oak barrell smoker

Got to be the barrel,its sweating those things out. Somebody here will have a scientific answer ,Allblancher perhaps. But if the cider ferments inside the barrel every thing that is produced by that process isnt necessarily tasty! A whisky barrel or wine barrel might be different.

Mate I  love the idea of using the barrel but I think what happens is they get passed down the line of distilling as the barrel gets older.So cider is end of the line so to speak.I know they reuse whisky barrels for other fortified drinks but in some instances they shave & reshave the inside or char & rechar them.Wine barrels here get reused there s a whole new oak ,old oak thing but then after a certain point they become decorative or jumbo flowers pots.If you could get one straight from the whisky distillery you might be in better shape.I dont know about cleaning it you would have to scrape it till you got to clean timber,normally a job for apprentice's at the wineries here. Good luck lovely history with the barrel some pretty fine scotch comes from the Isle of Jura. I figure you must be in the UK so thats hardly a scoop.I think there's actually a tool for scraping barrel staves or maybe its a chemical process now. The moari's in Aust use steel beer kegs to great effect to do fish & eels.

My home-made bbl carriage has to be cheapest smoker that I possess prefab to date, the substance costs individual been dead smallest and I have to say that the abstraction to chassis my cylinder party was exclusive almost trinity hours. Here is how I did it.
 

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The nice thing about cold smoking is you can do it injust about anything.  some even use cardboard boxes.  Use your cold smoker with a box.  If the reults are better, then it is the barrel.  If the flavor is still off, then try changing something else.  Process of elimination is your friend in this process.

Ronrude is on the $ about the box thing.If you have an AMPS you can convert anything to a chamber,just a matter of venting it. Old filing cabinets,fridges,steel beer kegs.The moari"s here in OZ use beer kegs to great effect,just a matter of having the tools to cut the right openings.Stainless steel a big plus,if a keg falls off the back of a truck like they regularly seem to do here in Sydney ,your in business. The 18 gallon ones work best Im told.