Wayne Harris wrote:

On Apr 24, 8:11*am, "bobdrob"
wrote:
A food grade barrel will say so on the bottom
somewhere. It's usually accompanied by the NSF
logo (National Sanitation Foundation.) NSF is
to food handling products as UL is to
electrical. *We chefs & bakers have long used
Brutes for food storage. *Your local restaurant
supplier ought to carry food grade barrels in
sizes from 10 gals. up to 55's. * HTH. *
regards, *bob.

wrote in message


...
Wayne,
In fact, the HDPE Brute barrels at lowe's are
indeed food grade. *I noticed this when I saw
the same barrel for sale in a catalog, and also
at the local wine hobby store. *I called brute
myself and asked them. *They assured me that
the barrels at lowes are the same AND food
grade. *The trick is that the only ones that
are food grade are gray, white and yellow ones
(I believe). *I have a gray one. I put a large
spigot in the bottom. Marc

On Apr 23, 7:06 pm, Wayne Harris
wrote:



On Apr 23, 5:51 pm, Joe Sallustio
wrote:

On Apr 23, 9:02 am, Wayne Harris
wrote:

On Apr 22, 6:29 pm, Joe Sallustio
wrote:

On Apr 22, 5:36 pm, AxisOfBeagles
wrote:

Neither?

I don;t think you'd want to ferment
Cab in a barrel anyway. What about
getting two or three large plastic
fermentation buckets with lids? Will
Mrs. Harris allow that?


http://morewinemaking.com/view_product/19680/103207

Fermenting 5 small lots seems to me
only to increase risks, and would
be terribly inefficient from a time /
work point of view.

On 2008-04-22 13:19:31 -0700, Wayne
Harris
said:

This fall, due to spouse induced
space restrictions, I am fermenting
about 25 5-gallon buckets of
Cabernet Sauvignon. (I did not know
this last year, but appearently we
have a standing "no-barrel" policy
in my house)



I am thinking about Pressing

Would it be better to:

Press each bucket's cap
individually,draining back into the
original bucket?
(More time consuming)

Collect up all the caps, and press
as one evenly divide up the
resulting juice back into each
individual bucket. (less time
consuming)

thanks. -Wayne- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Wayne,
I ferment in 6 gallon pails and it is a
bit of a pain. I drain off the free run
and scoop out the cap into the press
leaving most of the seeds behind. You
really can't fill them over 4.5 gallons
and mine hold 6.5 gallons technically.

Why not go the large trash barrel,
clear plastic poly bag route others
use? I don't know how many pounds you
are talking but it sounds like close to
a ton. It would be a lot less work and
a lot less space. You might have only 3
55 gallon barrels to deal with rather
than 25 buckets.

Joe- Hide quoted text

- Show quoted text -

I was under the impression that large
plastic trash barrels should not be used
for Primary Fermentation. It that is the
case, I am happy to run down to Lowes and
pick a couple up, But most trash barrels
are LDPE plastic, (not food grade) and I
am worried about the must picking up
smells.

you mentioned liners, i don't know what
you mean by a a liner.

(I could sell a stackable "trash" can to
the spouse. - Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

They sell large plastic food grade inserts
here for trash cans but I am talking about
huge clear plastic bags; we called them
body bags because they were 6 feet long...
Industrial supply places sell them. They
are pretty heavy grade plastic.

Joe- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I *think* i know what you mean. We call them
"contractor bags" hmmm,,, mental wheels are
turning here....

I saw the food grade HDPE primaries on the
morewine.com site, they are perfect. Its just
that the shipping costs are outragous.

24 buckets are a little (not much) more
expensive, but the shipping costs are within
reason. (And, my poor back can move these
around)

I'm really not sure what to do here. I've
been thinking about this for about 6 months,
and really, i'm still not any closer to a
decision.

Its funny you know,
I've found a way to make my rather talkitive
wife clam up. Sometimes my wife will ask me
over dinner; "You seem distracted honey,
what's wrong?" then I'd say something like
"the acidity in this batch is off, and I'm
not sure what to do", or, I need to figure a
way to press next falls grapes better" or I
need a better process for monitoring MLF"
-End of conversation- ;-)

This really is one of those things that i do
still ponder, and don't know exactly how i'm
going to proceed.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I just got back from Lowes. The Brute 44 Gallon
gray barrels are LDPE.
They were the only ones there. I will look
online...

Check out
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/def...ookie%5Ftest=1

They will also send you a print catalog.
They have a LOT of HDPE products and a lot of
different items. I have had good service with
them and they ship VERY promptly. They have
technical people that can handle your questions
and tell you exactly which products are suitable
for making wine if you should have any questions.
The print catalog also lists the specs for each
product.

I could do without the religious stuff they send
with the order though.