Kegging wine?

Does anybody have any experience kegging wine for restaurants’ BTG programs? It would seem like a winner from a cost and an environmental standpoint.

Thanks

Nope.

Most folks I know doing it work with these guys or someone like them:

http://freeflowwines.com/

I kegged some wine for a restaurant that had their own kegs, but I haven’t gone as far as buying my own. It’s pretty easy to get set up to fill them, and I am happy to save on packaging. My general sense is that this trend may have crested. I’ve heard that it’s a little harder to get the dispensing system right than some restaurants that rushed in had anticipated.

I know some small guys who do it. They deliver themselves to a handful of local restaurants.

On the plus side is a quick inflow of cash. You can also play around and deliver fresh vibrant young wine in an earlier phase than would normally be bottled, which can be novel and exciting.

On the downside, some restaurants don’t have their acts together and wait til they’re out to make that desperate call that they NEED A NEW KEG TONIGHT!!! Even when they’re reasonable, the program makes extended travel in the off season difficult and can be an unwanted nuisance to add to the 18 hour work days of harvest season.

A downside of BTG programs in general is your brand name is out-of-sight, out-of-mind by the time the glasses are on the table. One thing wineries like able restaurant sales is the exposure, which is ingrained by having the bottle on the table. (Of course a cooperative restaurant “partner” can help with an alternative to this for their BTG program, if they choose to.)

I’d love to know the details if you find out what the difficulties are exactly. Were they thinking they could use the same CO2 and regulator they have for beer dispensing, added effort dealing with separate nitrogen or argon tanks, something else?

Just heard an opinion on aluminum lined disposable kegs. (Apparently one of two options for disposables. I know nothing here.) It’s that they impart a banana character to the wine.

Also, something I mentioned on a recent wine preservation method thread is that some aromatics can be lost to headspace. The best explanation I saw was for why it’s a bad idea to keg a rauchbier. Over time the smoke character dissipates away. Sounds like certain wines lose a lot of aromatics when protected against oxidation, but with significant headspace. So, that should be a consideration on which wines to keg. And, on the restaurant/wine bar side, attention should be paid to the turnover rates and how these wines perform over time.

We’re doing more kegs every year. The trend has definitely not crested. Works great in high volume places, and we’ve not seen a problem with our wines. We fill our own kegs as we’re not comfortable sending our wine off to a third party.

Ian

I was skeptical at first, several years ago. Concerns about quality maintenance and branding being the primary concerns. Now, we partner with several establishments here in San Francisco. There is a significant difference between pouring, for example, a “Sonoma Chardonnay” and “2013 Cellars 33 ‘Keefer Ranch’ Chardonnay”. Once you find retail partners excited to highlight your brand, particularly if they’re local, and you’re confident in their sanitary protocols, it’s an excellent alternative revenue source. We’re looking to expand our kegging program this year by at least 100% with our increased production of Grenache Blanc. Do your due diligence, but recommended.

I work for a winery here in Garden City and we keg a large percentage of our wines for restaurants, as well as for our average consumer. Saves us money on packaging, decreases the amount of glass and waste in landfills, no corked or spoiled wine, and they remain fresh for months after it has been tapped.

I think if you used co2 with the same regulator as beer you would get sparkling wine! Maybe if the pressure was set just low enough to pour ti would not matter but co2 dissolves into wine/water/beer pretty easily.

Exactly, it would be a bad idea to use CO2 for kegging wine, for the reason you cite.

-Al

I do it. And love it. I started small (one keg, steep learning curve getting the kids around here to adapt to new technology). I now have a small fleet of stainless kegs in 3 sizes from Burgstahler Machine Works in St. Helena. Phone: (707) 967-0553. Burgstahler produces the top-quality genuine article, and beautiful custom taps for restaurants. You probably already buy their cellar kegs. Very helpful as well giving you the simple 1-2-3 on filling & cleaning, which you will need to overcome the terror of winery hosts and their cellar staff (I’m a gypsy producing in other wineries). You need one special valve for this, about $175 a few years ago when I started.
A 5-gal keg gives 100 glasses of wine, all tasting exactly the same without breaking the bartender’s back carrying wine cases in, and bottles/boxes back out. But remember, it’s a bottling… COLAs etc.

I work for a large hotel company, and most of our restaurant openings and remodels these days have a wine keg system. It can be a bit of work to set up properly, but after it is up and running, we have had spectacular results. At our latest restaurant, roughly 60% of the wine sold comes from the keg system. Our guests are excited and intrigued by ‘wine on tap’, and we have had very few quality issues; in fact, the quality seems to be better and more consistent than serving BTG from bottles that may stay open for several days…

For hardware and experience I have been using products from American Keg ( http://www.americankeg.com ) and Micro Matic ( http://www.micromatic.com ). American Keg makes some sizes in US factories and all other sizes in Chinese factories. I have products from both factories and they are equally excellent. Micro Matic has tons of beverage delivery systems. It was my understanding that some tap establishments with use a mix of N2 & CO2 beverage gas for delivery systems.