A stainless steel tank with a floating lid for making wine without worries

Using a stainless steel or inox tank to make your own wine at home makes a world of difference. You only get one chance to make wine a year, you don't want to mess it up. A stainless steel tank with a floating lid eliminates the need to work with glass marbles after racking. It is also more hygienic than plastic tanks and much safer than glass Dame Jeannes or fermentation bottles.

I personally use the Zottel stainless steel tanks between 50 and 150 liters . You can get them up to 10000 liters but I would never find my amount of wine in that. A big advantage is that you can use a stainless steel tank during all phases of the wine making process. Here are all the phases of wine making where your must or wine can stay in a stainless steel tank.

• Skin softening
• Preliminary clarification
• Fermentation
• Malolactic fermentation
• Upbringing
• Bottling (for smaller tanks)

A lid that goes into your tank with an inflatable band that attaches itself to the height you want. That is a luxury that is priceless. After a transfer of your must, juice or wine, you will never have the same volume as before. In the past, I had to get a new fermentation bottle or Dame Jeanne that was slightly smaller than the previous one (and that of course never worked out 100% right). Now I simply place the floating lid a little lower and I inflate the band again with the supplied pump. In the floating lid of the Zottel stainless steel wine tanks, an air lock with marble and a water lock connection are possible. You choose what you use. https://youtu.be/M9BR6lOgvVo?t=1046 Here I place the floating lid of this 50 liter stainless steel tank above the wine to put it away for pre-clarification A floating lid means that you as a winemaker can have almost any volume of liquid in your tank. If your tank is half empty (half full for the optimists) then that is not a problem at all. At the time of writing I give my Chardonnay (13 liters) a malolactic fermentation in a 50 liter tank since my 30 liter tanks are full. That is not a problem at all. Unwanted or unplanned oxygen contact during the maturation of wine is out of the question. A floating lid with an inflatable band seals your wine 100%. Be aware that cheaper tanks with a lid with a rubber band do not do that. If you do invest, make sure you choose a stainless steel tank with a floating lid with an inflatable band on the edge of the floating lid.

When measuring, suck wine with a pipette in a dame jeanne? With a stainless steel tank, you simply use the tap at the bottom of the tank to tap off a small or large amount of wine. The tap is high enough to avoid any deposits when tasting or taking measurements. Zottel stainless steel tanks are also supplied as standard with a dust cover that ensures that your stainless steel tank remains clean during the period that you are not making wine.

That is a very good question. A first, thoughtless and quick answer is: "Big enough!" I will explain further why you should go a step higher if you have the space for it when in doubt. Reason 1: For fermentation you need 25 to 30% volume of free space in your stainless steel tank if you have wine. So we put 70 liters of wine in a 100 liter tank. Reason 2: With red wine, your wine also has pips and skins on board. If you want to make 50 liters of wine you certainly need 65 to 70 liters of must. Reason 3: I have 4 tanks where I always have an empty tank to transfer to. So I have my largest tank double. I now have 35 liters of rosé (50% Regent / 50% Johanitter), 12 liters of Pinot noir (still red) and 13 liters of Chardonnay (still white). So I have 2 x 50 liters because I can never transfer my rosé into a 30 liter tank, for example.

In this video I transfer my rosé wine into my stainless steel tanks Reason 4: As a young winegrower, not in age but in winemaking experience, your volume will increase in the years that follow. Vines will only give their maximum yield in year 5 or 6. You can already anticipate this when purchasing. In years 2 and 3 after planting you will only have 30-60% of the yield that you will have in year 5 or 6. Reason 5: The price of a stainless steel tank does not increase directly with its price. A stainless steel tank with a floating lid of 30 liters costs +/- 200 euros. A stainless steel tank with double the volume costs +/- 220 euros. I think my message is clear: You better have the biggest one :)

As a hobby winemaker, it is advisable to work with a freezer with an external thermostat. The Romberg thermostat can be set for heating (greenhouse heating) or for cooling (a freezer for cooling a wine tank). In the large 400-liter freezer trunk models, you can fit 3 tanks of 100 liters with the freezer trunk lid closed. If you continue watching the second video in this article, I will also explain my cooling system with freezer. If you have more than 300 liters of volume, you can consider a cold room, or you can build one yourself. You can of course also choose to invest in a stainless steel tank with a double wall through which you can send cooled water to regulate the temperature. But then you will need an external cooler.

A professional stainless steel tank from Zottel. For more information, use our contact form .

As a hobby winemaker you have many options to store your wine. Long term or short term. I have tried glass dame jeannes and also plastic tanks or fermentation buckets. For me nothing beats stainless steel tanks. It is worth every extra cent. It gives me a feeling that everything is top clean and hygienic. It cleans perfectly. It is also safer than a glass bottle of 3 to 50 liters. And with plastic you will notice scratches or imperfections sooner or later. I wish you much success in setting up a winery that suits you and that enables you to work cleanly, safely and efficiently.

Warm regards, Tom