pinky wrote:
> I would strongly advise you NOT to use the polyethylene type barrels for
> long term bulk aging. I have never used wooden barrels and from the comments
> I have seen on here it is fraught with possible problems -- especially for
> the small time home winemaker. I have never used stainless steel but
> certainly some of our US winemakers do use them.
> I have 8 x 23 litre glass carboys for my bulk aging and about 30 x 1
> gallon ( imp). I used to have over 60 1 gallon jars but they occupied to
> much space! The 23 litre glass jars are readily available from your local
> home brew store complete with a cap which allows insertion of fermentation
> locks. You can also buy a suitable carrying handle which is necessary. ( see
> below)
>
> The trouble with the"plastic" carboys is that in the long term they will
> admit oxygen to your stored wine. They also are very susceptible to off
> flavours being admitted to the wine. I do use them for fermenting in but
> transfer to glass once it is complete for bulk aging.
>
> The disadvantage of the 23 litre glass is that they are very heavy
> especially when full -- over 60lbs and you should think carefully where you
> are going to store them
>
> HTH
>
All of the large glass carbouys I've seen have been tulip shaped with a
long stemmed mouth, hardly optimised for space, which I don't have a
great deal of. After a bit more hunting, I discovered
www.hopandgrape.co.uk which sell a 30 and 50 litre stainless steel bin
that looks like it might be suitable. They also do a better shaped
glass carbouy than I have previously seen, but they prefer not to mail
order these items. However they are in county Durham, and a friend
regularly drives there, so I'll pick some up next time he does. As for
weight, said friend has arms like tree trunks and seems to be immune to
the physics of weight and inertia. He also likes my wine.