Wine fermentation tank

Winemaking is a craft technique that has been passed down from ancient times. Winemaking mainly involves putting the ingredients to be brewed into a sealed vat and then allowing them to mature over time into wine. However, for winemaking, the choice of winemaking vats is also very important, and the winemaking utensils vary depending on the region. Today I will introduce to you the fermentation vats for winemaking. Friends who like winemaking can come and learn about it.

Commonly used containers for fermentation include food-grade plastic barrels, ceramic jars, 304 food-grade stainless steel fermentation barrels, kiln pools, etc. Knowing this, let's move on to today's topic: what container is better for fermentation?

There is no absolute answer to this. We can only say that different grains require different processes and different suitable fermentation containers. For example: raw materials, liquids, and semi-solids are suitable for fermentation in food-grade plastic barrels, ceramic jars, and stainless steel barrels. Solid-state fermentation is suitable for ceramic jars, stainless steel barrels and kiln pools...

Below we compare the advantages and disadvantages of various fermentation containers:

1. Food grade plastic barrel.

It is recommended to use white food-grade plastic barrels. Using other colored plastic barrels will cause the wine to have a plastic smell. In addition, new plastic barrels must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before use.

Advantages: Food-grade plastic barrels are relatively light, easy to clean and carry, and have low operating costs.

shortcoming:

1. It affects the aesthetics, especially for those large-scale wineries that target the high-end market and produce high-end wines. When customers visit your winery, the experience will definitely not be very good.

2. If you don’t have a pair of sharp eyes and buy inferior plastic wine, it may affect the quality of the wine and cause excessive amounts of plasticizers.

Scope of application: liquid and semi-solid fermentation of raw materials and cooked materials, fermentation of fruit wine and rice wine, and solid-state fermentation of wine made with winemaking equipment.

2. Pottery jar.

Regardless of the type of grain or fermentation process, ceramic jars are almost always the best fermentation containers, but why are ceramic jars slowly being replaced by other fermentation containers? It is recommended to use wide-mouthed ceramic jars for fermentation.

Advantages: Pottery has good air permeability, so it is very good for fermenting or storing wine. The wine fermented in ceramic jars has good saccharification, alcoholization, and esterification, and has an excellent taste.

Disadvantages: fragile, too heavy, inconvenient to clean and carry, and inconvenient to load and unload materials.

Scope of application: raw material, cooked material liquid, semi-solid, and fully solid fermentation. Remember to use a wide-mouthed ceramic jar as the large mouth allows for fast heat dissipation. In addition, do not fill the ceramic jar too full when fermenting. Generally, it is sufficient to fill it to 70% of the total volume. In summer, you should fill it smaller.

3. Kiln pool.

In Northeast my country, as well as places like Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan where solid wine is made, people like to use kilns for fermentation. The kilns are generally designed to be above ground, semi-underground or underground.

Advantages: easy operation, low cost, and the longer the kiln pool is used, the more types of bacteria there are, and the better the taste of the wine.

Disadvantages: difficult to clean, hygiene is difficult to maintain, and the sealing is not as good as other fermentation containers.

Suitable scope: solid fermentation of shelled grains. Generally speaking, small kilns are better than large kilns, so it is not recommended to build kiln pools that are too large.