Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/62409
WINEMAKING Tips for the winery from a brewery While most of Bill Bennett's experience in water conservation came as an engineer for brewing giant Anheuser Busch, he said saving water in brewing is similar to saving water in winemaking. Bennett said water conservation is a "top-down" process that needs buy-in and direction from the winemaker. The first step is to determine exactly how much water is used at a per-unit basis. For example, how many gallons of water go into making one case of wine? Meters should also be set at each key point of the production process to determine how much each stage is responsible for the total water use. Bennett suggested a key question to ask in the cellar: "How do you know the tank is rinsed?" It's imperative, he said, to quantify when a tank is clean rather than just operating on intuition or guesswork. He recalled that one intern and an engineer were able to cut 500,000 gallons of water use at the brewery by determining exactly how much water was needed to rinse lagering tanks effectively. While winemakers and brewers love hot water, Bennett said more is not always better. Contact time is key in microbial control, so flushing a system with more hot water can be far less efficient than just letting it sit. Simple steps like evaluating exactly how many spray jets are needed on tank cleaners can save significant amounts of water. A winery may be using three jet tank cleaners when a two-jet washer is more efficient with far less water. Winery managers need to evaluate every protocol—from cleaning equipment to managing wastewater—to understand how it's performed and why. Only with this knowledge can they make improvements. "If you don't know what you're doing or how, you can't conserve," he said. Contact time is key in microbial control, so flushing a system with more hot water can be far less efficient than just letting it sit. Be it fermentation, maturation, or transportation, Snyder has the wine handling solution for your application in both plastic and steel product constructions. Wine Making Solutions 2 Barrel Rack-Master® 4 Barrel Rack-Master® Plastic barrels permeate oxygen like oak. Revolutionary plastic barrel racks. Portable stainless steel wine totes. Email: sales@snydernet.com • Phone: 1-888-422-8683 • Fax: 402-465-1220 www.snydernet.com 62 Wines & Vines JAnUARY 2012