Magic Beer Barrel

[John Sand]

Last year I bought a Ruppert Brewery wooden keg at auction. It's not in great shape, missing two bands, has some splintered staves, is very dirty. It stayed in Delaware because my wife and mother in law filled the Jeep with old furniture (it's true!). The barrel came home this summer, today I started cleaning it. There are many interesting features: some kind of finish inside, paper thin wood shavings between the staves and also around the lid. Here's the magic: after decades in a barn, at least half a century since it's last use, it still holds water. No, I'm not going to ferment in it.

[Inkleg]

That barrel sounds really cool! Any pictures?

No, I'm not going to ferment in it.

But if you're scared, just say scared.

[John Sand]

Scared? Scared? You are typing to a man who laughs in the face of death. I was petrified. (Wait, that's from the Wizard of Oz) Also a man who has made too much infected beer to pour it into old barrels. Although that might be a good place for infected beer. I can call it Chicken Coop Ale. Or Chicken Poop Ale!