Cheap long term storage - bigger...

[dpround]

I am trying to scale my wine making to a micro commercial farm diversification business using fruit I grow on the farm. It is probably safe to say the proper way to store wine in bulk is a stainless steel variable volume tank. The downside is that these are expensive at heading for £2/lt, which hurts when you are talking about 1,000lt plus tanks. Clean, food grade, IBC tanks are a fraction of that with a 1000lt tank costing less than £100. What are the potential downsides to using IBC tanks? The main purpose of the floating lid on a variable volume tank is to prevent oxidation I think. Could I achieve the same with an IBC container if I displace the air with CO2 or nitrogen? I think the main advantage of a proper variable volume tank is that I can bottle on demand as blowing the air out of a half-full IBC tank is not going to be that practical so they would probably be best bottled in one go - but even a 650lt IBC fills a lot of bottles...

Thanks in advance for any opinions

David

 

[MashBag]

Hello David.

I have the tanks you mention.
IBC containers are not it I'm afraid because they are gas permeable.

Other options are available - where abouts are you?

 

[dpround]

Hello David.

I have the tanks you mention.
IBC containers are not it I'm afraid because they are gas permeable.

Other options are available - where abouts are you?

Anglesey, North Wales. Are IBCs more gas permeable than the 25l poly fermenting barrels I am using at the moment? Is the problem oxygen ingress?

 

[MashBag]

IBC's prolly more so (thinner).
When I have visited wineries I have never seen them with finished product.

Yes. O2 ingress. Good for maturing wine quickly.

 

[dpround]

I'm now looking at new containers from https://enduramaxx.co.uk/ They are more expensive than IBCs, but a *lot* less than a proper stainless tank and are available with a constant diameter which would make adding a floating lid plausible. They are going to be a lot thicker than an IBC, so probably better from a gas permeability point of view.

 

[jof]

You could also keep your eye on eBay, as there seems to be a slow but steady churn of micro brewery kit on there.