Tips on Cleaning wine stains off barrels?

Title says it all. Any tips?


Cheers

Peroxy.
Best, Jim

Sodium percarb is the best, although too much of it can cause the barrel to whiten and look un-natural. The way it is done in Bordeuax (and Kapcsandy) is to buy a wood shaver and then literally shave off the top layer where the stain is little by little. This can take a long time.

I don’t like using Peroxycarb on bbls. You get a weird green tinge to the wood afterwards. Instead, I use a Sulfur/Citric solution and a lot of scrubbing (wear a respirator).

thanks for the responses guys

Ray - Have you contacted the barrel distributor to find out what they, or their customers, recommend? I get the impression from others that they try to oxidize the tannin-pigment complex…have you tried simple diluted H2O2?..Gary

Hey Gary, thanks for the thought. I have a few calls in to the barrel makers. I can try to find some. Things are fairly difficult to find here. Will report back soon.

Thanks!

Proxy followed by citric works best IMO. Get’s them looking brand new again.

Ray, Do you have a pressure washer? It gets stains off pretty well, but be careful not to have the pressure turned up too high, and don’t stay on one spot too long, you’ll start splintering the wood.

Ray - You could go further with it and just stain the center section all red…have seen that in many wineries. Gives that uniform planned look.

SO2 in water works well enough for us if you don’t let the wine soak in too much.

+1 here Ray. Sulfur/citric works a charm!

potassium meta bisulfite hands down works the best

Hey guys, so I don’t have a pressure washer at the moment. Though I can rent one. The problem is the full barrels are the barrels with staining on them. So, I was looking for a tip that could be gentle enough, such as light sanding (which I what I started to do) to get it done. I will use a few of the tips in the thread for the empty barrels though, pressure washer sounds good, as well as some of the chems…though I don’t think we have them here in Burgundy. The citric acid is one that I have found. I will do more researching on it…

Thanks again to everyone

Ray, I have some Potassium Metabisulfite with me… I will bring some round on Monday. Will work a charm with a bit of citric with it… Promise!

Ray, we may be a backward region, but we actually do have a few winery supply stores around… Have you tried going to BVS Parizot (in our very own NSG)? They would have Potassium Meta Bisulphite, at least during harvest time, perhaps on order the rest of the time. They would also be able to get in any cleaning products you want, at least straightforward things like peroxide. Although for the quantities you are looking at, one of NSG’s 4 pharmacies out to do the trick.

Hey Jeremy, Burgundy isn’t backwards. I’m just slow is all. I’ve been checking BVS by the autoroute, I go there quite a lot. It seems that they have been out lately. They are currently restocking for the season. Hopefully they will have it, been closed most of the week.I even checked the Vigne et le Vin in Beaune, no dice so far. I’ll check the pharmacy, thanks for the tip! I hadn’t tried looking for peroxide yet. For some reason, they always make sure I won’t drink the alcohol when I am buying it from there…always funny

I’ll give you a list of a few more places and people. Barely a week goes by without some guy trying to flog his cleaning products on us. You should consider yourself blessed.

Thanks, Jeremy! I appreciate it. I think most reps would have a chuckle when they see the scale that we are on and figure the account would be too small to make sense out of investing the phone call on us. I would be very thankful to know who has the good barrel cleaning products.

Actually, just occurred to me that I have a gentle wooden tank cleaner in the cuverie. Will take a peek tomorrow. My memory is embarrassingly poor.

Thank you again, Jeremy.