navileft-adverts.html
 |
Get Your
WineMaker
Beginner's Guide |
|
 |
Got Questions?
Get the Winemaker's Answer book! |
|
|
 |
 |
| How often should wine equipment be sanitized? And are certain sanitation products preferable to others for certain pieces of equipment? |
| |
| |
Dear Wine Wizard,
I just have a brief question re-garding wine sanitation. How often should wine equipment be sanitized? If there is need for continuous sanitation, at which point in the process can I sanitize? Also, are certain products preferable to others for certain pieces of equipment?
Dave Smith
via email
Wine Wizard replies: It is absolutely critical to have good winery sanitation as dirty equipment does nothing but invite bad-guy bacteria and unwanted yeast beasties to munch on our wine. However — there is a point of diminishing returns where you can sanitize too much. I have seen some home winemakers get way too crazy with the microbe-killing, so let me share information with you that’ll allow you to make sanitizing decisions appropriate for your unique situation.
First of all, let me elaborate on three important vocabulary words we’ll use a lot when talking about getting our equipment scrubbed up and ready for good, clean winemaking. Winemakers often use the terms cleaning, sanitizing and sterilizing interchangeably, which is a mistake. All three of these terms mean very different things.
Cleaning refers to the physical removal of visible soil, grunge, muck and mung. Usually done with scrub brushes, squeegees or a clean towel, cleaning often is just as simple as scrubbing down the grape reception hopper or sweeping the floor. Sanitizing means that you’re doing something to a surface or piece of equipment to reduce the microbial load to an acceptable level, a fancy way of saying that you’re killing spoilage microorganisms with heat or a chemical solution. Sterilizing is another step altogether, and one that goes beyond the scope of anything you or I could practically do in the winery environment. When something is sterilized, it means that it is completely free of bacteria or other microorganisms. Usually reserved for strict laboratory conditions and hospital surgical instruments, no winemaker ever tries to achieve a “sterile” wine cellar.
Why don’t wineries attempt to sterilize, you ask? The two reasons are that it is practically impossible and that it is not necessary. Due to its low pH and high alcohol content, most wines already have some natural resistance to spoilage organisms built in. As any disgruntled brewer will tell you, most bacteria and even some fungi aren’t that happy at wine pH’s (3.0–3.75) and are much happier thriving in a higher pH environment like that of beer (4.0–6.0) or water (7.0). That being said, there are some bad guys that do like hanging around in the environment wine can provide and for that reason it still is smart to practice a sensible cleaning and sanitizing program in your winery.
The first step is cleaning, or removing any visible soil, scale or detritus. This is because microbes living in hidden nooks and crannies and any sanitizing solution you subsequently apply will not penetrate effectively into these areas. Be careful to use only gentle plastic scrubby pads or brushes when cleaning soft stainless steel because it can scour and scratch easily. You can even use dishsoap to help you clean and soda ash can be a useful ally in helping you loosen up dirt and grunge. While some would argue that soap and soda ash help kill microbes, to really be clean and ready to make wine, you have to follow cleaning with some kind of sanitation.
The most common sanitizing solution used in small wineries is a strong sulfite solution, a recipe for which is as follows: Dissolve 3 grams potassium metabisulfite and 12 grams of citric acid in 1 gallon (3.8 L) of water. This will yield a roughly 500 ppm solution which is very effective in winery sanitiation because most wine spoilage microbes are sensitive to sulfur dioxide at concentrations as high as this — the acid essentially makes the sulfur dioxide more effective. Once a surface is physically clean, rinse with this sulfur/citric solution, leave it in contact for about 5–10 minutes and then rinse with clear water. Don’t let strong sulfite solutions be in contact with stainless steel, silicone or some plastic containers for very long as they can be damaged.
Other sanitizing weapons worth checking into include “E-San 205” and PeroxyClean™. E-San 205 is a quaternary germicide that cleans and sanitizes and, on previously cleaned surfaces, carries a D-2 USDA rating which means that it doesn’t need to be rinsed with water to be considered food safe. PeroxyClean™ is a white basic powder, much like soda ash, but that also produces hydrogen peroxide when mixed in water. Its basic nature helps dissolve soil and scale while the hydrogen peroxide acts as a strong oxidizer, killing microbes as it bubbles in vats, hoses and barrels. Its bubbling action makes it especially good for hard to scrub places like the inside of siphon hoses. Like soda ash, however, it does need an acid rinse in order to neutralize the surface.
So as to your simple question, when and how often to sanitize winemaking equipment — the answer will vary depending upon the kind of winemaking you do. My rule of thumb is to always clean and dry equipment that is going into long-term storage. Secondly, always clean and sanitize a piece of equipment before you use it. Always clean well, making sure no color remains, if you have to go from red to white wine processing with no other storage break.
As for continuous use, if a press is used for two days straight, pressing load after load of sweet Chardonnay juice, you might want to empty and break it down once a shift, sanitizing it well — making sure all detritus has been cleaned off — to make sure it’s not developing a heavy microbial load.
One thing that is absolutely critical is never to use household bleach, otherwise known as sodium hypochlorite. Many older home winemaking books and articles refer to bleach as the perfect cleaner and sanitizer. The fatal flaw with this logic is that chlorine bleach, or any chlorine-containing cleaner or sanitizer for that matter, can contribute to “corked” wines or TCA (trichloroanisole), a stinky, swampy off-character that can completely ruin a batch of wine.
|
| |
| |
|
|
 |
Welcome
to the online home of WineMaker
-
the leading magazine for the
home wine making hobby. Enjoy this selection of stories, tips, projects
and recipes from the magazine as well as web-only features, all
designed to help you make world-class wine at home. Please sign up for
a FREE
trial issue of the magazine if you like what you see. |
|
 |
Wine Wizard
Question of the Week
How many pounds of grapes will make five gallons of wine? Are there guidelines for reds and whites and varieties within each of those groups?
|
 |
|
|
Sulfite Calculator
Find
out the amount of sulfite to add to your wine with this handy program. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
WineMaker's Log Chart
Keep
accurate records of each step of every batch of your wine with this
downloadable log chart. |
|
|
WineMakerCasts
Listen
in as WineMaker editors and writers talk about
winemaking and wine! |
 |
|
|
We Want You in WineMaker
In
every issue of WineMaker, we publish a lot of
material that comes straight from home winemakers like you. Let us know
your tips, story ideas, projects, events and more! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Making wine from a kit
Past
winners of our annual contest featuring the best homemade labels for
homemade wine.
See
the winners of past WineMaker International Wine Competitions, the
largest event of its kind in the world.
