Kegging Wine

I want to tap some wine but I have some concerns.
Do I need yo use a special tap, shank like plastic or SS?
What pressure do I use, and will the CO2 infuse in the wine making it sparkling?

If you use co2 it will carbonate the wine but nitrogen will push the wine through your system without carbonating it.

2 psi or so will NOT carb the wine noticeably, and will push it.

Nitrogen won't carb wine? Skeptical.

I'm not sure on the shank material, but I would assume SS or plastic would be preferred. I think as long as you keep the psi low you shouldn't have it carbonate. One way to prevent it would be to turn off the CO2 running to that keg when you don't want to serve any. This could be as easy as turning off the shut off valve on the manifold or even taking off the CO2 disconnect.

I would serve at 4-5 psi.

I have been considering kegging then bottling a sparkling wine. My wife doesn't really enjoy regular wine so I thought I could make her a wine cooler type drink.

Take a look at bagging the wine instead. These are like the cheap wines you buy in the store but for home winemakers. They have the tap and the bag naturally collapses as you dispense the wine keeping air out. So bottle 4 gallons and bag 2 gallons.

First, welcome to HBT.

My thoughts have already been posted - I'd go with low pressure CO2 to dispense. This will lightly carbonate the wine, but not much. Even less so the higher temp it's stored at. So if you're serving at cellar or room temps, it may not absorb much at all.

Taps: Do not use chrome or brass. Use stainless steel or plastic. See: http://www.micromatic.com/beer-questions/hoppy-beer-dispense-aid-97.html

CO2 works, though I wouldn't use it for great/expensive wine. Personally, I'll dispense at 2 psi, but disable the gas and do a quick vent/pressure relief when finished.

Argon and Nitrogen are the two most recommended gasses to use to dispense wine, sometimes with a tiny bit of co2. Generally, unless we're a resturant or some dedicated place, this is going to be out of our cost range and it'll be eaiser to use our co2 setups, or a mini regulator with small nitrogen cartridges.

<snark> Nitrogen will NOT carbonate a wine. If it does anything, it'd Nitrogenate it!</snark>

just remember that anything that isnt strictly non-porus that has wine in it for a long period of time will have wine in it forever. glass and stainless steel should be fine (though even glasses sometimes turn red after a while), but once you have wine in your plastic lines or o-rings, you will never remove it all.

ive never seen a good wine cooler recipe... anyone have one they care to share?

I'd say keep the CO2 high enough to just push the wine through the lines. I would make my lines as short as possible and as use 5/16 hose. The easier it is to push it to the tap the the better. Turn the gas off or depressurize the keg when you aren't gonna serve for long periods.

Reviving an old thread here because I had a similar question. I like this idea so that I dont have to bottle and could fill a single bottle if needed.

My brother in law has a regulator I can have but I dont know if it will work with nitrogen yet. I have kegs and can get a faucet.

*BUT* I had this wild idea and wanted to just throw it out there.

Provided the seals are good, what about just mounting the keg upside down and hooking the gas line to the liquid connect and the wine line to the gas connect. That way you could use a tiny bit of CO2 just to fill the air space and allow for gravity to dispense the wine?

David

Mount the inverted keg high enough, picnic tap on the "gas in" side, and rig up a vent tube / hose, ( higher than the liquid level), to the "liquid out" / dip tube side.

Gravity flow, through a plastic tap.

djonesax said:

Reviving an old thread here because I had a similar question. I like this idea so that I dont have to bottle and could fill a single bottle if needed.

My brother in law has a regulator I can have but I dont know if it will work with nitrogen yet. I have kegs and can get a faucet.

*BUT* I had this wild idea and wanted to just throw it out there.

Provided the seals are good, what about just mounting the keg upside down and hooking the gas line to the liquid connect and the wine line to the gas connect. That way you could use a tiny bit of CO2 just to fill the air space and allow for gravity to dispense the wine?

David

Click to expand...

Yeah, that might work.

Or, you could do what I do and keep the gas off until the wine won't trickle, and then turn the c02 on at 2 psi to push the wine and turn it back off.

I have white wines and ciders in the basement, where it's cold, and red wines upstairs where it's warmer. I currently have 5 wines in kegs. (I have two c02 tanks).

I use c02, and a traditional c02 regulator. I have beerline, with plastic cobra (picnic) taps for the wines and ciders.

I run ciders on nitro-taps, due to a slow leak somewhere in the system i turn the gas completely off and eventually it does `de-carb` the cider as it's consumed. Basically running CO2 in it at 2-PSI or `just enough to push it` will not noticably carb your still wines. I say give it a shot vs trying to keep your keg inverted which sounds potentially VERY messy.

Stealthcruiser said:

Mount the inverted keg high enough, picnic tap on the "gas in" side, and rig up a vent tube / hose, ( higher than the liquid level), to the "liquid out" / dip tube side.

Gravity flow, through a plastic tap.

Click to expand...

Yes, thats the concept I was considering but wanted to use the CO2 versus a vent tube so I didnt introduce oxygen to my wine.

Paps said:

I run ciders on nitro-taps, due to a slow leak somewhere in the system i turn the gas completely off and eventually it does `de-carb` the cider as it's consumed. Basically running CO2 in it at 2-PSI or `just enough to push it` will not noticably carb your still wines. I say give it a shot vs trying to keep your keg inverted which sounds potentially VERY messy.

Click to expand...

I suppose if I used a 1/4" ID wine line I could push the wine at 1-2 PSI and very short run. I guess I just need to try it and see how it works. If it doesn't work well for me I'll just let it de-carb and bottle it.

Im curious why do you push cider with nitro versus CO2?
Also are you using the same type of regular as we use for CO2?

djonesax said:

Yes, thats the concept I was considering but wanted to use the CO2 versus a vent tube so I didnt introduce oxygen to my wine.

Click to expand...

El Cheapo plastic check valve, in the end of your vent line, that closes when there is no vacuum on the wine side of the vent, ( meaning no dispensing).



Edit: that'll do ya' no good, as you would be drawing in ambient air.

djonesax said:

Im curious why do you push cider with nitro versus CO2?
Also are you using the same type of regular as we use for CO2?

Click to expand...

Technically i use what they call `beer gas` which is a nitrogen/CO2 mix.
If i remember right my tank is 70% nitrogen and 30% CO2.
Many places do a 75/25 mix.
If using ANY amount of nitrogen you have to use the notrogen tank and regulator (this is arguable but i personally wont gamble on safety)
I also run a nitro tap with the diffuser plate inside so i get the thick creamy guinness style pours (a big foamy mess). I also make beers and enjoy the pours on those as well, plus i mostly make darker beers such as porter and stouts and those imho happen to be awesome on the nitro. I've been reading on here some are even running cold brewed coffee through the nitro taps (pro-coffee shops) and their customers are going crazy over them.