Eli5: how is it possible that a wooden barrel, which is used for aging alcohol, does not rot away.

Question

Or how do they prevent it from rotting for such a long period of time.

I cant imagine that they use multiple wooden barrels during an aging proces of 30 years or so. Because it would interupt the proces, I geuss?

In: 71

Answer 1

Becouse there is the chemical balance tilted, so only bacteria that are needed to make alcohol out of it will live through that. Things that would usually take over and do the rotting can’t live there. Things don’t rot by themselves, there is fungus and bacteria doing it, and they need usual environment to live. There is ton of CO2 created in that process, that taxes O2 away, that’s main cause of death of things in this kind of basement, including people.