oak Barrels

[Caron]

I've been looking at barrels on e-bay that can hold 20 litres. I don't mind bottling wines that have to be kept in the cellar for months on end but for everyday drinking I'd like to just pour my wine from a tap.
Anyone had experience of storing wine in oak barrels? I can get a brand new barrel delivered from Italy for £100.

[fatbloke]

I've been looking at barrels on e-bay that can hold 20 litres. I don't mind bottling wines that have to be kept in the cellar for months on end but for everyday drinking I'd like to just pour my wine from a tap.
Anyone had experience of storing wine in oak barrels? I can get a brand new barrel delivered from Italy for £100.

Storing wine in barrels isn't just about having something to put the liquid into.....

It's more to do with adding an oak flavoured element to the wine.

There's a few here who do indeed use oak barrels, but not the small ones. The smaller the barrel, the higher the "wood to wine" contact ratio is greater. So with a smaller barrel you actually get more oak flavour quicker. Plus it depends on the level of toasting that the barrel has received. I understand that those here that do have/use oak barrels do so for their flavouring abilities for the wine.

Hence if you just prefer a more convenient way of storing your wines that you don't want to keep/bottle etc, then it might be a better suggestion to investigate the "bag in a box" systems.

Why ? Well it gives you the convenience that you mention, plus the bag collapses as the wine is dispensed, so you don't have any problems with oxidation as they don't let any air into the bag part. I understand that most of these can be re-used so they work out cost effective.

If you look at Brouwland (yes, they are in Belgium, but I can't think of who sells this kit here, anyway, they're a handy resource to look up stuff that's available), and look under their "Bottles/Casks/Tanks" section, you'll find out the kind of stuff available for "bag in a box" (they even do pretty barrels to put the bags into ). There's enough kit there to give you an idea.......

Dunno if that helps any.....

regards

jtfb

p.s. Oh, and welcome to the WaH forums........

[Mamgiowl]

Hi Caron and welcome to Winesathome.

The wineboxes jtfb is talking about are a great way to store and dispense wines and should be easily available from a HB shop so you shouldn't have any trouble getting hold of one. They're also easier than a barrel to keep in the kitchen and so have wine regularly 'on tap'

[NorthernWiner]

I agree with the other posters. Bag-in-a-box is a good option for your situation. The problem with keeping wine in a barrel is that the air space above the wine (the "ullage") eventually causes the wine to oxidise - or worse - turn to vinegar. Barrels also require proper care and periodic maintenance.

Another storage/serving option you might consider is a kegging system.

[hedgerow]

oak barrels are great to look at but hard work to use in a small set up.

if you do want to buy a wooden barrel and the ones from italy on ebay do look very very nice you can always seal the insides first, there are several "paints" you could try , look for some thing that can be used to store potable water as they are one of the better ones or even some forms of epoxy resins are usable , the old methods was to pour in boiling hot wax, swish it round and pour it out in that way you get the storage container look with out the oak effecting the wine,

a large plastic barrel , like the ones we use to ferment in can be used to , what i would do is cut a load of wooden strips around 30mm wide and slightly longer than the barrel wrap them around with two brass strips 20mm wide as bands around the barrel with the tap cut out to stick past with a ply wood lid covered in the same wood as the outside roll.

there is still the problem of the air above the wine, so we could even have a plastic liner inside the wood coated barrel or we put some thing inside the barrel to compensate the wine coming out in a demi john that is not quite full i personal used steralized marbels and just drop enough in to fill the levels up again, when you have finished with the they can be boiled clean and reused

[hedgerow]

just in case you did not know, there is a whiskey producer in mid wales that has a cooper, there used to be a cooper at hook norton brewery at banbury and there is always a stainless steel barrels you can get

[Caron]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I'll try the bag-in-a-box option first.
What a great forum for information, wish I'd discovered this earlier !

[fatbloke]

Well, while a number of the membership are overseas, its fair to point out that there's a good amount of UK specific knowledge, and that some of the chaps/chapesses (not me.......) have extensive knowledge........

Often with quick responses to Q's........

I'd actually forgotten about the hassles of actually "running" barrels.... so that was a reminder for me as well!

regards
jtfb

[Caron]

I found the bag-in-the-box idea called VINO-TAINER on a few brewshop websites. Says can be sterilised and re-used but I don't know how many times it could be re-used?

[Mamgiowl]

Not sure about this Caron, but one of mine is on its third incarnation and still looks in good nick. I'll probably use it again anyway and see what happens. I don't use them for my best wines, but its great for quick quaffing wines.

[Cellar_Rat]

Corny kegs are the answer (or they were for me). I hate having to bottle stuff. I keep it in bulk till it is ready to drink and then put it in corny kegs. The setup is a bit dear to start with, but is massively sucessfull.

Dispense – and I use that word intentionally as opposed to bottling.

Dispense is after all what we are trying to achieve here. Getting a liquid into the glass.

I use Cornelius style kegs. These hold about 18 litres. Which is remarkably handy, as three of these hold 54 litres, which is just the size of a standard carboy.

I use what pubs call 'mixed gas' to add a very slight pressure – between 5 and 7 psi this has an amount of nitrogen in it. 'Pub gas' is pure carbon dioxide and will dissolve into the wine and make it fizzy (red champagne anyone!! no I thought not)


Filling Method
After sanitizing, flush with gas. Use the pump to fill them.
Once sealed, connect the gas and vent a couple of times to expel all air, and replace with mixed gas.

I then vent almost all of the remaining gas, which doubly ensures that wine will not get fizzy with CO2 (carbonated in fact), but keeps the lid in place and a gas cover (no air)

Store these in the cellar or garage, monitor as you have everything else.

Drinking or dispense method
Once it comes time for a drink to have two options. Get a mobile tap for the cellar – plug it onto the keg of your choice and pull a carafe full for dinner.

Alternatively take a keg over to the house, get another cylinder of gas and dispense straight into the glass. You could even put this by your comfy chair in front of the telly!



This also means you have a very ready source of wine for keeping your carboys topped up during racking!

Problem solved.........

[DerekSmith]

The VinoTainer is only rated to store wine for 2 months see

http://www.quaysidehomebrew.co.uk/vi...itre-164-p.asp

I guess it contains a simply poly bag which is permeable to oxygen rather than the aluminised laminate bags used for the 'Bag in a Box' wine storage systems - most plastics are surprisingly porous to oxygen.

Derek