Bulk aging and barrel topping with a Sanke keg

[MAJ]

Hello Everyone,

I’m trying to come up with a solution to my storage/barrel topping situation...

I’m preparing to barrel age my wines for the first time.... I currently have 15.5 gallons of Lanza Primitivo bulk aging in a brand new 15.5g sanke keg, and a 13.2 gallon Vadai barrel... with another 20 gallons of Lanza Cab waiting to rotate through.

I’ve been trying to find a manufacturer that makes a tri-clover fitting for a Sanke style keg that would allow me to store a partially full keg under pressure with argon, while I’m rotating the wine through the Vadai...

Does anyone know if such a product exists?

Any other ideas would be appreciated


Thank you for your help

 

[stickman]

All sorts of fittings and couplings are available for kegs. Has the spear been removed from yours?

 

[MAJ]

Yes, the valve assembly has been removed from the keg

 

[CDrew]

@MAJ don't know if you already figured this out. But the top of the Sanke keg is compatible with 2 inch tri-clamp fittings. You need a tri clamp gasket that is flat on one side to make the transition. Those are a bit hard to find, but an inexpensive source is here:
https://www.brewershardware.com/F1GASSIL.html?category_id=253

I have a bunch of 1.5 inch tri-clamp fittings and so to transition from 2 inch to 1.5 inch I used this fitting:
https://www.brewershardware.com/Tri-Clover-Compatible-2x1_5-Cap-Style-Reducer-TCCAPRED20X15.html

And of course, you will also need a 2 inch clamp.

Once you have that, you can get silicone stoppers to fit, though you would need to figure out a way to flow in your inert gas, and then quickly stopper it up before much air mixing occurred.

And if you wanted to get really fancy, something like this could be used:
https://www.brewershardware.com/American-Sanke-Keg-Fermentor-Kit-without-Thermowell.html

Just me, but I think the tri-clamp sanitary fittings are the way to go even for us home winemakers. It seems like overkill at first, but once you start using them, their modular nature is quite useful. There are also a couple of other useful parts that you can get from Catalyst Mfg and MoreWine that allows vacuum racking or pressurized pumping with inert gas or co2. And longer term there are a huge number of fittings that will allow you to do anything you want in your winery using all sanitary fittings. The 3/8 or 1/2 hose barb fittings are particularly useful.