Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/101495
WineEast Winemaking Flextanks were sprayed with 2-3 inches of foam and rubberized paint. Trademarks Copyrights Marketing Merchandising Social Media Internet Traphagen Associations Law PLLC Intellectual Property for Business, Media, and the Arts Washington DC * (202) 223-4775 * traphagenlaw.com OneStepAd_01-09-12_Layout 1 1/9/12 10:14 PM Page 1 TERROIR: Good For Grapes, Not For Glass Every winemaker knows that the best wine starts with the cleanest equipment and bottles. Straight-A and One Step are ecologically formulated to provide the best and safest cleaning results. Taste the Wine not the Grime One Step for easy, single-step cleansing Straight-A for heavy-duty cleaning Clearly Perfect www.ecologiccleansers.com 152 W in e s & V i ne s JANUARY 20 13 (Continued from page 150.) one body to the next above absolute zero. This ends up warming the cooler body and cooling the hotter body, and thus colder or hotter temperatures are just differences in heat. Unfortunately, my attempt to cold stabilize in the Flextank did not work as planned. While ultimately the wine did cold stabilize, it was not as satisfactory as I had hoped. In the cooling coil test with the Flextank, the time needed to reach cold stability temperatures ranged from 24 hours to multiple days, primarily due to the lack of capacity the heat-transfer fluid (in this case propylene glycol) had for heat transfer and the associated heat loss from the tank to the environment. The ultimate calculation of heat loss vs. heat removal was very close to a balance at 0oC. On days when the cellar temperature was colder, we could get closer to achieving cold stability, but most days that was not possible. Another���and in many ways more serious���problem was that when the coils are used in a Flextank for either fermentation or cold stabilization, they are immersed in the tank through the manway on top of the tank. Thus the manway is open, exposing the wine to the ambient air for one to several days (not one of the best practices for making quality wine.) To decrease the time of air exposure, we attempted to increase the flow of the heat-transfer fluid. I hoped this would remove more heat from the wine and therefore drop its temperature more quickly. As it turned out, the increased flow had marginal effects on the rate to reach cold stability. Stopping the heat loss Apparently thermal conductivity was the problem, and the main question was how to stop the heat loss to the outside environment. In the next experiment, we wrapped a thermal ���blanket��� (6 inches of new fiberglass batting) around the Flextank. With the fiberglass batting in place, we were able to achieve cold-stabilization temperatures in one day. However, fiberglass batting was not a good long-term solution, because in order to work, the batting had to be kept dry and stay attached to the tank. When the batting got wet, the Flextank would not achieve cold stabilization any faster than without the fiberglass. Inevitably, during normal winery operations, the batting would get