Barrel fill level

[gavinxxx]

Hi,

Just joined today. Last week I filled a 30 gallon barrel with PN. Primary fermentation was almost complete - under 0 Brix. I inoculated with Malo bacteria. I filled the barrel to the top. A few days later I saw wine leaking from the breather bung. I pulled the bung off and wine etc exploded out. I cleaned everything up. Lowered the temperature in my cellar to 58. Today the bung popped by itself. A far amount of wine poured out. I cleaned the outside of the barrel with SO2 solution. I took more wine out with a wine thief. Hopefully this will not happen again. So my question is - how far do you fill the barrel initially and what else could be going on.

Thanks

Gavin

 

[winemaker81]

Welcome to WMT!

Your wine is still fermenting, so it's generating CO2, and that can vary the volume, as you have unfortunately discovered. If the ambient temperature is not steady, a few degrees increase in temperature will cause volume expansion, making it worse.

In your situations I'd allow for at least a gallon of headspace., This is not a problem during the final stages of fermentation and the first few weeks of post-fermentation degassing as the headspace will be mostly CO2.

I leave wine in glass for 2 to 3 weeks after pressing. If I have any fermentation left, it finalizes in glass. Gross lees supposedly drops within 24-72 hours of the end of fermentation, so that has time to settle out. Anything left after that is fine lees (yeast hulls), which is not a problem.

Then I homogenize my containers and give the wine a 1 minute stir, changing directions half way. This jump starts degassing, eliminating a lot of CO2. Finally I fill barrels. There is a lot less sediment in the barrel and the heavy degassing is mostly done.

 

[gavinxxx]

Welcome to WMT!

Your wine is still fermenting, so it's generating CO2, and that can vary the volume, as you have unfortunately discovered. If the ambient temperature is not steady, a few degrees increase in temperature will cause volume expansion, making it worse.

In your situations I'd allow for at least a gallon of headspace., This is not a problem during the final stages of fermentation and the first few weeks of post-fermentation degassing as the headspace will be mostly CO2.

I leave wine in glass for 2 to 3 weeks after pressing. If I have any fermentation left, it finalizes in glass. Gross lees supposedly drops within 24-72 hours of the end of fermentation, so that has time to settle out. Anything left after that is fine lees (yeast hulls), which is not a problem.

Then I homogenize my containers and give the wine a 1 minute stir, changing directions half way. This jump starts degassing, eliminating a lot of CO2. Finally I fill barrels. There is a lot less sediment in the barrel and the heavy degassing is mostly done.

Thank you. I should have asked this question before filling the barrel!

 

[BarrelMonkey]

I would typically leave an inch or so of headspace for ML, for reasons of expansion outlined above and continued growth of ML bacteria. It sounds like you have some control over temperature in your cellar which is a HUGE benefit. Make sure it's not too cold for your ML bugs to be happy.

In general I like to transfer out of primary into a 'settling tank' (in my case keg and carboys) so that I can rack off gross lees into barrel. In fact I'm going to be racking out my 2024 pinot noir tomorrow...

 

[gavinxxx]

I would typically leave an inch or so of headspace for ML, for reasons of expansion outlined above and continued growth of ML bacteria. It sounds like you have some control over temperature in your cellar which is a HUGE benefit. Make sure it's not too cold for your ML bugs to be happy.

In general I like to transfer out of primary into a 'settling tank' (in my case keg and carboys) so that I can rack off gross lees into barrel. In fact I'm going to be racking out my 2024 pinot noir tomorrow...

Thanks. I barreled down dirty. Seems like a lot of the small producer commercial wineries do this around here.

 

[BarrelMonkey]

Thanks. I barreled down dirty. Seems like a lot of the small producer commercial wineries do this around here.

It's not uncommon (often due to lack of tank space for settling!) but probably means another racking in the near future, maybe after ML is done.

 

[ChuckD]

I barreled down dirty.

??? Please to explain!

 

[BarrelMonkey]

??? Please to explain!

Just means that when he moved his wine from primary fermenter to barrel, he didn't settle out the gross lees first.

 

[Rocky]

I agree with Bryan's (Winemaker81) comments above. We did not go to the barrel early and only when fermentation was virtually complete. There would be a small amount of waste bubbling up through the bung hole, which we would clear a couple times a day and would refill the barrel to the bung hole. In your case, it would seem to need to be significantly below the bung. Bryan suggested a gallon which is the order of magnitude I would suggest. I would also add an airlock at the bung and I would use a three-piece design which can handle more aggressive fermentation than the S-type.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Welcome to WMT, ,, and better luck on the next one