Bottling from Barrel

[Dom Lausic]

Hey Everyone,

Looking to bottle a red blend currently in a 50L oak barrel. Looking for suggestions on the best way to do this...... Typically, i rack to a bottling bucket/carboy, add k-meta, and use bottle filler. But that works for small batches. Not sure how to make the logistics work for the larger batch, as i would need as least 3 buckets, and i only have 1 bottling bucket...... And obviously trying to minimize the amount of splashing around.....

Should i just pump out of the barrel, fill the bucket, add k-meta, bottle that batch, then do it all over again? Curious to hear how everyone else handles this task from barrels.

Thx!

 

[Boatboy24]

I always rack from the barrel into a carboy. Make any final tweaks and let it sit a month or so before racking one last time and bottling. I take it you don't have a couple free carboys.

 

[Dom Lausic]

Ya, don't have a few free carboys. Was looking at getting a Speidel 60L fermenter. Would be perfect to rack to, and then easy to bottle from.....

 

[NorCal]

I never bottle from barrel. I will rack and SO2 the day before bottling into other containers, be it spiedels, flextanks or carboys. This gets the finished wine off the barrel fallout and gives a day for any fallout from that transfer to settle and not end up in the bottle.

 

[Johnd]

Hey Everyone,

Looking to bottle a red blend currently in a 50L oak barrel. Looking for suggestions on the best way to do this...... Typically, i rack to a bottling bucket/carboy, add k-meta, and use bottle filler. But that works for small batches. Not sure how to make the logistics work for the larger batch, as i would need as least 3 buckets, and i only have 1 bottling bucket...... And obviously trying to minimize the amount of splashing around.....

Should i just pump out of the barrel, fill the bucket, add k-meta, bottle that batch, then do it all over again? Curious to hear how everyone else handles this task from barrels.

Thx!

I also prefer to rack out of the barrel into carboys, sulfite as it hits the carboy, and not mess with for a few days to let sediment (if any) settle out. After bench trials / tests / adjustments have been made and set in, it gets bottled.

 

[mainshipfred]

I suppose you could make the final adjustments in the barrel but my concern would be sediment. Being new I think my process will be rack to glass, make adjustments, let it settle awhile and even though they will be ~1 year old still want to filter the reds with 5 micron filter pads and white to .05.

 

[stickman]

In the past I've bottled from the barrel, but I always ended up with significant bottle variation. Even if you're careful about not pulling sediment from the barrel, the wine is stratified, the taste is different at the top of the barrel vs the bottom near the lees.

 

[mainshipfred]

In the past I've bottled from the barrel, but I always ended up with significant bottle variation. Even if you're careful about not pulling sediment from the barrel, the wine is stratified, the taste is different at the top of the barrel vs the bottom near the lees.

That's a goood point, even prior to bottling from glass I transfer or filter to another carboy before bottling. My thought is the stratification is not only the lees other elements as well.

 

[NorCal]

In the past I've bottled from the barrel, but I always ended up with significant bottle variation. Even if you're careful about not pulling sediment from the barrel, the wine is stratified, the taste is different at the top of the barrel vs the bottom near the lees.

I never thought about that. Learned something new this morning and it’s timely with bottling around the corner. Thanks.

 

[cmason1957]

I don't have a barrel, but anytime I have multiple carboys of the same wine, every time I rack, I try to pull some from carboy A, some from carboy B, etc. I would think you would want to do something similar.

 

[stickman]

I don't have a barrel, but anytime I have multiple carboys of the same wine, every time I rack, I try to pull some from carboy A, some from carboy B, etc. I would think you would want to do something similar.

I agree, I'm at this point now with my 2017 Cab in a 30 gal tank, I'll be racking to the bottling shelf soon, but I have no free tanks (all 4 are full), so I'll be using two 15gal demijohns, the tanks are tall and narrow and without some form of blending, the two demi's will likely be different wine.

 

[Dom Lausic]

These are all really good points. Looks like another run to the LHBS!!

I like the idea of 1 large vessel so that everything is equal in all of its parts (i.e. k-meta, stratification/layering, and any final adjustments.

Thanks for the insight!!