Variable Capacity Wine Tanks

Stainless steel wine tanks 101. If you're serious about winemaking invest in a variable capacity tank. You'll save a ton of time cleaning and sanitizing, they are virtually indestructible and are a great way to store wine.
We just purchased 2 new tanks from St Patricks in Austin Texas. These are Letina tanks, made in Croatia. You can also purchase Letina tanks from GW Kent, though they don't sell them as Letina but as their own brand. These are the best quality, most affordable tanks we could find and we are very happy with the overall performance.

[@davordamjanovic893]

There are 2 versions one is PP and it is floating lid tank where an air-tight seal is achieved by applying oil around the floating lid and the other one is a PZ air cap tank like in the video. We have something similar to PP (but from a different company) because of less maintenance and component count so fewer things can go wrong.

[@RayRay-dr7og]

we had family members make, and store wine in oak barrels, nothing would get bottled until ready to drink--today we bottle the wine, from carboys--it's getting to be a pain, especially as we get older--some i know have moved from bottling to storing their wine in old beer kegs--i'm thinking about moving to these wine tanks, and maybe a barrel for a different flavor--idk--these old school guys that made wine didn't get so involved in worrying about a lot of things and all the wine was great--makes me question some things we do--doing a few bottles is one thing but once you get into hundreds of bottles it wears one out--nice video

[@VelebitMountainMan]

Yes sir, it's too much work to bottle 100's. I now use a 50 gallon variable capacity tank for my daily drink. Easy, quick and keeps the wine fresh.

[@kifluassefa1694]

I need this for honey wine/mead

[@banderson7164]

Great idea until you have a seal failure, that could be devastating, I would prefer it have a secondary lid.

[@salimhaddad9862]

thank you for this video, I have bought similar tanks and I wanna ask, are these airlocks enough? like are they working or are they just dummy airlocks? Because I'm not used to seeing airlocks that look like that

[@VelebitMountainMan]

The Letina air locks are great. Just keep them clean and check the spring regularly.

[@peterpetrusa3131]

Very cool! Do you know if St. Patrick’s ships (Letina) to Canada?

[@VelebitMountainMan]

I'm not sure if St Pats sells up North, I went to the Letina website and found 3 distributors in Canada. I'd give them all a call and check on pricing. Criveller Company 6935 Oakwood Drive, Niagara Falls, ON L2E 6S5, Canada tel: [phone] Foothill Rocks Import - Export Inc. 6744 Foothills Drive, Vernon, BC V1B2Y3, Canada tel: [phone] Central Fabricating & Welding 4669 Fretz Drive, Beamsville, Ontario L0R 1B4, Canada tel: [phone] Also, for anyone buying from St. Pats, check their customer service rating, its not very good. I've ordered from them twice, both times I had no issues. I followed the instructions on the site and only contacted them via email. I have no complaints but many others didn't have the same experience.

[@peterpetrusa3131]

Thanks pal! Awesome vids.

[@lindseycampisi4398]

Thank you for the video. We just bought these tanks - curious if you could share what size shutoff value did you use ?

[@VelebitMountainMan]

We bought a 1/2" pex tubing shark bite valve from home depot but any shut off valve with two barbed ends would work. Just be sure to heat the hose in boiling water before you attach the valve.

[@trevormeyer2820]

Thanks for the review on these! Do you find cap punching (pigeage) to be a pain with these kinds of tanks? I'd be nervous about taking the lids on and off, over and over during primary fermentation. Is there any way to make verify that the seal is good?

[@VelebitMountainMan]

I remove the lid during fermentation and cover the top with thin painter's plastic to keep the dust out. Taking the lid on and off would be a PINTA. The fermentation produces enough CO2 to keep the grapes covered and oxygen free.

[@wendymetcalf3513]

Tons of questions: So exactly why do you add the shark bite valve? Don't you know the pressure as measured on the gauge anyway? Do you ever have an issue with red wine spilling over the lid? Does your thermometer work on the outside due to metal to metal contact or do you lower it into the wine after you push the cap down on red wine? Do you use any Argon when you push the cap down (say 2x per day{ or is that bit of oxygen ok? Any help with these questions would be very appreciated. I am trying to decide between a Letina and a Speidel tank as well.

[@VelebitMountainMan]

I add the valve because the pumps are notorious for leaking, you pump the gasket shut the valve and your good to go. 1/8" barbed valves are the best. I discovered those after buying a shark bite. I never have a issue with red wine coming out of the air vent, occasionally through the gasket. You should deflate and reinflate the gasket monthly to compensate for temperature changes.

[@VelebitMountainMan]

Thermometer just measures the air temp which is pretty much the same as the wine.

[@VelebitMountainMan]

I never use argon on fermenting wine, the wine produces a ton of co2 and won't need it until after it is racked after the sediment settlement.

[@mr.brownplumbing]

How are you able to seperate the debris on bottom of the wines as your racking into those tanks? Those taster valves would be filled with the settlement of debris right?

[@VelebitMountainMan]

It's really not bad, there are two types of lees, gross and fine. When you press your wine the muck that initially settles at the bottom are considered gross lees. Those can initially be about 12-18 inches in the smaller tanks. I don't rack the gross lees until around January February, by then they are compacted to around 3-6". There is some threat of forming HS2, rotten egg smell, so you need to monitor the wine, but if you catch it and rack quickly it will be fine. Ive found that the longer my wine sits on the gross lees the more flavor it develops. I rack again around May June and usually wash out about about 1/2" of fine lees.

[@VelebitMountainMan]

Here is a video of us racking the tank with our new pump for the first time. I few lessons learned, we'll do a better job next year. We used the "second" port which is about 12" from the bottom, the pump made short work of the wine. We'll need to put lids on our blue barrels and add argon before we put the hose in to rack. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pnfUeIWcpreqqZI

[@vciocca]

Hi, I’m also considering stainless tank. I typically age red wine 2 years. What’s your experience with racking/aging and the reliability of the gasket?

[@VelebitMountainMan]

Good question, the gasket is good but I wouldn't store wine in it more than a year. We do a little less than a year then bottle directly out of the tank. I check the lid weekly, when the weather changes the gasket had a tendency to deflate a bit. I bought a spare gasket just in case, we had our first gasket 3 years and replaced it just as preventative maintenance. We bought a pump to rack the wine works great, I empty the 160 gallon tank in less than 10 minutes. Highly recommend the tank made our life much easier.

[@vciocca]

Velebit Mountain Man thank you.

[@VelebitMountainMan]

@@vciocca No problem, any more questions feel free to ask 👍

[@vciocca]

@@VelebitMountainMan hi, now I’m seriously considering buying; are you ok talking on the phone? If so I’ll send you my number, thank you Vince

[@VelebitMountainMan]

@@vciocca email me at [e-mail] and we'll exchange contact info

[@JohnGunX]

Can it will be deliverable to India

[@VelebitMountainMan]

Yes, here is the Letina distributor in India: Envision Equipments S.No.146/2, Plot No.10, Behind Jain Temple, Vilholi, Maharashtra, India tel: [phone] e-mail: [e-mail] web: www.envisionindia.in