Mould Around Bung in Barrel
 

I've been using barrels for years and don't recall the problem in the
past, at least not as much as it's become in the past few years. I've
been getting a lot of mould around the bung in my two barrels and it
develops between weekly top ups. I generally wrap a paper towel soaked
in sulfite around the bung but even that does not seem to work.

My main concern is that it requires some careful clean up both before
and after removing the bung each time I top up.

Any suggestions.

Glen Duff

"Glen Duff" > wrote in message
...
> I've been using barrels for years and don't recall the problem in the
> past, at least not as much as it's become in the past few years. I've
> been getting a lot of mould around the bung in my two barrels and it
> develops between weekly top ups. I generally wrap a paper towel soaked
> in sulfite around the bung but even that does not seem to work.
>
> My main concern is that it requires some careful clean up both before
> and after removing the bung each time I top up.
>
> Any suggestions.

Clean the area around the bung as you have been doing, do your tasting and
topping, and just before inserting the bung dip the business end of it (the
tapered part too) into dry sulfite powder. When you insert the bung it'll
grind fresh sulfite into the wood at the bunghole. This works well with
silicone bungs.

BTW, are you sure your sulfite is still active? Exposure to air *rapidly*
degrades potassium metabisulfite into potassium sulfate, which is completely
worthless. I can't stress this strongly enough. You should buy fresh every
year from a source that has a _lot_ of turnover, and sells the stuff in
sealed foil bags. Home winemaking shops are not necessarily a good source
for this. I buy mine from The Wine Lab, and even they say that their stuff
assays typically ~50% available SO2. Theoretical is 57%, but you're never
going to get it that pure.

Tom S

"Glen Duff" > wrote in message
...
> I've been using barrels for years and don't recall the problem in the
> past, at least not as much as it's become in the past few years. I've
> been getting a lot of mould around the bung in my two barrels and it
> develops between weekly top ups. I generally wrap a paper towel soaked
> in sulfite around the bung but even that does not seem to work.
>
> My main concern is that it requires some careful clean up both before
> and after removing the bung each time I top up.
>
> Any suggestions.

Clean the area around the bung as you have been doing, do your tasting and
topping, and just before inserting the bung dip the business end of it (the
tapered part too) into dry sulfite powder. When you insert the bung it'll
grind fresh sulfite into the wood at the bunghole. This works well with
silicone bungs.

BTW, are you sure your sulfite is still active? Exposure to air *rapidly*
degrades potassium metabisulfite into potassium sulfate, which is completely
worthless. I can't stress this strongly enough. You should buy fresh every
year from a source that has a _lot_ of turnover, and sells the stuff in
sealed foil bags. Home winemaking shops are not necessarily a good source
for this. I buy mine from The Wine Lab, and even they say that their stuff
assays typically ~50% available SO2. Theoretical is 57%, but you're never
going to get it that pure.

Tom S

"Tom S" > wrote in message
om...
:
: "Glen Duff" > wrote in message
: ...
: > I've been using barrels for years and don't recall the problem in the
: > past, at least not as much as it's become in the past few years. I've
: > been getting a lot of mould around the bung in my two barrels and it
: > develops between weekly top ups. I generally wrap a paper towel soaked
: > in sulfite around the bung but even that does not seem to work.
: >
: > My main concern is that it requires some careful clean up both before
: > and after removing the bung each time I top up.
: >
: > Any suggestions.
:
: Clean the area around the bung as you have been doing, do your tasting and
: topping, and just before inserting the bung dip the business end of it
(the
: tapered part too) into dry sulfite powder. When you insert the bung it'll
: grind fresh sulfite into the wood at the bunghole. This works well with
: silicone bungs.
:
: BTW, are you sure your sulfite is still active? Exposure to air *rapidly*
: degrades potassium metabisulfite into potassium sulfate, which is
completely
: worthless. I can't stress this strongly enough. You should buy fresh
every
: year from a source that has a _lot_ of turnover, and sells the stuff in
: sealed foil bags. Home winemaking shops are not necessarily a good source
: for this. I buy mine from The Wine Lab, and even they say that their
stuff
: assays typically ~50% available SO2. Theoretical is 57%, but you're never
: going to get it that pure.
:
: Tom S

I had almost the exact same thing happen to me a number of years ago. Left
a paper towel around the bung to soak up some spilled wine and came back a
week later to a moldy mess. Getting rid of the mold in the wood turned out
to be a challenge and I am pretty sure part of the problem was the old
sulfite I was using at the time. Which raises an on going issue for me.
How do I ever know what "true" sulfite levels are in my wine? I find that
the titret measurements are so far off, to almost being useless. For
example, I keep notes on all my sulfite additions yet it isn't unusual to
record 35-40ppm with the titret six months after pressing even though I only
added 10-20ppm just before fermentation. On the other hand, I recently
measured a commercial white wine (recent vintage) and found only 8ppm.
Maybe the commercial wine doesn't use a lot of sulfite, but I don't
understand a mysterious doubling of sulfite in my wine. IIRC David Breedan
had suggested that titrets measure approximately 10-15ppm more than is
actually present, which makes me wonder why I even use them sometimes!
Combined with inherent error measurement it seems to become somewhat of a
guessing game as to your true sulfite levels.

To me this is an important issue because I am constantly topping up barrels
so I need to keep the sulfites up (for the periods between top ups). So
what do others do? New sulfite every six months and keep good notes or rely
on titret measurements?

Thanks for your opinions,
Tim, Vancouver

"Tom S" > wrote in message
om...
:
: "Glen Duff" > wrote in message
: ...
: > I've been using barrels for years and don't recall the problem in the
: > past, at least not as much as it's become in the past few years. I've
: > been getting a lot of mould around the bung in my two barrels and it
: > develops between weekly top ups. I generally wrap a paper towel soaked
: > in sulfite around the bung but even that does not seem to work.
: >
: > My main concern is that it requires some careful clean up both before
: > and after removing the bung each time I top up.
: >
: > Any suggestions.
:
: Clean the area around the bung as you have been doing, do your tasting and
: topping, and just before inserting the bung dip the business end of it
(the
: tapered part too) into dry sulfite powder. When you insert the bung it'll
: grind fresh sulfite into the wood at the bunghole. This works well with
: silicone bungs.
:
: BTW, are you sure your sulfite is still active? Exposure to air *rapidly*
: degrades potassium metabisulfite into potassium sulfate, which is
completely
: worthless. I can't stress this strongly enough. You should buy fresh
every
: year from a source that has a _lot_ of turnover, and sells the stuff in
: sealed foil bags. Home winemaking shops are not necessarily a good source
: for this. I buy mine from The Wine Lab, and even they say that their
stuff
: assays typically ~50% available SO2. Theoretical is 57%, but you're never
: going to get it that pure.
:
: Tom S

I had almost the exact same thing happen to me a number of years ago. Left
a paper towel around the bung to soak up some spilled wine and came back a
week later to a moldy mess. Getting rid of the mold in the wood turned out
to be a challenge and I am pretty sure part of the problem was the old
sulfite I was using at the time. Which raises an on going issue for me.
How do I ever know what "true" sulfite levels are in my wine? I find that
the titret measurements are so far off, to almost being useless. For
example, I keep notes on all my sulfite additions yet it isn't unusual to
record 35-40ppm with the titret six months after pressing even though I only
added 10-20ppm just before fermentation. On the other hand, I recently
measured a commercial white wine (recent vintage) and found only 8ppm.
Maybe the commercial wine doesn't use a lot of sulfite, but I don't
understand a mysterious doubling of sulfite in my wine. IIRC David Breedan
had suggested that titrets measure approximately 10-15ppm more than is
actually present, which makes me wonder why I even use them sometimes!
Combined with inherent error measurement it seems to become somewhat of a
guessing game as to your true sulfite levels.

To me this is an important issue because I am constantly topping up barrels
so I need to keep the sulfites up (for the periods between top ups). So
what do others do? New sulfite every six months and keep good notes or rely
on titret measurements?

Thanks for your opinions,
Tim, Vancouver

"Tim O'Connor" > wrote:
> To me this is an important issue because I am constantly topping up barrels
> so I need to keep the sulfites up (for the periods between top ups). So
> what do others do? New sulfite every six months and keep good notes or rely
> on titret measurements?

Keeping good notes and frequent sulphiting isn't enough because you
need to accurately account for SO2 binding. You really need a
measurement of the free SO2 to be able to do this (since every wine is
different in its binding potential). Titrets are tricky, but with some
value adjustments and/or reference measurements you can get consistent
results of an accuracy that is sufficient for general practise. For
more, see sections 14.3-14.5 at:

http://members.tripod.com/~BRotter/SO2.htm

Ben

"Tim O'Connor" > wrote:
> To me this is an important issue because I am constantly topping up barrels
> so I need to keep the sulfites up (for the periods between top ups). So
> what do others do? New sulfite every six months and keep good notes or rely
> on titret measurements?

Keeping good notes and frequent sulphiting isn't enough because you
need to accurately account for SO2 binding. You really need a
measurement of the free SO2 to be able to do this (since every wine is
different in its binding potential). Titrets are tricky, but with some
value adjustments and/or reference measurements you can get consistent
results of an accuracy that is sufficient for general practise. For
more, see sections 14.3-14.5 at:

http://members.tripod.com/~BRotter/SO2.htm

Ben

"Tim O'Connor" > wrote:
> To me this is an important issue because I am constantly topping up barrels
> so I need to keep the sulfites up (for the periods between top ups). So
> what do others do? New sulfite every six months and keep good notes or rely
> on titret measurements?

Keeping good notes and frequent sulphiting isn't enough because you
need to accurately account for SO2 binding. You really need a
measurement of the free SO2 to be able to do this (since every wine is
different in its binding potential). Titrets are tricky, but with some
value adjustments and/or reference measurements you can get consistent
results of an accuracy that is sufficient for general practise. For
more, see sections 14.3-14.5 at:

http://members.tripod.com/~BRotter/SO2.htm

Ben

"Tom S" > wrote:

> Home winemaking shops are not necessarily a good source
> for this. I buy mine from The Wine Lab, and even they say that their stuff
> assays typically ~50% available SO2. Theoretical is 57%, but you're never
> going to get it that pure.

Very true! I always assay mine myself now, so that I actually know
what the real level of SO2 I'm adding is. I've had some seriously weak
meta in the past.

Ben

"Ben Rotter" > wrote in message
om...
.."Tim O'Connor" > wrote:
.. > To me this is an important issue because I am constantly topping up
barrels
..> so I need to keep the sulfites up (for the periods between top ups). So
.. > what do others do? New sulfite every six months and keep good notes or
rely
.. > on titret measurements?

..Keeping good notes and frequent sulphiting isn't enough because you
..need to accurately account for SO2 binding. You really need a
..measurement of the free SO2 to be able to do this (since every wine is
..different in its binding potential). Titrets are tricky, but with some
..value adjustments and/or reference measurements you can get consistent
..results of an accuracy that is sufficient for general practise. For
..more, see sections 14.3-14.5 at:

.. http://members.tripod.com/~BRotter/SO2.htm

..Ben

Thanks for the suggestions. I like the hydrogen peroxide idea, just to get
an idea of how much the iodine is reacting with other compounds (phenols).
I have measured musts that should read 0 (or close to) and have been
surprised how high they were.
Tim
PS-nice article.

"Tim O'Connor" > wrote in message
...
> How do I ever know what "true" sulfite levels are in my wine? I find that
> the titret measurements are so far off, to almost being useless.

If you're making white wine, you can do very well with a conventional Ripper
titration, using 0.02N Iodine. For reds, I suggest learning how to do a
vacuum aspiration titration with H2O2 and NaOH standard because the end
point in a Ripper is very hard to read in a red wine.

Tom S