do I need to clean the barrel

[tonyt]

First thing tomorrow morning I am bottling a mosti kit out of the barrel. It's about the fourth kit to go through. Until now all I ever do is rinse the barrel out and rack in the new. wine. Do I need to do more serious cleaning? The barrel has never been empty for more than 30 minutes nor will it be empty tomorrow.

 

[roblloyd]

I'm not sure the correct answer with a barrel but I would myself sanitize it. What if you had something in the previous batch contaminating it for the next one.

I'd give it a quick rinse with K-meta sloshing around.

 

[Rocky]

Tony, everyone has their own way of doing this but I rinse out the barrel with hot water to remove and residual color. When the water is reasonably clear, I add a sanitizing k-meta solution (i.e. 3 T per gallon) and replace the bung for about 30 minutes, dump this, and re-rinse with hot water, fill with new wine. Never had a problem, but again, this is my way.

 

[tonyt]

Thanks, Rob and Rocky. I do rinse a bit and then spray in some sanitizing solution but not as thoroughly as Rocky. y'alls comments make since and I'll change my MO from now on.

 

[Kleftiwallah]

If in doupt, scrub it out.

If in doupt, scrub it out. Cheers, Tony.

 

[DasK]

I don't use barrels, but I agree with the statement about potential contamination from a previous wine.

I usually re-sterilize my hydrometer before moving it 6 inches from one batch to another. That way if one wine has some weird problem with something I'm not introducing it into my other(s).