Ceramic aging?

[David Violante]

My mom gifted me with three ceramic 1-gallon jugs that her dad used when he made wine. There was a cork in one that was dry rotted, and in another that is merely decorative. The remaining uncorked smells of moth balls while the other two have a distant reminiscent hint of an old winery. At least that’s what I’m telling myself…

My thoughts on cleaning them was warm soap and water and a bottle brush, then PBW. Should I consider anything else? Treat them like glass? They don’t seem to leak but I’ll test that over the next week or so. I imagine aging wine in them would be similar to glass, with the variable in either being the airlock/stopper.

 

[crushday]

My thoughts on cleaning them was warm soap and water and a bottle brush, then PBW. Should I consider anything else? Treat them like glass?

I would go straight for the PBW. This is what it's made for. Let it soak for 2 weeks, higher concentration. Make sure to rinse well!

 

[David Violante]

Sounds good… thank you! I have quite a bit in demijohns & carboys, and using these will be more for sentimental reasons for my mom and family. Still, I want to use them the best way possible.

 

[Shurt1073]

Very cool passing these down to you. You've got a story!

 

[Rice_Guy]

I avoid anything that has a perfume on wine equipment. If I think it is relatively clean I like one step or PBW. If I have no idea what the last owner did I will fill with an acid solution (wine is an acid solution) for a few weeks and then transition to the normal cleaners.

A glaze is a glass. I would expect oxygen transfer to equal a glass, ie zero. If it has cracking of the glaze, it could be higher than zero. Some glazes have pigments that contain heavy metals. It should be possible to test for lead, but I haven’t used any ceramics so don’t have specifics. I am in a college town with artsy folk. At some point I would be to hunt out a potter to ask opinion about what the inside glaze is (outside, who cares).

An interesting shape. A great family memory, I would definitely use them, (my family ceramics were sour kraut containers, mom and dad didn’t show signs of lead poisoning so I use crockery without testing)

 

[ChuckD]

You should be able to clean just about anything off glass. I have a very old glass Hi-lex bleach bottle that I cleaned and use along with a lab reagent bottle that was last filled with paint thinner. I cleaned both with acid then a few soaks with hot oxiclean. No residual smells in the bottles or taste in the wine.