CLEANING AND SANITATION OF WOODEN BARRELS WITH STEAM
TEST TO VERIFY THE EFFICIENCY IN SANITIZING OF WOODEN BARRELS
OVERVIEW
The use of barrels and wooden casks in the aging process of wine is very common. One of the problems is the limited number of times that it is possible to use the individual barrels, another one is any contamination of the wine by organic substances.
IdroEletrika, with its all-electric professional high pressure washers and steam generators, has developed a system to resolve both of these problems. The following test was conducted in order to demonstrate and verify the cleaning and sanitizing of wooden barrels and casks.
CASE STUDY
The tests were conducted on barrels of different ages and types at a well-known winery in Valpolicella (Italy). All the barrels had contained, for at least one passage, red wine. All microbiological determinations were carried out at the microbiology laboratory of the Edmund Mach Foundation (according to OIV methods) by applying the count on a petri dish on differential culture media for the determination of total yeasts, brettanomyces, moulds, lactic bacteria and acetic bacteria.
TESTING SEQUENCE
FIRST STEP (Rip.1)
All barrels were previously washed with water in high pressure with a cleaning rotating head. Part of barrels were washed with cold water and part with hot water generated from the ecologic high pressure washer ECOpower. At the end, samples has been taken in order to detect the first stage of the existing microbiological component.
SECOND STEP (Rip.2)
The barrels were treated with steam generated by the IdroEletrika vaporONE machine in accordance to the steaming method developed by the company’s field operatives. The residue after treatment was sampled and a second microbiological analysis was carried out to evaluate the effect of the treatment itself.
THIRD STEP (Rip.3)
At the end of the tests, all the barrels received a final cold water rinse and this too was sampled and analysed in order to detect the final stage of the microbiological component obtained after sanitizing using the exclusive steam method generated by IdroEletrika machines.
SUMMARY MICROBIOLOGICAL DATA
TEST RESULTS
After the first microbiological determination (1st step – Rip 1), all barrels show a presence of acetic bacteria, total yeasts and moulds in concentrations ranging from 15 to 28,000 cfu/ml (colony forming units per ml) of aqueous sample.
As the 2nd step (2st step – Rip 2) shows, this presence is annulled by the specific steam treatment with IdroEletrika method, with a significant difference between the treatments made with cold water and hot water, where the latter were much more effective since the isolated microbial population is at least 1 logarithmic unit lower (10 times lower).
In all cases, the steam treatment has allowed an effective sanitization of the barrels, considering the fact that in the next two samples it was no longer possible to isolate any microbial form, except for some units forming colony of molds, probably due to environmental contamination without oenological significance.
CONCLUSION
The treatment of cleaning and sanitizing, proposed by IdroEletrika machines, the professional high pressure washer ECOpower and the industrial steam generator vaporONE, appears very effective in the experimental conditions tested in sanitizing barrels and wooden casks for enological use.
Moreover, it is known from scientific studies, that the thermal resistance of wine microorganisms is modest and uniform; therefore, the treatment proposed by IdroEletrika is also effective against microbial forms not included in these tests.
Thanks to: Raffaele Guzzoni PhD – Technology transfer centre – Edmund Mach Foundation – Agricultural institute in San Michele all’Adige (Italy).
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