Preparation of moonshine and alcohol for personal use
absolutely legal!

After the demise of the USSR, the new government stopped the fight against moonshine. Criminal liability and fines were abolished, and an article prohibiting the production of alcohol-containing products at home was removed from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. To this day, there is not a single law that prohibits you and me from engaging in our favorite hobby - making alcohol at home. This is evidenced by the Federal Law of July 8, 1999 No. 143-FZ “On Administrative Responsibility legal entities(organizations) and individual entrepreneurs for offenses in the field of production and circulation of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products "(Collection of Legislation Russian Federation, 1999, N 28, art. 3476).

Excerpt from the Federal Law of the Russian Federation:

"The effect of this Federal Law does not apply to the activities of citizens (individuals) who do not produce products containing ethyl alcohol for the purpose of marketing."

Moonshine in other countries:

In Kazakhstan in accordance with the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan On Administrative Offenses dated January 30, 2001 N 155, the following liability is provided. Thus, according to article 335 “Manufacture and sale of home-made alcoholic beverages”, illegal production for the purpose of selling moonshine, chacha, mulberry vodka, mash and other alcoholic beverages, as well as the sale of these alcoholic beverages, entails a fine in the amount of thirty monthly calculation indices with confiscation of alcoholic beverages , apparatus, raw materials and equipment for their manufacture, as well as money and other valuables received from their sale. However, the law does not prohibit the preparation of alcohol for personal purposes.

In Ukraine and Belarus things are different. Articles No. 176 and No. 177 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Ukraine provide for the imposition of fines in the amount of three to ten tax-free minimum wages for the manufacture and storage of moonshine without the purpose of sale, for the storage without the purpose of sale of apparatus * for its production.

Article 12.43 repeats this information practically word for word. “Production or purchase of strong alcoholic beverages (moonshine), semi-finished products for their production (mash), storage of devices for their production” in the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Administrative Offenses. Item number 1 says: "Manufacturing individuals strong alcoholic beverages (moonshine), semi-finished products for their manufacture (mash), as well as storage of devices * used for their manufacture - entails a warning or a fine in the amount of up to five basic units with confiscation of these drinks, semi-finished products and devices.

* It is still possible to purchase moonshine stills for home use, since their second purpose is to distill water and obtain components for natural cosmetics and perfumes.

Instruction

First of all, choose wood, depending on your purpose. Linden, aspen, poplar, willow, alder are suitable for storing honey. Oak is best suited for salting, pickling or urinating. For other needs, beech, spruce, fir, pine, cedar, larch or birch are used.

Blanks or staves are made from raw wood, from the bottom of the trunk. Chock, which is 5-6 cm longer than the future riveting, radially split into blanks 5-10 cm wide (for sweet clover 15 cm) and 2.5-3 cm thick. Then fold the blanks for a month or more in a room with natural ventilation to dry .

Process the dried blanks with a plow and planer, first from the outside, checking the curvature according to the template taken from the finished product. Then process the side surfaces with a jointer, also taking into account the curvature according to the template, and the inner ones, to reduce the thickness in the middle, with an ax.
For the taper of the tub and the convexity of the barrel, the value of the riveting extensions has a ratio of 1.7-1.8 between the widest and narrowest part. For a tub, the lower end is wider, for a barrel - the middle of the riveting.

For the manufacture of hoops, take a hot-rolled steel strip 1.6-2 mm thick and 30-50 mm wide. To calculate the length of the future hoop, add double the width of the strip to the dimensions of the barrel at the place of the screed. Bend the tape into a ring, punch or drill holes and rivet with soft steel wire 4-5 mm in diameter.
Roll one end of each hoop with a hammer on an anvil. According to the location on the barrel, the hoops are called as follows: the central one is "onion", the extreme one is "morning", the intermediate one is "cervical".

Assemble on a flat surface, pressing two rivets against each other with staples against the morning hoop. Then, in turn, we insert the following staves, collecting the first half of the barrel, and also the second half. Tapping with a hammer, we upset the hoop until the edges of the rivets are tightly connected.
If there is a gap left that the last rivet won't fit, don't be afraid to trim it to the correct width, or remove another narrow rivet and insert a wide one.

Trim the ends of the skeleton with a hammer, put on an onion hoop and push it all the way with a hammer. Having set the base evenly, pull off the other edge of the core with a rope loop with a lever. Having planted the second morning hoop, align the ends of the rivets with a humpback planer, 2-3 mm from the hoops.
From one edge of the skeleton, make a groove with a depth and width of 3 mm on the inside with the help of a morten, into which you subsequently insert the bottom.

Assemble the bottom from boards fitted along the edges, nailing them together with brackets, and then cut them along a pre-drawn circle. Insert the bottom after loosening the morning hoop somewhat by adjusting the tightness of entry and pressing in with light blows of the hammer. The second bottom is also inserted on the other side, with the only difference being that a filling hole with a diameter of 30-32 mm is first drilled in it, to which a cork is adjusted.

If you are engaged in the manufacture of your own wine, pickles, then you know that there is no better container than a wooden barrel. After all, made of wood, it becomes one of the main points in the recipe, it is an environmentally friendly raw material that retains taste and taste. beneficial features products. In addition, the alcohol contained in wines or moonshine, when interacting with containers made of synthetic materials: plastic, nylon, can dissolve them and the interaction products are mixed with the drink.

Purchasing a barrel for your winemaking or brining is not difficult, but if you want to save money or like to do everything yourself, then it is worth learning the technique of making an oak barrel with your own hands. This is a process that takes a lot of time and effort, but with our advice, you will see that making a barrel with your own hands is not so difficult even for those who have never done it.

The manufacture of barrels from wood is called "cooperage", and the master who deals with this business is a cooper. This is a whole art, which originated in Ancient Greece and still popular today. The technology has not changed for thousands of years, is time-tested and not as difficult to implement as it seems at first glance. But how to make a barrel yourself in modern conditions?

Choosing wood

First of all, of course, choose the material from which you are going to make your future barrel. We will offer you the main types of wood that coopers prefer, tell you what their positive and negative sides are, and also help you choose the most suitable option just for you.

Oak

Of course, first of all, we should talk about the manufacture of oak barrels. This wood rightfully deserves the title of a classic material used by master coopers. With high strength, flexibility, this tree contains "tannins" that act as an antiseptic. The moisture acting on the walls of such a barrel makes them stronger. Therefore, the service life of oak barrels is measured not even in tens, but in hundreds of years. With drinks stored in such a barrel, the processes of oxidation and interaction with wood take place, and they acquire a pleasant aroma with a hint of vanilla.

Fur tree, pine tree

These types of wood are also used as material for the manufacture of barrels. They are soft, easier to process and cut, but inferior in strength to oak and many other species. Their disadvantage is the smell of resin, which is why this type of wood is rarely used as a material for barrels.

Cedar

Of the representatives of coniferous varieties, coopers prefer it, especially in those places where its natural habitat is located. By properties, it is similar to pine or spruce, but such barrels have no smell. They are well suited for storing products, especially for dairy products.

Linden

This type of wood is fibrous, perfectly cut and processed. Strong material, does not give in to drying out, does not smell. Linden barrels are recognized as the best for storing and transporting honey, caviar, and pickles.

Aspen

This is a cheap, but long-lasting material, it is strong, resistant to moisture, and has antiseptic properties. Aspen was recognized as ideal for pickling and storing vegetables. The peculiarity of this variety is that it swells a lot, but for a cooper it is rather a plus, because thanks to this, the rivets close tightly.

We make rivets

So, you have decided on the type of wood, let's say it will be oak. Now we make the details of the barrel, starting with the rivets. These are tapering at the edges, or rectangular boards (sawn or chipped). The latter win in terms of strength due to the structure of the fibers, which does not undergo destruction during splitting.

The shape of the stave depending on the type of barrel

To determine the exact number of such rivets, do the following:

• Determine the required barrel parameters
• Make drawings of your design
• Create sketches of riveting and bottoms in natural sizes

After these procedures, perform simple calculations that allow you not to miscalculate how many rivets you need. It is calculated by the formula: 2*Pi*R/Sh, where:

• Pi - constant 3.14
• P - radius of the bottom (if the sides are equal) or the middle (if the sides are convex)
• W - size of the width of the riveting

Barrel sizes depending on volume

It will take a lot of time and labor to make stab rivets; certain skills are needed here. The main thing to do is to split the workpiece so that fragments with a smooth surface are obtained.

Scheme of the split of the fire on rivets

There are two main ways to split:

• Radially (the split goes through the core of the deck, which requires less effort)
• Tangentially (does not affect the core, not recommended for use on hardwood, it makes the process slower and more difficult)

It is easiest to process raw material, freshly cut is best. If you use ready-made boards, make sure that the annual rings go along their plane, without sawing.

After harvesting, you need to dry it, in the summer, in the air, under a canopy, this period will be from 3 months. For artificial drying, the following method is used:

1. Glue paper on the ends of the rivets
2. Place in oven
3. Leave it there for a day

Ready for barrel staves

The blanks are now ready for further work.

We make a hoop

Another detail is the hoop. It helps to connect all the rivets, creating a single whole; stainless steel is used to make the hoop.

Modern barrels have three hoops:

• Farts (closer to the center)
• Morning (closer to the edge)
• Neck (if the barrel has a large volume, they are additionally placed between the first two)

The size of the hoop depends on the volume of the container (thickness*width):

• Up to 25 l - 1.6mm * 3cm
• 25 - 50 l - 1.6mm * 3.6cm
• Up to 100 l - 1.6mm * 4-4.5cm
• 120 liters and more - 1.8 * 5cm

Stainless steel barrel hoops

You will need temporary metal hoops, which are made according to the following algorithm:

1. Cut the desired size strips from a sheet of steel
2. Make holes at the ends of the strips, which are fastened with rivets

Collecting the barrel

Now we have approached the main stage - the assembly of a barrel, consisting of staves, which are connected first by temporary, and then by permanent hoops.

Process with a tool - grinding, cut off uneven ends, drill a filler hole.

Watch a video on how an oak barrel is made.

Oak barrel repair

Do you have an old barrel that you do not use because it is dry, leaking, or for some other reason it is not suitable, watch the video on how the repair is done.

The second part of the video if the barrel is flowing

What can be compared, for example, with a cucumber or a tomato pickled in an oak tub. And in a linden barrel, honey, apple juice are perfectly stored, you can cook kvass in it. Finally, an oak tub with a lemon or laurel tree even today will not spoil the interior of even a city apartment. Just do not find these simple products either in the store or on the market. But you can make a barrel yourself with your own hands, and although this task is not an easy one, an amateur master is quite capable of coping with it.

Rivets

First of all, you need to choose wood. Oak and pine are unsuitable for storing honey - honey darkens in an oak barrel, and smells of resin in a pine barrel. Here we need linden, aspen, plane tree. Poplar, willow, alder will also come down. But for salting, pickling or urinating, there is nothing better than oak - such a barrel will serve for more than a decade. For other needs, you can use blackberry, beech, spruce, fir, pine, cedar, larch and even birch.

Usually, the lower part of the trunk of old trees goes to riveting, it is called “riveter”. But a lover of tinkering will choose blanks from ordinary firewood, and adapt a thin trunk to the job. It is best to make riveting from raw wood. First, the chock - it should be 5-6 cm longer than the future riveting - is split in half, gently tapping the log on the butt of the ax. Each half is then again pricked into two parts, and so on, depending on the thickness of the chock (Fig. 1), in order to ultimately obtain blanks 5-10 cm wide (for sweet clover - 15 cm) and 2.5-3 cm thick. just try to split it radially - this will save the riveting in the future from cracking.

The chopped blanks are dried in a room with natural ventilation for at least a month. You can use a dryer to speed up the process. The dried workpiece is processed with a plow or sherhebel and a planer. First, the outer surface of the riveting is planed. At the same time, to check the curvature of the surface, a template should be prepared in advance (Fig. 2), cutting it out of a thin plank according to the finished product. Next, the side surfaces are planed, also checking their curvature according to the template.

The riveting is kadushechnaya - in which one end is wider than the other, and barrel riveting - with an extension in the middle. The size of these extensions determines the taper of the tub and the convexity of the central part of the barrel. It is enough if the ratio between the widest and narrowest part of the riveting is 1.7-1.8 (Fig. 3).

The processing of the side surface is completed with a jointer. It is more convenient to do this by moving the workpiece along the jointer (Fig. 4). At the next stage, we process the inner (in relation to the finished barrel) surface of the riveting, cutting off excess wood with a planer or even an ax (Fig. 5). After that, the barrel riveting can be considered finished, while the barrel riveting still needs to be thinned in the middle to 12-15 mm (Fig. 6). Let it not bother you that rivets can have different widths - we take everything possible from each workpiece.

hoops

Barrel hoops are made of wood or steel. Wooden ones are not so strong, and a hundred times more hassle, so it is better to use steel ones. Hot-rolled steel tape with a thickness of 1.6-2.0 mm and a width of 30-50 mm goes to the hoops.

Having measured the barrel at the place where the hoop was stretched, we add to this size the double width of the strip. With hammer blows, we bend the workpiece into a ring, punch or drill holes and put rivets made of soft steel wire with a diameter of 4-5 mm (Fig. 7). One inner edge of the hoop must be flared with blows of the pointed end of the hammer on a massive steel stand (Fig. 8).

According to the location on the product, the hoops are divided into farts - the central hoop on the barrel, the morning - extreme and cervical - intermediate.

Assembly

To one jack-of-all-trades, the grandmother brought a crumbling tub with a request to collect it. Tom had never had to do this before, but he did not refuse the old woman. He came up with the following: he threw a rope on the floor and laid out one to the other rivets on it. Then he crushed them with pillows and pulled the ends of the rope together. Gradually removing the pillows, he brought the extreme rivets together and secured them with a hoop.

Coopers make it easier...

The product is assembled on any flat surface. First, two rivets are attached to the hoop opposite each other with special brackets bent from hooped iron (Fig. 9). Then, attaching rivets to one of them, we get to the other, which will tighten the assembled half of the barrel. Continue assembly until the rivets fill the entire perimeter of the hoop.

Lightly tapping the hoop with a hammer, we upset it and check whether the edges of the riveting are tightly aligned. To achieve contact of the rivets over the entire side surface, you need to add a rivet or pull out an extra one and after that put a permanent hoop. By the way, if changing the number of rivets does not give the desired effect, you just need to narrow one of the rivets or replace the narrow one with a wider one.

Having trimmed the ends of the skeleton with light blows of the hammer, we put on the middle hoop and push it all the way with the help of a hammer (Fig. 10).

Having exposed the skeleton on a flat surface, we describe with a pencil using a bar (Fig. 11) the cut line. Having planted the morning hoop, we cut the skeleton 2-3 mm from it and clean the ends of the rivets with a planer. We do the same with the other end of the skeleton.

In the manufacture of a barrel, after fitting an onion, neck and morning hoop on one side, the other side must first be pulled off. Coopers have a special device for this - a yoke. House master may use rope, rope, chain or wire for the same purpose. You can tie a loop and twist it with a gag or pull the ends of the cable with a lever (Fig. 12).

There is no need to do any steaming or boiling of the skeleton, as some experts recommend, before tightening. Occasionally, however, it happens that the riveting does not bend along the entire length, but in one place and therefore gives a crack. However, in such cases, the cooper will prefer to simply make a new riveting.

Dona

The assembled skeleton is cleaned from the inside with a plow or sherhebel, and the ends of the skeleton with a humpback planer (Fig. 13).

Now in the skeleton you need to make a groove (Fig. 14). The cutter of the tool can be made from hooped iron, and even better, from a saw blade. The depth and width of the groove must be 3 mm (Fig. 15).

First, a bottom shield is assembled from a sweet clover with a planed outer side and jointed side surfaces (Fig. 16). The sweet clover is fastened with nails, as shown in the figure, for which nests are pre-drilled 15-20 mm deep. The radius of the future bottom is found as the side of a regular hexagon inscribed in the circle of the morning groove on the skeleton of the barrel. However, you need to cut the bottom with a margin, deviating from the intended circle by 1-1.5 mm. After cleaning with a sherhebel, chamfers are cut from the edge of the bottom (Fig. 17) so that the thickness of the wood is 3 mm three millimeters from the edge - this is necessary for the tight connection of the bottom with the frame in the morning groove (Fig. 18).

We make the first fitting - loosening the hoop, insert the bottom, inserting one side of it into the groove, and then with light blows of the hammer and the rest. If the bottom is tight, you still need to loosen the hoop, and if it's too loose, tighten it.

After stuffing the hoop, make sure there are no gaps. The perfect result the first time is rarely achieved. Even if the cracks are not visible to the eye, they can be found by pouring a little water into the barrel. If it flows between the rivets, then the bottom is too big and it needs to be slightly pared. Worse, if water flows through the bottom or through the morning groove. Then you have to disassemble the skeleton and narrow one of the rivets.

Before installing the second bottom, a filling hole with a diameter of 30-32 mm should be drilled in it. The cork is made as shown in Fig. 19, its height should not be less than the thickness of the bottom, however, the cork should not protrude beyond the cut plane of the core.

How many barrels to serve

First of all, it depends on the operating conditions. But it is important to remember that you should not paint jellied containers with oil paint: it clogs the pores, which contributes to the decay of wood. It is desirable to paint the hoops - they will not rust. For decorative purposes, a barrel, a flower tub can be treated with mordants.

The brown color of the oak is given by slaked lime mixed with a 25% ammonia solution. Black - a solution of iron sulfate or an infusion for 5-6 days of iron filings in vinegar.

A decoction of the rhizomes of the fragrant woodruff (Asperula odo-rata) turns linden and aspen red. Red-brown color gives a decoction of onion peels, brown - a decoction of opal walnut. These dyes are brighter than chemical ones and more stable.

It must be remembered that wood is better preserved with a constant humidity regime. Therefore, dry products must always be kept dry, and bulk products filled with liquid. Both cannot be placed directly on the ground. It is better to substitute a brick or plank under the barrel than to subsequently get rid of the rot by cutting the chimes.

The manufacture of barrels is called cooperage. Cooperage is a whole art that originated in ancient Greece. People needed vessels of large volume, and the most affordable way to make a large vessel with your own hands turned out to be the manufacture of barrels.

Initially, barrels were used to transport and store water, wine, and vegetable oil. From those ancient times appearance barrels haven't changed much. This uncomplicated design turned out to be so simple and convenient that it is useful and enjoys great popularity to this day. Despite the abundance of new materials and the emergence of new technologies, for some branches of human activity, there was nothing better than an ordinary wooden barrel.

How did wooden barrels come about?

The history of the barrel began with the fact that ancient people hollowed out niches in the trunks of large trees with their own hands. To simplify their task, they initially chose trees with hollows. Most likely, an observant person took note of how animals used natural hollow volumes - our smaller brothers built their own houses in them and stored food supplies there.

Among other things, people at that time collected honey from wild bees, that is, they were engaged in beekeeping. Wild bees, in turn, inhabited the same hollows of large trees. However, in order to get the desired honey, one often had to go deep into the forest, and various dangers lay in wait there, and it was simply inconvenient. In addition, there were sometimes a lot of candidates to pick up delicious honey from a particular hollow.

In order to make wild bee honey more accessible, people went to the trick and began to cut out parts of the tree trunk, in which there was a hollow with a honey crop. Part of the trunk was placed closer to the house, and then significant changes occurred with this section of the tree. A modest hollow-hive was transformed into an apiary of impressive size. Caring owners of the apiary over time even made the roof of the bee house with their own hands. It was made from bark or a trimmed sheaf of straw.

After a young bee family appeared, it was moved to a new hollow. However, it was not always easy to find a new hollow of a suitable size, so the owner of the apiary had to hollow it out with his own hands in a thick log.

However, the life of the hive is far from eternal - over time, the hollow begins to crack. In order to save a valuable section of a tree trunk from complete destruction, people went to new tricks - they began to use a metal hoop. The invention of such a hoop is a huge step forward, a new design that combines wood and metal can already be called cooper's utensils. To pull together a section of the trunk with a hollow or a niche hollowed out by one's own hands, ropes, plaits, wire or a wooden hoop were also used.

The diameter of the very first barrels directly depended on the thickness of the tree trunk. It was not possible to make the container wider than the tree trunk. However, when people learned how to tighten the barrel using metal and wooden hoops, ropes, cords and wire, it became possible to make vessels from wood of absolutely any diameter.

Later, such a useful invention as a barrel turned out to be indispensable in some industries. For example, huge containers were simply necessary in leather workshops.

Why choose oak for making a barrel?

When it becomes necessary to purchase or make a barrel with your own hands, the question arises: what kind of wood should you give your preference to? For the manufacture of barrels, such types of wood as kedo, juniper, linden, pine, aspen, spruce, and, of course, oak are used.

In this article we will tell you about how you can make an oak barrel with your own hands. But first, let's talk about the features of using oak in cooperage.

It is worth noting that such a tree as oak is used much more often than any other deciduous trees in the manufacture of barrels. And this is quite natural - the consumer qualities of this type of wood are much better than those of other trees. We list some features of working with a tree such as oak:

• oak is quite problematic to cut, but chopping this kind of wood is a pleasure;
• you will probably have a question about how you can make a barrel from such durable wood, but such an important property of oak as the fact that after steaming it becomes incredibly elastic comes to the aid of cooperage masters;
• but after drying, oak, on the contrary, changes its shape only minimally, waves and cracks practically do not form, and this fact is another advantage of oak;
• however, the most important property of such a type of wood as oak is the presence in it of a special preservative component, this component prevents the wood from rotting, having an antiseptic effect;
• oak is not at all afraid of moisture, under its influence, on the contrary, it only becomes even more durable.

Oak wood that fell into the river and was in the water for a long period of time has unique qualities. Indeed, in water, wood is saturated with iron salts. Such wood lying in a reservoir is called "bog oak". Bog oak is especially durable.

Thanks to all the qualities listed above, it is precisely this type of wood, like oak, that has long been recognized as the best raw material for making cooperage utensils. It is the oak barrel that will serve you faithfully for decades.

It is worth noting one more curious fact regarding oak wood barrels. Such wood contains some specific components, it is thanks to these components that a unique pleasant aroma is formed within the wood itself as a result of oxidative processes - the aroma of vanillin. It is thanks to this property of oak wood that it is used for the manufacture of cognac barrels. Cognac from oak barrels takes on this pleasant aroma. Among other things, such a type of wood as oak contributes to faster leavening of the dough.

Even if you put a barrel made of oak in a damp basement, bury it in the soil or leave it under a downpour - all these negative factors external environment will in no way affect the amazing positive qualities of barrels based on oak wood - these are unique properties possesses this mighty tree.

We make a barrel of oak with our own hands

Now, having learned all about the benefits of oak barrels, we will finally figure out how to make such a container with our own hands. We present to your attention a master class on making a barrel based on oak wood with a volume of 25 liters.

The process of making an oak barrel begins with the procurement of material. Suitable wood should be brought from the forest in the spring, sawn into acceptable pieces, and then taken to the basement and covered with sawdust. In the basement in this state, your wood should dry out throughout the summer months.

As soon as the wood has dried, we proceed directly to the preparation of parts for our future barrel. We take a block of wood, reaching approximately half a meter in diameter and 42 centimeters in height, and split it as carefully as possible into four pieces.

After that, we also dismember the quarters: by gently tapping on the butt with a mallet, as in the figure with the number 1, we make 14 blanks. Blanks are made for riveting, the thickness of each blank should be approximately three centimeters. When making blanks with your own hands, pay special attention to the fact that your split must be radial, otherwise cracks will form in the wood in the future.

After the workpieces are ready, they should be processed on each side with chips. This is necessary so that they turn out to be slightly concave. This process can be seen in the photo with the number 2.

To make an oak barrel, we need two mounting hoops. In this case, the diameter of the middle should be slightly larger. The most important thing in the design is the so-called hoop-shutter, it is he who is responsible for the quality of the future barrel. The shutter hoop should be handled as carefully as possible, in no case should you knock on it with a sledgehammer.

Using the brackets based on the hoop iron, we fasten three rivets on the shutter, as is done in the picture with the number 4. After that, we fill the entire perimeter of our barrel with the blanks made earlier, and then immediately put on the middle hoop - at this stage we should get the same the same as in the picture at number 5. In order for this stage to go like clockwork, it is necessary from the very beginning to accurately calculate the width of all the blanks, based on the knowledge of the diameter of our future barrel.

After the two hoops are stretched, you will need to pull off the remaining piece of the barrel. Professional coopers have a special tool for this purpose called a yoke. However, many craftsmen go to the trick, inventing and making their own tools for tightening the barrel.

After the keg is well tightened, it is necessary to lower the upper hoop as low as possible. In the figure with the number 8, a special chisel with a groove is used for these purposes.

Next, the barrel must be dried. To speed up the process, you can put a barrel near the stove, if there is one. However, this stove should be heated for two hours every day, but no more.

P After two weeks of drying, work on the barrel can be continued. Using a straight plow, it is necessary to thoroughly clean the entire outer part of the barrel.

After that, it is necessary to make permanent hoops to replace the assembly hoops. In our case, these are four painted steel hoops in two different sizes.

Hoops are replaced as follows:

• first remove the middle hoop;
• after that, place a permanent hoop at a height of ten centimeters from the bottom of the barrel;
• then it should be trimmed with electric jigsaw both sides of our barrel, as is done in photo number 9;
• Next, install two more hoops on top.

Having done all this, we align inside barrel with the help of shaped plows, as in the picture at number 10. After that, it is necessary to make a groove inside the barrel around the circumference. The depth of this groove is approximately 5-6 millimeters.

The bottom of the barrel can be made from pre-prepared boards. The connection is made with nails without hats, which must be stainless and galvanized. To prevent our barrel from leaking, the ends should be laid out with strips of cattail - this is such a little trick.

The difficulty that a person who wants to make an oak barrel with his own hands may encounter is the question of how to calculate the size of the bottom. You can do it like this:

• fix a point next to the groove;
• approximately estimate the radius of your barrel in this place;
• after that, using a compass, set aside 6 such radii along the groove;
• so that the beginning and end of the path fall precisely on a fixed point, the radius will have to be chosen by trial and error methods;
• the resulting size is denoted using a compass on the shield, which we lay out from pre-prepared boards for the bottom of the barrel, as in figure number 13.

After that, you should cut the boards along the outlined circle using a circular saw. Next, we clamp our bottom and with the help of a plow we make a jump along the entire perimeter of our barrel.

By the way, it is useful to put a white roll pre-soaked in water in the groove, this is also a little trick that will prevent your keg from leaking.

And finally, the barrel is ready!

You can also see how master oak barrels are made.