kegging Wine

I'm thinking about kegging wine and pushing with nitrogen. My question is, will my kit wine continue to age while on the nitrogen? I ask because the kits say that the wine will age by reacting with the small amount of air/oxygen in the neck of the bottle and that wont exist in the keg with nitrogen.

Thanks,

David

 

Thanks for the reply. I plan to "keg my everyday wine" as well, which I make from kits in the $80-$90 range and are usualy Pinot Noir. I noticed my wines get considerably better after 30+ days in the bottle. I was wondering if I were to keg with nitrogen around the 4-5 weeks range, if the wine would age the same as in the bottle.

David

 

I have kegged wine twice, two different pinot grigio batches, 5 gallons per keg. For the first batch I tried to use low pressure C02 for dispensing while disconnecting the C02 when not needed however I eventually ended up with sparkling wine.

After that I bit the bullet and bought an argon tank and regulator from Harbor Freight for a little over $100 total (using a 20% off coupon for both purchases) which I used on my second batch. That batch matured at about the same rate as the first one and never showed a trace of being sparkling.

For each batch I also bottled 6 bottles since they were 6 gallon wine kits. The bottles were cellared in a small wine fridge we own at 55 degrees while both of the kegs were placed in my keezer at around 38 degrees. The bottles clearly "aged" at a faster rate than the kegged wine as after a few months there was a distinctly more mature flavor for wine from the bottles. The kegged wine did not taste bad, and it was surprising how very fast it was consumed, but in my opinion the bottled wine was better than similarly aged kegged wine I am guessing due to the temperature difference.

My last wine batch was a super Tuscan red and since I didn't want to tie up a keg for over a year I again bit the bullet and bought empty wine bottles and a better corker and bottled all of that batch. It is sitting in my upright freezer/wine cellar at 55 degrees and 70 percent humidity and my patience is tried every day I look at all those bottles and wonder how much it has changed today.

 

To me, kit wines act a lot like potato salad. At first, you have the flavors of potatos, celery, mayo, eggs etc. Let it sit a day or so and the flavors start to soften and meld into one. Doesn't require oxidation to do that part. Kit wines work much the same, at first, you have grape, alcohol, yeast etc. After 30 days, those flavors start to soften and meld, just like the potato salad just a bit longer. The micro oxidation that wine gets in a bottle might help that along and add some of its own flavors, but it takes way longer than 30 days, my oldest kit was 6 years and I really wish I had kept more bottles as it was quite good.

Also, air is already 78% nitrogen so you are only displacing 21% of the air in the keg anyhow...

 

Thanks for the replies. If I do this, I'll be storing the kegs at 68 degree room temperature which I know is not ideal but is how my bottles are stored now.

David

 

I am only kegging wines. Currently 5 kegs full under nitrogen. I agree they can't be stored in the keezer during aging. So far its only been a couple months and they are tasting good. Also you need Gen-X wine line for dispensing since that type of line doesn't permeate oxygen. Also you need Perlick 630SS faucet and stainless grade 304 hardware so that the wine taste isn't affected. I don't see why anyone would bottle wine or beer. It's too inefficient. You can always fill a bottle from the tap. Some people claim that the wine doesn't age in the keg and I don't see how this makes any sense.

 

Thanks for the reply and sorry for my slow response. I have two 6 gallon kits I need to get started. I figured Id keg 5 gallons and bottle the remaining and see how it goes. Thanks for the advice on the faucet and line.

 

Were you able to keg your wine kits? I'm up to 8 in kegs so far. I need to order more kegs.

 

In order for you to keg wine without getting a carbonated wine, you have to use argon gas, this will still keep the wine from spoiling once the oxygen has been purged and it will push the wine out without carbonating it.
The wine will not continue to age once you keg it.

 

I have not yet but I almost kegged it last week. I was waiting for my almost empty C02 cylindar to empty so I could exchange it for nitrogen. I ended up getting another C02 instead because I thought there was a problem with my backup tank. For that reason I went ahead and bottled these two batches and will keg my next batch.

 

You can use nitrogen. Its cheaper. Also my wine is aging fine in kegs. I am not sure why people are thinking it doesn't age in a keg?

 

Thanks Yooper

 

It is probably good that you did not get nitrogen. From my understanding, you need a different, higher pressure regulator.

Just my 2c.

 

Oh, yeah I know I'll have to get a regulator for nitro as well when i eventually do it. At this point it will be next year before I do it.

 

Just an update. I now have 5 taps for wine and over 10 kegs aging. They are all really good. We just fill bottles occasionally from the tap when we need to bring wine somewhere. The biggest problem I have are people seem to think wine is beer and fill a whole mug up!

 

Are you using bar mix nitro (70/30) or straight nitro (100%)?

 

100% nitrogen. I'm sure you could use 70/30 but its best to keep that carbonation out. Most people wont have 100% nitro sitting around.

 

Not always true. Some regs will work with both as long as there high pressure. It usually says right on them what they are good for. You will also need to insure the threads on your regs match the threads on the valve. One of mine is nitro/CO2 and one is strictly CO2. Your vessel is only rated to and only holds usually 3000-3400 psi weather it's CO2 or nitrogen. DOT or in Canada TC will stamp this right on your cylinder.