Disinfect plastic barrels (30l and 20l) and glass bottles with sauna steam?
Goodbye,
My father has been trying his hand at cider brewing for the last two years.
The 2022 must sadly suffered from a fungal infestation, as something must have gotten into the barrel.
Now he plans to disinfect the barrels and bottles (washed out) in Grandfather's sauna using the steam, so that the surfaces inside are sterile for next time.
Is this idea any good, or can we just leave it alone?
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Hello,
I can't tell you if this will work to get the barrel sterile.
I mean, sterility is not necessary. At the latest, when you fill the freshly pressed juice, the thing is no longer sterile anyway. There are a lot of pathogens contained in it that could cause spoils, and I do not know how to eliminate them without killing the yeast that is supposed to provide for fermentation and/or negatively affect the taste. Only the harmful organisms cannot develop if no oxygen can come to it – here I suspect that the cause was! So always use fermentation closures from the beginning! If the finished wine is drawn off on bottles, a slight sulfuration would be appropriate here, because of course this is not entirely without oxygen contact. But I don't move, my apple must be stored in the 60l plastic barrels in which it is fermented. From this I take off (my storage cellar is outside) into a small barrel for immediate consumption. The fermentation clasp remains on it, so only when tapping some air comes into the barrel, has always been unproblematic. Only in the small caessine have occasionally formed cahm yeasts (white, top-flooded coating) if the contents were not quickly consumed.
But especially in the case of plastic containers, I also think normal cleaning is completely sufficient.
This idea is nonsense. Wood barrels are sulfurized with burning sulfur cords, plastic barrels and glass balloons are rinsed with sodium disulphite or potassium disulphite solution. This is what you get in shops for fruit juice and winery needs. There are also food authorizations under E 223 and E 224.