Wine exposure while racking and bottling: floating lid?

[NorCal]

Right now I pump into a flex tank, SS tank or brute with the surface of the wine fully exposed. My thought was to make a food safe floating lid that I could rack into and have the lid simply floating on the surface of the wine. Has anyone done anything similar?

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I have an adjustable lid that has a tube along the ends that you pump up and it creates a seal ? It is for a stainless steel conical vessel.

 

[JohnT]

I normally just cover with a plastic sheet. This is more to keep the bugs and dust out more than anything.

 

[codeman]

I thought flex tanks had a floating lid to keep the wine away from oxygen.

 

[bkisel]

Is this a concern for us home wine makers while bottling? I realize that bottling is when we have the longest exposure time to the air on a large surface of wine.

 

[Norske]

My suggestion is if your doing those volumes of wine, then buy a couple of variable volume tanks w/lids. Once your wine has finished fermenting you should not allow oxygen to come into contact with your wine. Sparging the headspace with Argon will displace the oxygen but you still need a lid. How you would ever make an airtight food grade lid to adapt to what you are currently using would be a feat.

 

[NorCal]

My suggestion is if your doing those volumes of wine, then buy a couple of variable volume tanks w/lids. Once your wine has finished fermenting you should not allow oxygen to come into contact with your wine. Sparging the headspace with Argon will displace the oxygen but you still need a lid. How you would ever make an airtight food grade lid to adapt to what you are currently using would be a feat.

Thank you for the replies. My plan was not to make an airtight seal, but rather one that floated on top of the wine, and is allowed to freely move up or down with the level of the wine. Keeping a reasonable tolerance should still achieve a 99% coverage of the surface area being exposed.

 

[NorCal]

I assume that oxidation is primarily a function of surface area exposed (times) the time it is exposed (divided) by the total volume of the wine, I came up with a little table to see if leaving the wine exposed in a Brute, while bottling for an hour or two is significant. To determine a factor of what I would consider a wine significantly degraded, I looked at a glass of wine sitting out for 24 hours. It had a factor of 384. I then looked at a bottle, that sat half full for 48 hours. It had a factor of 329. This just gives me an idea of a number that you do not want to be anywhere near.

Then taking my 30 gallon barrel, being transferred into a 44 gallon Brute and being exposed for two hours, while bottling, gave a factor of .4, or a 1000:1 ratio to the exposed glass if wine for 24 hours or opened bottle for 48 hours. So, I'm satisfied that there is not a significant amount of exposure while I bottle.

 

[Enologo]

I assume that oxidation is primarily a function of surface area exposed (times) the time it is exposed (divided) by the total volume of the wine, I came up with a little table to see if leaving the wine exposed in a Brute, while bottling for an hour or two is significant. To determine a factor of what I would consider a wine significantly degraded, I looked at a glass of wine sitting out for 24 hours. It had a factor of 384. I then looked at a bottle, that sat half full for 48 hours. It had a factor of 329. This just gives me an idea of a number that you do not want to be anywhere near.

Then taking my 30 gallon barrel, being transferred into a 44 gallon Brute and being exposed for two hours, while bottling, gave a factor of .4, or a 1000:1 ratio to the exposed glass if wine for 24 hours or opened bottle for 48 hours. So, I'm satisfied that there is not a significant amount of exposure while I bottle.

Just out of curiosity why do you transfer to the Brute in order to bottle? Couldn't you just bottle directly from the barrel??

 

[NorCal]

Just out of curiosity why do you transfer to the Brute in order to bottle? Couldn't you just bottle directly from the barrel??

Good point. I like the idea of a clean racking to avoid sediment in the bottle.

 

[Enologo]

Oh I get it now. I only have my first wine in my barrel but I tried to rack enough and wait till it was clear before it went into the barrel because I don't want to have to try to clean any sediment out of the barrel. I just gave it a taste tonight and it's getting close to bottling time, maybe another week or two if I can hold out.

 

[PAFruitWines]

according to your calculations the exposure is insignificant. is it really worth the effort of a lid?

 

[NorCal]

Hey PA, I'm not going to pursue the floating cover. I'm sure there are other areas I can spend my time that would improve my winemaking more.