Steam vs Hot Water

[E_r_i_k_Klepper]

@john holdredge

@E r i k Klepper

@Jim Cowan

Erik,
I’ve read enough to know that the risk is great. Using steam, especially in barrels, requires specialized training and its not something you allow your intern or assistant to do in the absence of that training. Also, you keep other folks away when its going on.
Pressurized steam can maim or kill in micro-seconds.
Best, Jim

HA! Training at a winery. Good one, Jim.

oh quit whining- You were shown where the Tequila was kept and how the coffee maker worked.

OSHA will be by shortly.

[Mary_Baker]

@Bill Tex Landreth

Would it be costs prohibitive to send barrels to a gamma-ray irradiation facility? The food industry as well as medical equipment suppliers use this method of sterilization and I guarantee that nothing will survive either on or in the wood grain.

Bill Tex, barrels weigh 100 pounds empty, and I don’t even know how many cubic inches/feet a barrel takes up and those two measurements are what freight companies base their charges on. Plus when you take the wine out of a barrel, you generally want to get something back in that barrel right away, frequently the same day.

[Bill_Tex_Landreth]

Mary, thanks and understood.

[Peter_Cargasacchi]

@Bill Tex Landreth

Mary, thanks and understood.

The reality Bill is much more complex. Would you feed a woodland faerie straight NPK fertilizer? Would you play dischordant harmonies to the spheres? Would you anger your ancestral spirits by being kind to people that are inferior to you?

The real answer is that Gamma radiation scalds the soul of the wine.

[Bill_Tex_Landreth]

@Peter Cargasacchi

@Bill Tex Landreth

Mary, thanks and understood.

The reality Bill is much more complex. Would you feed a woodland faerie straight NPK fertilizer? Would you play dischordant harmonies to the spheres? Would you anger your ancestral spirits by being kind to people that are inferior to you?

The real answer is that Gamma radiation scalds the soul of the wine.

[john_holdredge]

@E r i k Klepper

[
oh quit whining- You were shown where the Tequila was kept and how the coffee maker worked.

OSHA will be by shortly.[/quote]

Tell them I’m at the ER…something about mistaking the rotator for the side shift while my intern was changin an overhead light while standing 30 feet off the ground on a rickety palate (but he was secured to the forklift with a bungy cord).

[Bill_Tex_Landreth]

@john holdredge

Tell them I’m at the ER…something about mistaking the rotator for the side shift while my intern was changin an overhead light while standing 30 feet off the ground on a rickety palate (but he was secured to the forklift with a bungy cord).

[john_holdredge]

@Bill Tex Landreth

@john holdredge

Tell them I’m at the ER…something about mistaking the rotator for the side shift while my intern was changin an overhead light while standing 30 feet off the ground on a rickety palate (but he was secured to the forklift with a bungy cord).

no, no, that is decidedly more well thought out.

[Bill_Tex_Landreth]

[N_Weis]

Forklift Work Safety | Funny Pictures | Entertainment" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Honest mistake, John.

My advice: get a shovel and a burlap sack. Intern? What intern?

[E_r_i_k_Klepper]

@Bill Tex Landreth

@john holdredge

Tell them I’m at the ER…something about mistaking the rotator for the side shift while my intern was changin an overhead light while standing 30 feet off the ground on a rickety palate (but he was secured to the forklift with a bungy cord).

This is the image I often use to illustrate my point about forklifts and heights.

Mr. Holdredge is already familiar with this image.

[E_r_i_k_Klepper]

@Nate Weis

http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh/images/03/forkliftsafety.htm

Honest mistake, John.

My advice: get a shovel and a burlap sack. Intern? What intern?

John - here’s the solution for closing that cupola.

[Josh_Beck]

@Mary Baker

@Bill Tex Landreth

Would it be costs prohibitive to send barrels to a gamma-ray irradiation facility? The food industry as well as medical equipment suppliers use this method of sterilization and I guarantee that nothing will survive either on or in the wood grain.

Bill Tex, barrels weigh 100 pounds empty, and I don’t even know how many cubic inches/feet a barrel takes up and those two measurements are what freight companies base their charges on. Plus when you take the wine out of a barrel, you generally want to get something back in that barrel right away, frequently the same day.

Every winery that bottles / racks out of barrel when they feel wine is done instead of in the fall just before they are ready to fill the barrels again is left with holdover barrels. Many store these empty w/ regular cleaning and sulfuring for 1-11 months. The logistics seem a bigger argument than having barrels empty for a while.

[Josh_Beck]

@Bill Tex Landreth

Pure win…

[Mary_Baker]

@Josh Beck

@Mary Baker

Every winery that bottles / racks out of barrel when they feel wine is done instead of in the fall just before they are ready to fill the barrels again is left with holdover barrels. Many store these empty w/ regular cleaning and sulfuring for 1-11 months. The logistics seem a bigger argument than having barrels empty for a while.

Yes, hon. Just pointing out that if one is doing a simple rack and return, one may not have time to escort a truckload of barrels up to San Francisco for cleaning, come back, finish the job and still be done in time for dinner.

[Josh_Beck]

@Mary Baker

Yes, hon. Just pointing out that if one is doing a simple rack and return, one may not have time to escort a truckload of barrels up to San Francisco for cleaning, come back, finish the job and still be done in time for dinner.

I guess I wasn’t considering this as something to be done if you’re racking the same wine back the same barrel .

Not that any of this pedantic blathering matters… I don’t think anyone here is lining up to gamma irradiate their barrels.

[Josh_Beck]

And for a perhaps more relevant and useful response:

While there is of course some incremental risk in a steamer, I would suspect that forklifts and wet / slick surfaces are still much greater dangers.

[Cris_Whetstone]

@Bill Tex Landreth

[Bill_Tex_Landreth]

A real man needs only two things…duct tape and WD40.

If it moves and isn’t supposed to…use the duct tape.

If it doesn’t move and is supposed to…use the WD40.

[Peter_Cargasacchi]

@Josh Beck

And for a perhaps more relevant and useful response:

While there is of course some incremental risk in a steamer, I would suspect that forklifts and wet / slick surfaces are still much greater dangers.

True, all of these are a risk. But the most prevelant and gory is to walk into a winery and find a red sheen and larger coagulated bits of blood, bone and gray matter covering the walls. All that remains is a body and tattered neck stump. With time, many winemaker’s heads start to swell, eventually exploding.