
Jason Perkins from Allagash shared his expertise with me on this one.

Stainless 1.5 inch 4 d nails. Use a 7/64 drill bit. It is important for the nail and bit size to be exact. We got the nails out of Mcmaster Carr, although I am sure you could get them from a hardware store.


Good luck
Matthew

[Geoff Logan]

Geoff,
The stainless nail trick is the way to go. That's what I do. Hell, it's what a lot of wineries do. I used a barrel once for three batches with the same nail and same hole with no issue or leak. See you soon.

Geoff
AleWerks

[Jephro]

What we are thinking of doing on the next go around is to drill a hole and fix a 5/16 stainless tube (using a corny dip tube) into the bottom of the head. We will then be able to put a John Guest on/off valve, using for sampling and also to quickly be able to hook up to pump the beer out when it is ready.

Cheers,
Jeff

This is what i do using a corney dip tube in a rubber bung in the bunghole with another barb in the bung to pressurize the barrel for sampling/blending/draining.

[Ted Briggs]

Why not simply use a 'wine thief' though the bung hole? Unless you have multipule kegs stacked...

[MatthewS]

The thief works fine, but if the goal of the barrels is to form a pellicle on the surface, and every time you take a sample, you will be disturbing this 'shield'

but if the barrels are not 'infected' and no pellicle is forming, then thieve away...

[gdebisschop]

Exactly Matthew- currently we're doing only traditional "clean" ales but are gearing up to age a flemish red type ale. Id rather not disturb the pellicle. As Ted pointed out as well we have barrels stacked on barrels, our thief won't go into barrels below other barrels. Plus this just overall seems like a method that disturbs the product less. So despite my fear that I'll come in one day and find dozens of nails on the floor and empty barrels, we're going to "install" the nails. Seems far too common not to be reliable.

cheers
geoff

[Zucker Bee]

Well, finding these nails is not an easy task. I called all hardware store in town. I only need a few, and anyway, McMaster-Carr don't sale in Canada any longer.

Why a nail? Does it have any particular characteristic (bevel, ..) ? Could I use a SS drill bit or a welding rod?

Would a galvanized nail give flavor or corrode?

Ben

[chantal]

This is a sanitary barrel sample valve in 304 stainless steel that can work with any barrel size. A 5/8" hole needs to be drilled on barrel to install sample valve.

[beejay]

This is a sanitary barrel sample valve in 304 stainless steel that can work with any barrel size. A 5/8" hole needs to be drilled on barrel to install sample valve.

Something tells me this costs a bit more than a stainless nail

[MatthewS]

Buy a pound of these and you should be all set for years....
go to common nails and click 316 stainless.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#nails/=c6qr4b

[Zucker Bee]

yup. But as I said, McMaster refuses to sell to Canada

[MatthewS]

Not sure if these guys sell in Canada. Hopefully they do.
http://www.fastenerusa.com/products_...FU195QodEjzQNA

Maybe some brewer in NY or VT will be willing to place the mcmaster order and ship the nails to you. kind of a hassle, I know... plus there has to be a source in Canada for these stainless nails.


I know... the name says it all...USA! but hopefully they love Canada like me and will ship em to ya!

good luck
matthew