55 gallon drums.

[hvac36]

Have a friend that can get me plastic food grade barrels but the had soybean or canola oil in them. Any real chance of cleaning them for aging?

 

[jimmyjames23]

Yup. A scrum brush, dish soap and elbow grease will do the job. Worked for my olive oil drum.

 

[Rocky]

I agree with Jimmy. I had two 55 gallon food grade plastic barrels which were used to import lime juice from South American and I cleaned them out and made fermenters out of them.

 

[hvac36]

Sweet have an unlimited supply then.

 

[Rocky]

HVAC, when you say that you are going to use them "for aging," I assume you have a way to make them air tighit with a possible addition of an airlock, right? The barrels that I used were only for fermenting. I cut the top off with a saber saw, installed a spigot near the bottom and crushed my grapes right into the barrels. Once the wine fermented for 10 to 14 days, I moved the wine to oak barrels with the bung hole open. I kept the barrel filled with additional juice, which I checked a couple of times a day at least, for about 45 days when all fermentation had stopped. At that point I sealed the barrel with a wooden bung.

As far as aging in the barrels, as long as they are air tight it would seem to me like the same bulk aging that you would get from a carboy, but not from a barrel. That is, there would be no micro-oxygenation.

 

[grapeman]

I use some in the winery for limited aging. Just get ones you can fit with a bung and airlock as needed. I like the open top ones-just make sure the seal is good. If they seal good, once fitted with an airlock push on the barrel some and see if air bubbles up the airlock. If it does, the barrel should not leak. I keep the wine in them for no more than 6 months before moving to another more airtight barrel. The open top ones are really the only ones you can clean really good before and after the wine. The ones with a 3 inch opening are hard to clean well.

 

[hvac36]

These have a double opening on them both 3" figuring for cleaning I have an attachment for my pressure washer that is bent at 90 degrees for cleaning. All barrels have a threaded plug and will be using tape on the threads to get a good seal plus these did have a liquid in them to being with. Figure as long as they are air tight and filled to the top and take a ratch strap around barrel so I can squeeze it a little to remove any air space. Should be good for at least 6 to 8 months only doing whites not reds.