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How to successfully dilute barrel port
Posted: 04:33 Sun 20 Jan 2013
by Woofedog
My port has become quite strong and dark as I think it has been sitting too long in the barrel and the water has slowly evaporated. I top it up from time to time with cask port and I am now wanting to thin it out.
Any suggestions on what to add? (Water, Muscat etc)
Thanks.
Re: How to successfully dilute barrel port
Posted: 04:46 Sun 20 Jan 2013
by g-man
Curious, what grape did you use.
also what's the toast/size of the barrel and how long do you intend to keep it in there for.
Re: How to successfully dilute barrel port
Posted: 09:06 Sun 20 Jan 2013
by Woofedog
It is a 5L keg and I have used mainly Morris and penfolds cask port. I probably use a whole keg every 3-4 years
At the moment I am just wondering how to thin it out a bit so it is not so strong.
Re: How to successfully dilute barrel port
Posted: 12:13 Sun 20 Jan 2013
by benread
I was initially a little confused about this, until I found this link.
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Home-Port-Barrel
Now I am wondering if I have space for a barrel at home!
Re: How to successfully dilute barrel port
Posted: 12:36 Sun 20 Jan 2013
by griff
I assume you are in Australia? Water to merely dilute or young tawny to freshen. Leibich sells some good stuff for the price.
Re: How to successfully dilute barrel port
Posted: 17:03 Sun 20 Jan 2013
by g-man
Aha!
We were discussing those in some other topics here on the boards!
These barrels typicaly come with a medium toast so it so it does impart more of a woodiness to it especially after some age in barrel.
Add in the evaporation, those flavors get very very concentrated.
griff's suggestion works, add water to dilute. I'd draw some samples and put water in to see if you like.
or get some young tawny and try the mix before you fill the whole barrel.
Re: How to successfully dilute barrel port
Posted: 01:04 Mon 21 Jan 2013
by DRT
griff wrote:Water to merely dilute or young tawny to freshen.
g-man wrote:griff's suggestion works, add water to dilute.
I'm not sure griff was suggesting adding water. That sounds like a really bad option to me. I'd go for the adding tawny option.
Re: How to successfully dilute barrel port
Posted: 10:26 Mon 21 Jan 2013
by griff
Freshening is the correct option but if you merely want to dilute, water will work. Not sure why one would want to dilute however
Re: How to successfully dilute barrel port
Posted: 23:45 Mon 21 Jan 2013
by DRT
DRT wrote:I'm not sure griff was suggesting adding water.
griff wrote:Not sure why one would want to dilute however
I wasn't wrong
Re: How to successfully dilute barrel port
Posted: 07:23 Tue 22 Jan 2013
by Alex Bridgeman
We were discussing something along these lines over the weekend with someone who has this problem on a commercial scale. He was saying that the alcohol in the port in the barrel evaporates more quickly than the water so he has to periodically top up with aguardiente. You could test the alcohol content of your port and see if brandy would be an alternative to diluting with water.