How to successfully dilute barrel port

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[griff]

I assume you are in Australia? Water to merely dilute or young tawny to freshen. Leibich sells some good stuff for the price.

[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.

[DRT]

Water to merely dilute or young tawny to freshen.

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.

[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

[DRT]

I'm not sure griff was suggesting adding water.

Not sure why one would want to dilute however

I wasn't wrong

[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.