A few weeks ago we visited friends of ours who live in Lexington, Kentucky for a long weekend. That whole area was a lot of fun. Great restaurants. Some good breweries. We ended up at Keeneland that Sunday to watch a few horse races. I also dragged everyone with me to do some distillery tours ... twice. Being the bourbon drinker in the group, man that was cool to experience the distilleries and become immersed in the deep history of it all. Everywhere you go in central Kentucky it seems like there is bourbon something or other - furniture, decor, you name it. Barrels deconstructed and the white oak staves used to make a lot of cool stuff. That got my mind going a little bit. Thought it’d be cool to make something on my own. The week after we got home I started searching around online for used barrels. There are a lot available. All for about the same price - right around $99. Price goes up if you want a barrel with a distillery stamp on it. I really wanted a Buffalo Trace Barrel. That was my favorite distillery and has for a while now been my go-to sipping bourbon. What I didn’t care for about buying a barrel online was the shipping costs. So I put the idea aside for a bit until a couple evenings later and I realized there are two distilleries within 30 minutes of me. Litchfield and Berkshire. I called them up and asked if they ever sell used or damaged barrels. Sure enough, they do. And for a reasonable price considering what it’d cost to have one shipped. That afternoon I drove on out to Litchfield and looked at a couple barrels they didn’t want anymore. The one I liked best wasn’t able to be fixed. It had some leaks and some bourbon was lost. Backed up to their dock, loaded the barrel into my truck and off I drove, no clue what I was going to do with it. Being that the barrel had sat empty for quite some time, the staves had started to shrink some and the two middle metal bands were pretty loose. When I got it home, the first thing I did was fill it with water. It leaked between the staves pretty much immediately but it held enough water for five days and the wood started to swell again. In that time I decided to build a bar out of it. Thought it’d look great in the corner of our dining room. The Mrs. agreed. Nothing too unique about a bourbon barrel bar. It’s been done 100,000 times before I’m sure. I am happy with the middle shelf design I came up with, though. Of all the examples I looked at online, nothing had anything like what I did for the middle shelf. So that’s kind of cool. A personal touch to an unoriginal idea. What took the longest was drilling through the bands and staves to attach carriage bolts. I put bolts in every 4th stave and then used 1” cut tacks on each stave in between. Slow process, but necessary to keep the barrel in shape since it will never again hold liquid. That wood can dry out quickly. I also finished it both inside and out with some extra Helmsman clear coat I had so the barrel drying out and falling apart should never be an issue. Lot of personal back and forth with aesthetics, too. That took some time to come to a final idea with what to do. Like with the carriage bolts. At first I wanted to color match the bolts to the bands. Couldn’t find any even close though. But after hemming and hawing over it, I went with galvanized bolts and I think the contrast of the color between the bolts and the bands is nice. Same thing with the staining all over the barrel from the metal bands. Couldn’t decide if I wanted to sand the stains off or if I should leave them. Decided I like the look and kept them stains. Anyways, here are some pictures of the project and the final outcome. Just moved it inside when I got home today. The project took half of a rainy Saturday plus three late evenings. Pretty pleased with it. The only thing I don’t like is the clear coat covered up that awesome white oak bourbony smell. Man that was great to work with. I think for a finishing touch I’m going to find an LED light to put inside it and, of course, buy more bourbons and ryes!!
Love it! If you get another got a trick for you. The wood holds a lot of bourbon flavor. A friend of mine got a recently emptied Buffalo Trace barrel. He filled it half full of water and left it for 6 months...rolling it around occasionally. It was just like drinking clear bourbon. We filtered it through automotive paint filters to get the charcoal out. Trust me it’s worth a try.
These usually go on sale for right around $100. https://www.menards.com/main/outdoo...-c-10138.htm?tid=-6447771879610709814&ipos=16
Nice! Buffalo Trace sells a ton of barrels to a local syrup producer here. They age their syrup for bourbon maple, then sell the barrels to a brewery that uses them to make bourbon-maple beer. There is a lot of char that comes out after the syrup is aged. It works great as a meat smoking charcoal.
Thanks All! Loaded it up with a few other things. Some glasses. The bourbon bible. And a few empty bottles from days past to make it not look so sad... Limiting myself to buying one new bottle of bourbon a month. Just like with anything, it’s be so easy to go out and drop a ton of money right now. But that just doesn’t fit well into the budget. It’ll also make the experience of trying new bourbons a bit more enjoyable. Slow down a bit and savor the awesomeness.
