In order to ennoble moonshine, give alcohol a rich taste and rich color, you will need oak barrels. Aging grain and fruit distillates in oak barrels has a very positive effect on alcohol. The barrel breathes, oxygen enters through the pores of the wood, saturating the drink with unique aromas and making it an elite alcohol.
If you become the owner of a new oak barrel, then you should know that you cannot immediately pour wine or distillate into it. To begin with, the barrel must be properly prepared, otherwise you risk spoiling the drink. Aged alcohol will have a sharp unpleasant taste, tart. Distillers call such a drink "plintusovka" or "Pinocchio".
How to choose a good oak barrel? To infuse wine, moonshine or cognac at home, small oak barrels with a volume of 2 - 10 liters are suitable. The smaller the capacity, the faster the aging process will take place, the oak will saturate the distillate with tannins faster. If it is supposed to infuse moonshine in an oak barrel for a long time, then it is more correct to buy a container with a volume of 10-50 liters.
But remember, when the drink matures, a small part of the alcohol evaporates. About 1 liter of the drink disappears per year. The so-called "Share of Angels". And it doesn’t matter what volume the barrel is 5 liters or 50 liters. That is, what we get - if you pour 10 liters of moonshine into a barrel, then after about 10 years you risk being left without homemade cognac. A loss of 5-10% of alcohols during the year is considered normal.
To reduce the "angels' share", you need to purchase waxed barrels, or wax it during preparation. Waxing protects oak wood from various influences from the outside, as a result, the barrel lasts longer. Wax does not affect the maturation process, gas exchange is good, and the aesthetic appearance is much better. This applies to small volumes of 3-20 liters. There is no point in waxing larger containers.
For barrels of 10 liters or more, it is not recommended to install a drain cock. The faucet is the weak point of the barrel, too often it breaks and leaks. If you still decide with a faucet, then it is better to use it from stainless steel. Good barrels for wine and distillate are made from split oak, from quality dried wood for at least 3 years in the open air.
The older the oak, the better the harvest. An oak barrel must be nutria-charred, this kind of roasting contributes to a better transfer of tannins to wine, cognac or whiskey. Hoops should be made of galvanized steel, and at best stainless steel.
Preparing a new barrel
The process of preparing an oak barrel for aging moonshine, cognac or whiskey is divided into several stages. The most important thing is to reduce the concentration of tannins in the oak - tannins, which in large quantities spoil the taste of the distillate.
- With clean water, preferably spring or filtered, fill a new barrel by 90%. Use water at room temperature. Close the filling hole and leave for 3-4 hours.
- Carefully inspect the barrel from all sides for leakage. Small smudges are not critical, when the oak staves get wet, the leak will stop. Drain liquid.
- Re-fill to the top with water, close the hole and leave it in the room at room temperature, if there is a leak, put it in the bathroom and periodically add water until the leak is eliminated. After 2-3 days, pour out the liquid, it should be dark brown, pour a new batch.
- Drain the water in a day, pour in boiling water at the rate of 1 part of water per 10 parts of the volume, close and swing the barrel in different directions, rinse the entire inside of it. Wait 30-40 minutes, top up with water and plug.
- After a day or two, drain the water, pour a new one. And so continue soaking until the drained liquid is transparent, odorless and tasteless. Soaking usually takes 1 month.
- After soaking, pour half of the volume with hot water at a temperature of 70-80 ° mixed with soda (20 grams per 1 liter of water), shake the barrel well for 10 minutes. Drain the water.
- After that, you need to rinse from soda water, fill the barrel with hot water to the top, hold for 15 - 20 minutes, drain. Pour clean cold water to withstand 10-12 hours and drain.
- Pour good moonshine into a soaked barrel after fractional distillation with a strength of 20-30 ° with the addition of wine, you can also use wine and age for 2-3 months. Do not fill the barrel with low-quality distillate for soaking, especially the heads, spoil the barrel!
- Drain the alcohol mixture, rinse the barrel and you can pour your distillate, moonshine, future cognac, whiskey, bourbon or wine without fear that the drink will go bad. During aging, periodically check the taste of alcohol and remember about the share of angels, top up the barrel with distillate so that the top staves do not dry out.
How to store an empty barrel
There is a downtime of oak containers and in order for it to retain its qualities, it is necessary to properly store an empty barrel. To avoid re-preparation of the barrel after aging moonshine, cognac or wine, it must be filled with clean water by a quarter and thoroughly shaken to rinse the inside of the barrel well. Drain and repeat this procedure 3-4 times.
Then rinse the barrel with hot water and baking soda as indicated above during preparation. Rinse with cold water. Let dry and wrap with a cloth, put away in a dark, dry, cool place with good ventilation. If the product has not been used for a long time, then a wooden vessel should be fumigated with sulfur, which will kill harmful microorganisms and fungus.
How long to insist homemade alcohol in barrels
Proper preparation of oak barrels for moonshine or cognac does not mean that the aging process can be left unattended. Drinks should be kept in a cool, ventilated room with moderate humidity, there should be no heat sources nearby.
The timing of distillate infusion largely depends on the volume of wooden containers, the amount of drink, its strength. The timing is affected by ambient temperature and humidity. There are other minor nuances. In a dry place, the strength of the product increases significantly and can rise from 55° to 75°, while keeping the drink in a damp place, the strength drops from 50° and can reach 40°. In both cases, the total amount of content is reduced.
Don't forget about the "Angel's Share" and sometimes top up the contents to the top. Once a month (if the barrel is oak 5-10 liters) taste, taste the taste of infused moonshine, it’s better to almost finish it than to overexpose the distillate.
Approximate maturation of grain and fruit distillates in a 5 liter oak barrel at room temperature: (bourbon) in 3-4 months it becomes quite ready for consumption, for whiskey it takes about 6 to 10 months, calvados will be ready in 4-6 months.
How long does one barrel last
After each use of a wooden container, it is necessary to increase the ripening period. The process of giving valuable substances to the drink slows down. After three cycles, you can already feel the difference. Therefore, it is recommended to use barrels for moonshine for 6-7 exposures. It all depends on the capacity, the thickness of the riveting and the exposure time. If we take 7 cycles of 6 months, then in the end we get 3.5 years. These are approximate figures, it is possible to increase the terms and use the barrel as a container for storage for more than one year, because repeated use will not affect the strength of the product.
In order to make moonshine, in fact, a special oak barrel for moonshine will help you to make a fragrant drink. Many years ago, specialists in this drink put forward the theory that storing alcoholic beverages in wooden kegs has a positive effect on moonshine. Its taste qualities become more saturated, and the aroma becomes pleasant. The secret lies in the fact that the pores located in the wood allow the barrel to breathe. Thus, oxygen is able to get into the middle of the container with a drink, while alcohol vapors do not have the opportunity to go back.
Before use, the barrel must be steamedExperienced experts say that oak barrels for moonshine must undergo thorough preparation before the start of operation. If you do not pay due attention to the necessary procedures, you run the risk of transferring a large batch of raw materials, and spending a lot of your time absolutely in vain. There are several mandatory procedures that allow you to prepare an oak product for further use at home. One of the important stages is the steaming of the product. The procedure under consideration allows you to get rid of cracks. Such gaps are not considered marriage, they are of natural origin. Regardless of what material the container is made of, even though it is cherry, even acacia, in any case, the product requires preliminary steaming. The steaming process is as follows. An oak barrel is filled with boiling water by a third, after which the container is scrolled. Leave the barrel for complete steaming. After half an hour, the water is drained.
Such manipulations help the wood to swell, which leads to the disappearance of existing gaps and cracks.
Barrel soaking
Soaking the product allows you to detect and correct all the shortcomings of the oak product. The fresh product contains tannins, especially in riveting. It is for their elimination that soaking is carried out. Otherwise, moonshine will have a too tart taste.
Initially, oak barrels must be soaked daily, completely filling the container with water. Initially, leave the water in the barrel for a day. Experts recommend gradually increasing the duration of the water content, from 2 to 5 days. After two weeks, the water infused in an oak container should be clear and not have any foreign odors.
It is recommended to use warm water to soak the container. If you use boiling water, do not leave the water until it has completely cooled. The filled container is carefully inspected. Fluid may leak between the ends and rivets. When the wood swells, the gaps disappear.
Soaking is one of the stages preceding the use of the barrel for its intended purpose. How to store an empty oak barrel?
Speaking of wooden structures, one should not forget how such material lends itself to moisture and temperature changes. As a rule, wood products are subjected to auxiliary processing in order to preserve their functionality for the longest possible time. However, this has nothing to do with barrels. Oak barrels intended to store alcoholic beverages or foodstuffs must not be coated with varnishes, oils or paints. The fact is that such procedures can not only affect the taste of the contents, but also harm the health of the user.
If you plan to leave an oak barrel empty for a long time, you should ensure proper storage of the product. After each use, the barrel should be thoroughly rinsed with drinking water, and then scalded with boiling water with soda ash. Then you should wipe the product dry and place it in a canvas or jute bag. This will protect the container from dust. The most suitable place to store empty oak barrels is a utility room or shed made of wood. Please note that it is strictly forbidden to put the barrel on the ground. Direct contact with the ground will lead to the fact that the product will pick up moisture, and subsequently become moldy.
Barrels should be stored properly What do you need to know about barrel depletion?
Alcohol draws a lot of nutrients out of the keg. It is important after the next batch of moonshine or cognac is drained, pour the next batch of alcohol-containing drink into a previously prepared oak barrel. The break should be minimal and not exceed 24 hours. Therefore, experienced experts recommend preparing the required amount of ingredients in advance for the preparation of the next batch of moonshine. If you do not fill the vessel with another batch of alcohol in a timely manner, the inner walls of the product may become covered with mold, which is quite difficult to get rid of. You should also not forget that the oak gives its tannins to the contents of the barrel. Based on this, the aging period of the drink will change. Each subsequent tincture will require more and more time. As practice shows, the period of preparation of moonshine will increase by an average of 15-20%. Unfortunately, after 10-20 infusions (depending on the volume of the container), the oak barrel, having lost its basic properties, can serve its owners only as an original accessory or storage for alcohol.
Over time, the barrel is depleted and loses its properties. How to age moonshine in an oak barrel?
It is important to observe a number of conditions when aging moonshine. The alcohol obtained after distillation, as a rule, has a harsh taste. In addition, moonshine can be cloudy. After aging alcohol in an oak barrel, the composition of the drink changes, which leads to an improvement in its quality. The aged drink acquires a golden hue, in addition, the oak barrel gives it a pleasant aroma. Tannin, in combination with other substances, helps to increase the strength of the alcoholic beverage, but at the same time, the moonshine will be softer and even acquire a light and pleasant vanilla flavor.
Extra vibrations, smells, as well as contacts with moonshine and its contents are highly undesirable. In the event that it is required to increase the level of humidity in the room where the barrel is located, a bowl filled with water should be placed near it. Do not forget that the water should be changed periodically, otherwise flowering cannot be avoided.
The technology of operating wooden barrels and pouring moonshine into them for aging is elementary and understandable even to a beginner. The process is laborious and lengthy, but the production of environmentally friendly moonshine is worth such an effort.
Why can't you use a barrel without special training?
The wood of a new barrel, not yet processed by a special technology, contains a lot of tannins - tannins. Their concentration must be reduced by soaking and steaming, otherwise their effect can spoil the poured drink. Such a drink usually becomes cloudy, it has a tart taste, the smell changes, in the people such a drink is called "plinth". If you want to produce a quality tasty drink, you should properly prepare the barrel for use. Preparation usually takes place in three stages: soaking, steaming and installationsoaking
Soaking an oak barrel is carried out according to the following technology:- A third of its volume should be poured with boiling water, withstand literally half an hour.
- Swing it so that the water washes the entire inner surface, after which up to 90% of its volume should be filled with cold water. This action will help to identify the integrity of the barrel by examining it around the perimeter of the rings. In this case, a slight leak is not critical, since during the soaking process the wood of the barrel will swell and the flow will soon stop.
- Then cold water should be poured and changed every 24 hours until the drained water becomes clear, odorless and tasteless. In total, this process takes from two to six weeks. At the same time, the smaller the barrel, the faster the tannins will come out of it, it will soak faster.
The next step in preparing a new barrel will be her steaming or treatment with soda solution. Solution processing is done as follows:
- boil water up to 50% of the volume of the barrel, then cool to 70-75°C
- add soda (20 grams per 1 liter), mix and pour into a barrel.
- Shake the barrel vigorously for 8-10 minutes, then drain the soda solution.
- To rinse the barrel after treatment with a soda solution, it is necessary to fill it with almost the entire volume of hot water, hold for 15 minutes, drain, and fill it again with clean cold water, which is poured out after 8-10 hours.
Waxing At the same stage, the barrel should send off, if the cask is not yet bled.
Waxing will help to clog the small gaps left after soaking on the barrel, to make it look more beautiful. In our store you can buy already waxed and fired barrels.
Installation
The final step in preparing the barrel for use is to installation. It is best to install it in a room with a temperature of 15-20 degrees Celsius, while air humidity should be at least 75-85%. If the room is large in area, it is necessary to have a constant source of moisture in the immediate vicinity of the barrel, such a source can be a filled bucket or basin. It is necessary to maintain humidity in the room to reduce the evaporation of alcohol during aging, as well as to regulate its strength, since in a dry room the strength of the drink can reach up to 75 °, while in a wet room it will keep an average of 35-40 °. After that, oak barrels are usually placed on special wooden stands about 50-60 centimeters high.
Thus, when buying an oak barrel, you need to tune in in advance that its preparation will take quite a long time (about 3-6 weeks). At the first stage, it must be soaked, the larger the barrel, the longer it will soak. At the second stage, it is necessary to treat it with a soda solution, this action will replace the steaming, which is carried out at this stage in open-type barrels. Installation also requires special conditions - it is advisable to choose a free room with good humidity and not very high temperature. For these purposes, a cellar or basement is well suited.
If you have not yet decided on the choice of an oak barrel or do not know which barrel to choose for a particular drink, we advise you to read the article "How to choose the right oak barrel".
It contains a large amount of tannins, and if you immediately put distillate or wine in it, the drink will acquire a very tart oak taste. Therefore, the barrel is prepared before aging - filled with cold water and soaked for up to 4 weeks. Water is recommended to be changed every 1-2 days. When changing water, it is allowed to fill the barrel with warm water (not boiling water), which also speeds up the process of preparing the barrel.
At the beginning of soaking, it is possible to leak through the gaps between the rivets. This is not a marriage. It is only necessary to add water several times a day until the leak stops completely. When soaking, the riveting will swell and tightly close all the cracks.
After soaking, the barrel should be rinsed with a solution of baking soda. Fill 1/3 of the barrel with boiling water and add baking soda at the rate of 2 g per liter of water. Close the hole tightly and carefully roll the barrel so that hot water rinses the rivets. After that, it is necessary to drain the water and rinse thoroughly with clean drinking hot and then cold water. If possible, you can steam the barrel. To do this, you need to fill the barrel with water halfway, add soda, and bring the water to a boil, supplying steam into the barrel through a hose. Further, as in the treatment with hot water.
Your product is almost ready to use. You can pour a strong distillate into it for a short time, or you can continue preparing and soak the barrel with an alcohol-containing mixture (strength 15-25%) for up to 5-6 weeks. After that, a strong distillate can be poured into the barrel for a long time. This is due to the fact that in the “young” barrel the most intensive extraction of the oak wood components takes place, and the maximum of them will get into the drink poured into the barrel for the first time, which will give it a rough, sometimes bitter taste of “green oak”.
Aging and storage of alcoholic beverages in everyday life
The barrel with a drink must be stored away from heat sources, in a cool, damp room with easy air circulation. In such premises, the evaporation of the product (“angel's share”) will be minimal, 5-10% per year are considered normal. If a keg with a drink is placed in an apartment, then evaporation can reach up to 50-70%. It is important to know that the smaller the volume of the barrel, the greater the area of contact of the liquid with the surface, which means that the aging process is faster, but the percentage of evaporation is also higher.
Recommended air humidity should be 80-85%, temperature 10-17°C. The ideal temperature for wine and other light spirits is 12°C, for cognac and other strong spirits 16°C. With an increase in temperature, losses due to evaporation increase, with a decrease, the process of maturation and aging of the drink is inhibited or stopped.
Humidity can be created artificially - put a basin of water next to the barrel. If you need to create humidity not in the whole room, but only near the barrel, then you can cover it with something and put a plate of water under it.
If you plan to carry out the aging of the drink in the apartment, it is recommended to wax the barrel. To do this, beeswax is taken, heated with a hairdryer and distributed over the entire surface of the barrel (which should already be soaked with water and wiped dry), including the chimes and the bottom of the barrel. It is recommended to leave 2-3 rivets at the bottom unwaxed, so that there is a small gas exchange with the external environment. Some home distillers recommend, in dry rooms, placing the cask in a box whitewashed on the inside with lime, and placing a bowl of water in the same place to keep the inside of the box moist.
Storage of an empty drum after use
Rinse the keg from the remnants of alcohol by pouring a quarter of cold water into it, plugging the hole with a cork and rolling the keg from side to side. Drain the water. Repeat several times until the water that comes out is clear. Then pour some hot water into it and sprinkle with baking soda. Ride well for a few minutes, drain, then rinse a couple of times with cold water. Dry your keg and wrap it in a cloth, now you can put it in a dark, cool place for storage.
Before long-term storage, it is recommended to fumigate the barrel to prevent the development of microorganisms. Equally, after long-term storage, before use, it is also recommended to fumigate the barrel. If, over time, your barrel has dried out a little, fill it with water and it will regain its shape.
Oak barrel depletion
During the second, third and subsequent fillings (aging cycles) of young alcohol into barrels, the rate of return of wood components from oak to alcohol gradually slows down. This is due to a decrease in the content of these components in the barrel staves. This happens until the wood is depleted, after which the barrel continues to serve in the future, however, not as a source of oak components, but mainly as a vessel for storing wine materials and cognac spirits without a noticeable improvement in their quality.
Thus, after the third cycle of pouring cognac spirits, the barrel passes into the category of the old one, and on the sixth and seventh cycles, the inner surface of the barrel staves is already depleted up to 90%. In order to continue to receive high-quality alcoholic beverages, it is proposed to use oak chips. The use of oak chips during the aging of cognac spirits in depleted barrels determines the accumulation of the necessary components of oak in the spirit.
The best results are obtained when using:
for processing white dining rooms (dose 0.3 - 1.0 g / dm3, exposure time - 6 - 12 days);
for red table fortified and dessert wines (dose up to 1 g / dm3 - aging time 6 - 30 days);
for cognac and calvados spirits (dose 5 - 30 g/dm3, - minimum exposure time - 3 - 6 months).
It’s inconvenient without barrels on the farm - it’s good to salt cabbage and cucumbers for the winter in them, and make apple cider vinegar, and store water at home well. At first, basically, all enamelware is used, but over time, there is a need to replace it with normal cooperage products.
Any pickles feel good in wooden dishes, and even more so in oak. All sorts of spices are laid in the oak tub, as it were, in advance, giving the pickles a pleasant aftertaste and a peculiar aroma. A lime tub for storing honey is as important as an oak barrel for wine. In a linden tub, honey, like wine, is infused and acquires a fragrant aroma and taste.
And new barrels, tubs, vats, etc. must be prepared before use.
Pickle tubs are prepared in the same way as wine barrels. Briefly, they lower the hoop, soak, steam, wash.
Steep boiling water should be carefully poured into the barrel, without pouring it on the outside (about 30% of the volume) and plug the cork (not tightly) for 15-30 minutes. After that, you need to drain the darkened water and pour cold water for 15-20 days. Water is recommended to be changed every 2-3 days. Before use, rinse the barrel with hot water. 
Before starting to prepare the barrel, it is necessary to check the hoops and, if necessary, lower all the hoops using a heel and hammer. New oak barrels should be leached with clean drinking water for 2-4 weeks with water changes every 3-4 days. Then the barrels are washed with hot water or steamed with steam at a temperature above 100 ° C. Soda 20 g per 1 liter of water is added to hot water, then washed again with hot and cold water. After the inner surface has dried, the barrel is fumigated with sulfur. Barrels that were in use should be washed well with hot water, and then fumigated with sulfur in order to destroy the fungi and mold that developed in them while they were empty. For this purpose, a piece of sulfur is placed on a tin plate tied to a wire, lit and lowered into a barrel. While the sulfur is burning, the hole should be covered with a rag. Fumigated barrels, before placing wine in them, must be thoroughly rinsed, since the sulfurous acid that has formed in them slows down the fermentation process, and sometimes completely prevents its onset. I think the vinegar barrels are prepared in much the same way. If anyone knows their subtleties here - write! 
A new oak barrel without treatment is not suitable for use, since oak staves contain soluble substances: tannic acids, salts, etc., which give the wine (or what is in the barrel) a special flavor (oak), affect the color and enrich it with tannins. substances. Oak wood contains special preservatives that kill putrefactive microbes and give products a special taste and aroma.
Barrel preparation is very important. Very often, inexperienced salters do not pay due attention to the thoroughness of washing, scalding, fumigation and other preparatory processes, and this leads to a deterioration in the quality and even spoilage of salted vegetables.
More:
The riveting of new barrels contains tannins (tannins). If you pour wine or another product into such a container without preparation, it will darken and acquire a tart taste. New barrels are subjected to soaking. In no case do not immediately fill the product completely with water! When soaking, the riveting swells and tightly closes small cracks. 
The barrel is steamed for half an hour or treated with steam or boiling water (0.3 liters of boiling water per 10 liter container), removing the cork by rocking it in jerks so that hot water rinses the rivets, then gradually fill the product to the top with cold water (to speed up the preparation process, it is recommended to fill it with hot water), changing the water every day. Repeat the procedure until the last water is completely clean, uncolored, without foreign taste and smell. If this is not done, sauerkraut will be dark in color.
At the very beginning of soaking, if the barrel has a small leak, it is necessary to top it up with water 2-3 times a day. Then the barrel is washed for at least half an hour with hot water and soda: (200 grams of soda per bucket of hot water) and rinsed with hot water. After that, the barrel is rinsed with cold water. 
Not new used barrels, but without foreign smell, are washed first with cold, then with hot water and dried. Hot water must not be allowed to cool in the barrel, as in this case the riveting can absorb foreign odors. If the barrel is not supposed to be used for some time, then it is advisable to fumigate it with sulfur to prevent the development of microorganisms.
If there is no sulfur, you can treat the barrels with caustic soda. Take 80 - 100 g of solid caustic soda per 100-liter barrel and fill it with clean hot water for about 1/3 of the barrel capacity. The barrel is closed and rolled for 10 - 15 minutes. Then the soda solution is poured out, and the barrel is thoroughly rinsed with clean water.
Used barrels, after thorough washing and soaking, can be treated with bleach dissolved in water instead of fumigation. 
It goes without saying that it is impossible to use barrels from fish, meat and oil for pickling vegetables.
In the pores of the barrel there are always spores of molds and bacteria, which develop under favorable conditions. In practice, when barrels are steamed, temperatures above 100 are rarely reached, as a result of which spores of bacteria and molds can remain unharmed and, under favorable conditions, cause disease in the wine. Therefore, for all types of cleaning of wine containers, it is necessary to use dry steam treatment, at which the highest temperature is reached, which in most cases guarantees the sterility of the processed dishes.
Steaming barrels, tubs, tubs
Steaming tubs is a hygienic action that contributes to the disinfection and aromatization of wood. Not only the old, but also the new barrel or barrel must necessarily take a bath with hot steam and oak, juniper or birch twigs.
How to make the water in the tub boil, because you can’t put it on the fire? In ancient times, this problem was solved quite simply. A tub or barrel was filled with about one third of water, brought to a boil in a metal bowl on a fire. On the same fire, heavy stones were heated (most often they were sandstones), which were thrown into cooper's dishes with hot water. The water boiled, forming thick clouds of steam. This method of heating water in tubs and barrels is still used today. 
When steaming, along with red-hot stones, an oak, birch or juniper broom is placed in the tub. From above, so that steam does not come out of it, the tub is covered with a wooden lid, and then with an old blanket or padded jacket. After a few minutes, when the formation of steam subsides, the tub is opened, periodically doused with hot water, and the steamed rivets are whipped with a fragrant broom. Swollen wood greedily absorbs the aroma along with the beneficial substances contained in the leaves and needles. In order for the staves to retain their freshness and aroma, water is poured out of the tub while it is still warm.
As soon as the steamed tub dries slightly, pre-cooked vegetables, berries, mushrooms and other products are immediately loaded into it, along with various spices.
How to store pickle kegs
Pots filled with pickles, sauerkraut and urination are stored in a cool room: in a closet, hallway, underground or cellar, where the temperature does not fall below zero. Only cabbage and meat, as well as cranberries, are allowed to be stored in the cold. Previously, in some regions of Russia, tubs with meat were buried in a snowdrift for the winter. 
Even in the driest room, tubs should not be placed directly on the floor or ground, as mold can form on the bottom from below, as well as in the chimes. Even tubs with legs, with good ventilation, should be placed on special wooden gratings. They should be at such a distance from the floor that it is convenient to pour dry sawdust under them from time to time and remove wet sawdust. In addition, you must constantly monitor the circle. At the slightest appearance of mold, it is washed, doused with boiling water and rinsed in salt water. Stone and bar-strut are also processed. And then pickles, pickling and urinating until the very spring will retain a pleasant taste, delicate aroma and appetizing appearance.
Why soak barrels
It is also necessary to fill barrels and vats with water for another reason. Usually, barrels, even if they were previously under salted vegetables, but have been released for a long time, dry out and gaps form between individual staves, through which juice or brine flows from vegetables. When soaking, the wood swells somewhat, the cracks disappear, and the barrel becomes dense, suitable for laying vegetables in it. When the soaking is over, the barrels are thoroughly washed with hot water using brushes. 
I even heard such a recommendation - if the barrel is not used, during storage they poured water to the bottom (to a height of 2-3 cm). The barrel is afraid of dryness!! I think that during storage you can not only pour water, but pour silicon on the bottom, and pour water. Flint water does not go out - we have already checked this for ourselves. So in order not to breed a swamp in a barrel, you can keep it like this.
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