Wine Barrel Cleaning
Wine barrel cleaning is a chore that has many avenues of approach; But one destination.
Before a wine barrel can be sanitized for re- use or treated for storage, it has to be clean. The risks that you run from a microbial standpoint alone when putting good wine into questionable barrels are many. Barrel care is more than keeping the wine within safe parameters during use. This is not going to protect you from an existing infection in a barrel that is not clean. Dirty barrels can contain skins, sediment, tartrates, dead or living (but shielded by solids) microbes, etc.
Barrels have to be clean before they can be sanitary. Sanitizing wood can be extremely challenging. Cleaning it is easy.
We recommend cleaning your barrels one of two ways:
1. Use a high flow, low pressure spray ball and plenty of hot water and chemical (Caustic to remove tartrates), or if you must, cold water and chemical.
2. Use one of the high- pressure, low flow barrel cleaners out there like the Aaquatools Aaquablaster 360 and Aaquablaster LT. Push water with a 4.5 GPM minimum, 2600 + PSI pressure washer like our sturdy KEW Poseidon 7.
3. Visually inspect your barrel's interior with a SWASH BarrelScope.
4. Rinse the barrel with a low pressure, high flow spray ball and Ozone or a solution of your choice.
5. Decide on whether you should burn a sulfur wick in it or not; Then store or refill.
Barrels have to be clean before they can be sanitary. Sanitizing wood can be extremely challenging. Cleaning it is easy.
We recommend cleaning your barrels one of two ways:
1. Use a high flow, low pressure spray ball and plenty of hot water and chemical (Caustic to remove tartrates), or if you must, cold water and chemical.
2. Use one of the high- pressure, low flow barrel cleaners out there like the Aaquatools Aaquablaster 360 and Aaquablaster LT. Push water with a 4.5 GPM minimum, 2600 + PSI pressure washer like our sturdy KEW Poseidon 7.
3. Visually inspect your barrel's interior with a SWASH BarrelScope.
4. Rinse the barrel with a low pressure, high flow spray ball and Ozone or a solution of your choice.
5. Decide on whether you should burn a sulfur wick in it or not; Then store or refill.
Spray Ball and Wand $250- $300 (Basic)
- Low Pressure, High flow
- No pressure washer required
- Pump- driven
- Hot or cold water (Hot is most effective)
- Can draw from a tank with a chemical mix
- Also good for Ozone or proxi- clean sanitizing.
- Slower , less effective means of cleaning. Relies more on hot water and contact time.
Aaquablaster 360 $2900.00 (very, very good solution)
Click to See Video
- Pressure washer driven
- Hot or cold
- 180 degree F hot water tolerant
- 2500- 3600 PSI, Over 4 GPM preferred.
- Absolutely blasts the dirt off the barrel. Cleans in 3-5 minutes.
- Works great with On- Demand/ Tankless Water Heaters
Aaquablaster LT $3400 (best solution)
Click to See Video
- Pressure washer driven
- Hot or cold
- 180 degree F hot water tolerant
- 2500- 3600 PSI, Over 4.5 GPM preferred.
- New Gearbox design goes faster.
- Absolutely blasts the dirt off the barrel. Cleans in 2-4 minutes.
- Works great with On- Demand/ Tankless Water Heaters
Wine Barrel Sanitizing
Inside the used wine barrel, there reside a host of microbes. Some of these are good. But there is strong chance that you are reading this because you are aware of Brett, etc. And are possibly looking for a solution for your problem. Please keep in mind that you will not ever completely remove any and all bacteria, etc. from the non- porous wood of a wine barrel. It is simply impossible to bring a barrel to zero in terms of microbes.
ENOTOOLS is not here to convince you that this or that in limited strength is NOT a flaw. And we are not going to try to say that some imperfection is not stylistic or part of the overall complexity of a wine. But there is a difference between a small beauty mark placed by an angel which perfectly punctuates already pleasing features on a person and some sort of major cosmetic affront.
What you can do is sanitize an already clean barrel in hopes to control the population of what lives in the barrel that may harm the nose of your wine during it's next fill. Remember, beauty is in the eye, nose, and mouth of the beholder.
The three ways to make potential flaw- inducers feel very unwelcome are:
1. Steam
2. Ozone
3. Chemicals
1. Steam: The best source for a steam generator in our fair industry is Glen Caster at ARS/ Electro- Steam in California
2. The best source for Ozone in the free world is us!
3. Use the chemical of your choice; i.e.: Proxi Clean, etc.
ENOTOOLS is not here to convince you that this or that in limited strength is NOT a flaw. And we are not going to try to say that some imperfection is not stylistic or part of the overall complexity of a wine. But there is a difference between a small beauty mark placed by an angel which perfectly punctuates already pleasing features on a person and some sort of major cosmetic affront.
What you can do is sanitize an already clean barrel in hopes to control the population of what lives in the barrel that may harm the nose of your wine during it's next fill. Remember, beauty is in the eye, nose, and mouth of the beholder.
The three ways to make potential flaw- inducers feel very unwelcome are:
1. Steam
2. Ozone
3. Chemicals
1. Steam: The best source for a steam generator in our fair industry is Glen Caster at ARS/ Electro- Steam in California
2. The best source for Ozone in the free world is us!
3. Use the chemical of your choice; i.e.: Proxi Clean, etc.
