Roll Out the Barrel
old discarded material.” The barrel as we know Moldovan sent a prototype it today was most likely to Stone Brewing within a developed by the Celts. week. The brewery ordered a Around 350 BC, they were few dozen more chairs for their already using watertight, several locations. From there, barrel-shaped wooden business was rolling. containers that were able to Moldovan says that within withstand stress and could be the first few years of working rolled and stacked. Whiskey Joel Kranc with recycled material he and wine were obviously knew he didn’t want to popular contents for the work with anything else. barrel and continue to “Taking something old be an integral part of the and useless and giving fermentation process for it a second life seemed these libations today. much more fulfilling.” And But when a barrel outlives that’s not just his way of its usefulness in the spiritthinking. “Living in southern making world, what else can California really showed me you do with it? Well, sit on it. how many others try to live In 2010, Balazs Moldovan, by this notion. That’s why owner of the Hungarian the Hungarian Workshop Workshop, based in Oceanside, started to gain momentum CA, first started making PHOTO: Courtesy of Hungarian Workshop and grow,” he adds. Adirondack (aka Muskoka) chairs Since 2012, Moldovan has out of standard redwood and pine been creating his projects using recycled barrels. purchased from lumber yards. It was mainly just a American white oak is definitely the best, he says. hobby at first to make some outdoor furniture for French oak feels less dense and is prone to more himself and his friends. “As I started playing around internal imperfections. As the French oak dries, with some other designs like tables and ottomans, I there are often areas of the wood that will bubble up, really started enjoying the art,” he says. creating weak spots. He says American oak and even After selling a few chairs through Etsy (and craft the more rare (on this side of the Atlantic) Hungarian fairs and farmers’ markets), he was contacted by the oak are higher quality. Stone Brewing Company, based in Escondido, CA. Moldovan, who loves his work, finds it challenging The manager liked the chairs Moldovan was making to keep craftsmen on board, however, as they often and wanted a dozen or so for their beer garden. leave to create their own projects. Material can also “After the first batch of chairs was delivered, he be tricky to source and has to come from a variety of showed me a dumpster full of old barrels that they different places. Still, after personally handcrafting used to make their specialty barrel-aged beers,” says more than 1,000 chairs, Moldovan has no plans to sit Moldovan. “He asked if I’d be interested in taking a down anytime soon. crack at making the same type of chairs but from this 46
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