Tweet
Whats that then..
These are straight walled tanks, with open tops. The lid floats on the surface of the wine and has what is best described as a bicycle inner tube around the outside which is inflated by a pump to form a seal.
Options
I own and use a couple of stainless variable capacity tanks (VCT). Until recently these were the only option in the UK.
However last week a very nice man at www.fruitpresses.co.uk kindly sent me the 300L PLASTIC tank.
The tank itself is not made from HDPE. It is made from hard plastic. If you can remember when computer screens contained a big lump of glass - it seems to have been made from the same stuff as the case. Same colour, same hardness.
Very good in fact - as an alternative for stainless steel VCT.
• Good build quality
• Same components as it stainless steel counterpart
• Lighter than stainless.
• A better shape than stainless
• More easy to clean than stainless.
• Excellent price
Being lighter than stainless and a better shape means it is more manageable when it comes to having a move them around, but because it is as wide as it is tall you could also use it as a fermenter (1:1 ratio) and it is easier to reach into to clean up. the classic stainless steel VCT is tall and thin and for red wine fermented this is not a good shape for cap management.
If you put some shelving in and stacked these two high - racking would be a breeze!!
The only downside I can see is no gas permeability, I am looking for a plastic "oak barrel" for maturing in. Australian Flex tanks are currently an enormous amount of money to get to the UK. For many people no gas permeability will be a bonus. This is after all a bulk storage vessel.
An excellent product, and it is available in other sizes.
Price & delivery
The equivalent stainless steel tank is now £500 excluding delivery. Delivery is also expensive due to the size and weight.
The plastic equivalent is at the time of writing was less than half that price and delivery is just £9.
Conclusion
Stainless steel is very shiny and very nice, but it comes at a premium and I honestly believe it makes no difference as a bulk storage vessel to glass or plastic [treated correctly]. Therefore prices is the issue. I am told these are used widely on the continent and I can see why. Check them out you will not be disappointed.
August 2013
-
truck wash and a jet bottle washer
and this is the tool you need to get them out of bottle banks (a lightly modified litter grabber)
...14-11-2013, 08:23 AM -
It's been 3 years since I posted here. Much water under the bridge and at one point I thought I might be forced to give up. No grapes in 2011 as July rain made the berries split, and no grapes in 2012 as it was too wet and cold at all the wrong times. 2013 started a month late but we caught up a good part of that with the hot summer down here in Southampton. Flowering happened in ideal conditions - dry, warm and a bit of a breeze to spread the pollen about. Thinking the season would be short I was...03-10-2013, 02:41 PM
-
Whats that then..
These are straight walled tanks, with open tops. The lid floats on the surface of the wine and has what is best described as a bicycle inner tube around the outside which is inflated by a pump to form a seal.
Options
I own and use a couple of stainless variable capacity tanks (VCT). Until recently these were the only option in the UK.
However last week a very nice man at www.fruitpresses.co.uk kindly sent me the 300L PLASTIC tank. ...31-08-2013, 09:32 AM -
Here is my attempt at answering any questions you may have about your frozen grapes.
If you think of a question I have not answered you are probably not alone - please email me .
How many bottles does it make? I thought I would start with the tough one first :-) We sell frozen grapes as ingredients, not as a kit. Different people make different wine from different grapes in different ways using different methods. All of which will affect the final volume. There ar...16-08-2013, 09:20 AM -
This book is no longer in Print, it is a fantastic resource, so I thought it would be useful to reproduce sections of it here (as time permits...it's a long process for a slow typer!
) over 13000 words so far phew!
I will also covert it to a down-loadable file once it is completed So that it will be out in the public domain...it's just too valuable a resource to lose forever.
hope you find this useful....please let me have your feedback
Winemaking...10-08-2013, 02:08 PM -
Fantastic tutorial by Pat cuthbert
moderator winepress.us
member of winesathome.co.uk and all round good guy
reproduced here with his kind permission
I KNOW you will find this useful
Hi all;
I started a couple of kits. I have some pics for you showing the steps so far and will show the rest as they occur.
First is checking my equipment. A lot of empty carboys as you can see.
Be...10-08-2013, 01:55 PM