Sterilizing an oak barrel

You can't sterilize a barrel... if the barrel is of sound history and smells alright, it will need to be swelled with water before use. This is all that needs to be done if it's a new barrel.

If it's a used _wine_ barrel, it's advaisable to fill it with a citric acid & sulfite solution prior to use. Anything else and you risk ruining the barrel. However, if your father knows the barrel's history and it doesn't smell like vinegar on the inside, I would wager a simply swelling would be fine... most sterilization treatements are pretty harsh on the wood we pay so much for, so I advocate the gentlest of treatements for barrels.

Thanks Charles! I'll pass that on. He's got a batch of grapes he's smashing right now. He also asked me this morning to ask if you (anyone) has any advice on making wine the old fashioned way. He doesn't add any yeast or anything up front - just pick the grapes and remove them from the vine, smash em, and let em ferment for a week. Then he strains the juice and proceeds to the next step. I'm not real sure yet what that is, this will be my first time having the opportunity to make it with him. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks again Charles!

Frank

No problem. I'm sure some others will chime in with different or better advice... I haven't been at this as long as some folks who post here

In regards to doing it "the old fashioned way" I personally like the safety of cultured yeasts, but there are certainly some convincing arguments for wild yeasts.

Things such as pH/acid testing, checking brix, etc are all things that are certainly helpful in making better wine, however I'm sure your father has a well developed sense of taste that helps him do this. I suppose it comes down to how satisfied your father is with his wine...

Frank-I think it's OK to crush the grapes with foot power...I did it that way for years. But, at a minimum I think he should drop by the homebrew shop and by some cultured wine yeast. The shop keepers should be able to help him decide on a yeast for the type grapes you are working with. Unless you live in a famous winemaking region the local yeasts may not be up to the job of completing fermentation and _ why_ take a chance on ruining your wine.

Here's a great resource for all types of winemaking -

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas

My father probably made wine the same way as your father. He would light a small piece of sulfur and hang it on a metal wire inside the oak barrel. I still remember the choking smell. He would do this a day before adding wine to the barrel and after washing the barrel. He was also concerned with cleanliness with all his supplies and wine bottles, always washing and rewashing with very hot water. He made great wine too. I'm still drinking some of his '96 wine which has held up well. The Brix on the wine he made was around 23 degrees.

Assuming that this is a new barrel, it doesn't require sterilizing. Fill it with cold water to check for leaks, dump the water when it stops leaking and fill it with wine immediately. Buy a silicone bung for the barrel. Don't use a wooden bung. They tend to crack the bung stave, and they don't seal as well.

It's very important to (a) keep the sulfite level of the wine at the correct level, and (b) keep the barrel topped up. I recommend weekly tasting, sniffing and topping to assure quality. Over time, the wine evaporates through the staves causing the level in the barrel to drop. Also, the free SO2 in the wine will slowly drop as the sulfite becomes oxidized to sulfate. It's not unusual to have to add sulfite a couple of times per year.

Tom S

Just in case you're using a second hand barrel, you will want to kill off as much of the bugs as possible (Brettanomyces, Acetobacter...). A winemaking consultant from WineNet (he's on the management committee of our winery) told me recently that some research has shown that completely filling the barrel with 80°C water and leaving for around 15 minutes will significantly reduce the microbial load, even killing Brett. You will never kill all of them, and as Tom S stated, there is no substitute for surveillance.

This technique will also remove some oak flavour, but wineries generally sell old barrels for two reasons: either they're too old and have no flavour left, or they are showing signs of fouling. If the barrel has been sold for the first reason, then you're not losing any oak flavour. If the second reason, then you want to be absolutely sure you're killing everything. So you can't go wrong.

Please don't use this technique on a new barrel! It is unneccessary. However, we do chuck in around 30L of very hot water, roll it around and then leave the barrel on one end for 20 minutes, before rolling it over and leaving it on the other end. Similar to Tom S's suggestion, this will swell the wood to prevent leaks. The technique is recommended by Tonnellerie Radoux, and by a couple of other coopers that I can't remember right now (I think one is Taransaud). You will lose some oak flavour, but not a lot - it just smells like it!

Cheers,

Andrew

Wow, thank you all for the input! I'm copying and pasting them all into a separate document to give to my dad, and I'm sure he'll appreciate it. This is a great group, and I'll be perusing for advice and tips. Thanks again!!

Frank