Stainless steel tanks

[jestar]

My vineyard has matured and the crop this year exceeded my carboy
capacity. I am able to trade services with a welder who can
manufacture stainless steel tanks. He says that he can obtain steel
tubes up to 15 inches in diameter which would make the job easier and
since I am mostly looking for 100 liter tanks, these would work. If my
math is right a 15"x96" tank would be around 92 liters(24.5 gallons).
The question regards the composition of the stainless steel tubes for
wine making as there are different grades according to the alloy. Do
manufacturers of stainless steel tanks use a specific grade of steel?
Is there such a thing as food grade steel?

[jestar]

My math is off. I used an online calculator for a cone rather than a
cylinder. 15"x36" tubes are closer. I think. Am not a math whiz.

[doub...@hotmail.com]

Jestar,

Unless you have a top for these tubes they will be useless to store
wine. Plastic food grade barrels are the best way to store wine
cheaply if your getting up to 35 or 50 gallon batches. Below that,
more carboys are the best. I think you'll find that if you have 35
gallons of carboys you will always use them even if you go to larger
batches.

[Bruce In Bangkok]

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:13:59 -0700 (PDT), jestar <jest...@gmail.com>
wrote:

To answer your question - Yes there are food grade stainless steels.

Check
http://brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue2.6/palmer.html

for more details.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

[jestar]

Doubl,

I plan to have the tanks with floating lids for variable capacity or
if with fixed capacity I would go with nitrogen gas to top off. I
have heard that plastic barrels oxygenate the wine over extended
periods(and sellers of these barrels will tell you that's a good
thing- when you have lemons, right?). I have 3 6-gallon, 15 5-gallon
and 4 3-gallon carboys with 5 1-gallon jugs on the floor right now
and it is becoming awkward to deal with them. I have 5 cultivars in
the carboys that I want to blend and even with the 5 5-gallon carboys
I have left empty, I can't blend with any consistency if I want to
have say 26 gallons of one blend, 12 of another and 16 of a third. And
besides, empty one carboy and then you have to clean it right away to
reuse it. When you get to this volume, carboys are a pain. That's why
I want to go to stainless. If I have 6 or 7 variable capacity tanks I
can ferment, age and blend a lot more easily and with consistency.
The only thing is, I don't want to have to pay $3000 to buy tanks!

[jestar]

Thanks, Bruce in Bangkok. Just what I was looking for.

jestar

[doub...@hotmail.com]

You seem to have plenty of carboys. So your going to have custom
variable lids made for your tubes? Not sure if that would be
inexpensive. I can say that from personal experience,t plastic barrels
are great to store a fixed amount of wine. If you top them up and
screw the bungs tight, they will store wine better than anything I
can think of , even screw top bottles. I went thru the same thing with
carboys. Eventually your tired of picking them up and putting them on
a table to rack them. I found the 5 gallon ones were the most manageal
\ble. The 6 gallon ones started to get to the point of being too heavy
especially on certain days. Some days they felt light and others they
felt like a ton of bricks.

[doub...@hotmail.com]

One more thing. I advise against using gas to top up. There is no
substitute for topping up with wine. There is too much room for error
using gas. Don't do it.

[Paul E. Lehmann]

jestar wrote:

Check out this source. I have never used them but it may suit your needs:

http://www.skolnik.com/winedrum.shtml

Paul

[tdjudd]

I use stainless steel with lids that sit flush on the surface of the
wine.
your concept is not new and works well. be sure to have your maker add
an air bladder that expands to fill the gap and you are good. no gas
need. no head space. no oxidation.

stainless is stainless.

ted

[Jerry]

Hi:

I have no idea of your budget. That said, there are stainless steel,
variable lid tanks available from 25 to 100 gallons (100 to 400
liters) at reasonable prices. Reasonable is a personal matter.
(Stainless tanks come in all sizes, but I am referring to the most
likely ones that a home winemaker might consider.) However if you
consider that when cared for stainless tanks will last as long or
longer than you, they are a good investment. In addition to allowing
fermentation, settling, storage and various wine making activities to
be done easier, more sanitary and more efficient, variable lid tanks
allow you to reduce oxygen exposure to almost zero. There are many
manufacturers. Marchisio makes good ones, as do many others. St. Pat's
in Texas sells them at reasonable prices, especially during the off
season. One note of caution - be sure to order tanks that have the
fittings and valve options you feel you will use both now and in the
future.

Regards

Jerry - Winemaker
De Angelis Wines