Goonbags For Long Term Aging/storage

[Supra-Jim]

Some interesting ideas here. Just wondering how you go with the taps on these bags and bottling the mead/etc once it has been aged. My recollection/experience with these taps is they don't pour very well and you would be potentially aerating the product once you try to remove it from the bag. Fine if you use it for real ales etc, but maybe for mead this could be problematic?

Cheers SJ

 

[KudaPucat]

Ok so hang on.
A bottle is 750 ml
There are 20 'bottles' in 15 litres.
20 x 0.0179 = 0.358

So 1.47 with the bags is only 5 x the oxygen. Not 100 like I thought.

But still I need to know how long my mead will keep, as I have to buy these by the 135 lot...
How much does a barrel 'leak' does anybody know?

 

[felten]

Theres some data on oxygen permeability half way down the page here, not sure if there's any better ones around.

 

[KudaPucat]

Some interesting ideas here. Just wondering how you go with the taps on these bags and bottling the mead/etc once it has been aged. My recollection/experience with these taps is they don't pour very well and you would be potentially aerating the product once you try to remove it from the bag. Fine if you use it for real ales etc, but maybe for mead this could be problematic?

Cheers SJ

This could be fixed by adding a siphon hose to the tap. The tap will then foe however it likes and the hose would ensure polite turbulence free pouring. Especially if there was a liquid-lock in the hose. (a small loop or s-bend)
The taps in the datasheet have round outlets, not like the squarish nipple outlets on standard 1 gal goonbags that you get from your local bottleshop.

 

[KudaPucat]

Theres some data on oxygen permeability half way down the page here, not sure if there's any better ones around.

Thanks for that!

According to the website you linked, oak has a permeability of 57 cc.mm/m^2
which is to say 57cc/m^2 if it's only 1mm thick.
So these bags (approximating 0.93 up to 1) have the same permeability as 57mm (2 1/4") of oak.
Which to me seems a VERY thick barrel.

Now the tap is a problem... The tap appears to leak twice what this sized bag does...
Bringing the equivalent oak width down to 19mm or 3/4" which seems to me to be a normal thickness of an oak stave. Could anybody confirm/argue this please?

So if I'm right, they're as good as an oak wine barrel. So they should be fine to use as bulk ageing before bottling. Right?