New Barrel and Bottler

I just received a barrel to replace the 22 gal recoop that had been leaking and had been tainting the red wine.  This time I tried a different company, but I got essentially the same product.  The new company is 'Barrel Builders" from, I believe, St Helena, CA.  It is a 30 gal reprocessed French oak barrel, medium toast.  It cost $308 delivered.  Upon inspection, it appears rougher on the inside that the ReCoop product and the staves are thicker.  Perhaps less wood was removed during the refurb process.  The rep at BB said that they use a router rather than a plane to remove expose new surface in the barrel.  Don't know if that makes a difference.  It was used for red wine, obviously, since there are still stains around the bung hole.  The barrel is now in Lee's garage, ready to go to work.  The company also sells new American (Minnesota) oak barrels for $250.  They say that the American oak works very well for the heavier red wines such as Cab or Malbec.  We might consider one of those next.

 

The bottler came mail order from EC Kraus.  I purchased it blindly with absolutely no information as to how it worked, its quality or reliability, or anything else.  I just knew that a new bottler was badly needed and the sooner the better.  The description said that it was perfect for 50 to 500 gal batches.  Good enough for me.  It was delivered for $131.  I subsequently bought a couple hoses to fit it for another $22, but the hoses have large enough diameter and are long enough for multiple uses around the winery.  The first bottling proved that it probably was worth the investment.  It filled about 25 cases in an hour with only one person operating it. That should satisfy our needs for the foreseeable future.