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Barrel palletizing


Wes Henderson

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Hi Wes,

You probably mean barrel "racks" because pallets, at least in the wine industry, are squares made of pine wood and are typically used for storing/transporting cased goods.

I don't have any preference or representation for Western Square but they popped up first in Google. Here's a picture of how to store barrels full of liquid: http://www.westernsq...rel_racks.html The highest I've ever seen is 6 sets of barrels when using racks. If you are just laying barrel on top of barrel (well, sideways), the highest I have seen is 3 layers but, in Tequila (Mexico), they go much higher: http://www.tequilaso...ela/index.html If you use racks and there's the possibility of earthquakes, here is a sobering test: http://peer.berkeley...ummer/wine.htm In order to avoid this, there are several ways to minimize the damage and you can find the options online but let me know if you'd like me to help you with that.

I hope this helps!

Robert

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Robert, none of the links you used in your post work.

Jonathan

Hi Wes,

You probably mean barrel "racks" because pallets, at least in the wine industry, are squares made of pine wood and are typically used for storing/transporting cased goods.

I don't have any preference or representation for Western Square but they popped up first in Google. Here's a picture of how to store barrels full of liquid: http://www.westernsquare.com/wine_and_vine/barrel_racks.html. The highest I've ever seen is 6 sets of barrels when using racks. If you are just laying barrel on top of barrel (well, sideways), the highest I have seen is 3 layers but, in Tequila (Mexico), they go much higher: http://www.tequilasource.com/tequilacentinela/index.html. If you use racks and there's the possibility of earthquakes, here is a sobering test: http://peer.berkeley.edu/news/2000summer/wine.htm. In order to avoid this, there are several ways to minimize the damage and you can find the options online but let me know if you'd like me to help you with that.

I hope this helps!

Robert

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Robert, none of the links you used in your post work.

Jonathan

All Roberts links had a period after them. I tried to edit them out and it removed them from the text, but for some reason the links still have them.

Here's the proper links-

http://www.westernsquare.com/wine_and_vine/barrel_racks.html

http://www.tequilasource.com/tequilacentinela/index.html

http://peer.berkeley.edu/news/2000summer/wine.htm

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Jim Beam has experimented with palletized warehouses. They used standard 53 gallon barrels. In a palletized warehouse, the barrels are on-end, not on their sides. Beam had them nine to a pallet, then stacked them, using huge fork lifts to move them around. The warehouse itself is just a big pre-fab steel shell on a concrete pad, with huge fans to provide ample air circulation. The palletized warehouses are still in use but Beam decided not to build more, due to excessive leakage from storing the barrels that way.

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Jim Beam has experimented with palletized warehouses. They used standard 53 gallon barrels. In a palletized warehouse, the barrels are on-end, not on their sides. Beam had them nine to a pallet, then stacked them, using huge fork lifts to move them around. The warehouse itself is just a big pre-fab steel shell on a concrete pad, with huge fans to provide ample air circulation. The palletized warehouses are still in use but Beam decided not to build more, due to excessive leakage from storing the barrels that way.

Thanks to everyone for their insight and information.

Chuck, your answer was much along the lines of what I really needed to know. I want to take a portion of our inventory and have the ability to perform some enhanced maturation under various controlled climates, and the portability of this inventory is very important. The leakage is a concern, but as this will probably only be 50 or so barrels at this time, it should not be significant. Pallatizing seems like a better solution than using the portable racks (like I have seen in the wine industry primarily).

Thanks again!

Wes

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  • 5 months later...

In a palletized warehouse, the barrels are on-end, not on their sides...

...but Beam decided not to build more, due to excessive leakage from storing the barrels that way.

I seem to recall seeing pictures from a larger distillery that aged barrels up-right. Has anyone tried it themselves to weigh the pros and cons?

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I've seen one distillery that aged all their small barrels standing on end. I don't know if they had excessive leaks.

I haven't had any leaks in the couple dozen small (3-5 gl) barrels that I have aging for the past 3 years.

I have no clue about full size, 53 gl barrels.

I seem to recall seeing pictures from a larger distillery that aged barrels up-right. Has anyone tried it themselves to weigh the pros and cons?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Both John Hall at 40 Creek and Joe Dangler at A. Smith Bowman have 53 gallon barrels on end and report no significant leakage problems. Both have much smaller operations than Beam, of course, and John, I know, has a temperature-controlled warehouse. There is a picture of him with his palletized barrels on the cover of the current issue of Malt Advocate.

I was going to attach a picture of the palletized warehouse at Beam but couldn't manage to satisfy this board's 13KB limit on image attachments.

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Both John Hall at 40 Creek and Joe Dangler at A. Smith Bowman have 53 gallon barrels on end and report no significant leakage problems. Both have much smaller operations than Beam, of course, and John, I know, has a temperature-controlled warehouse. There is a picture of him with his palletized barrels on the cover of the current issue of Malt Advocate.

I was going to attach a picture of the palletized warehouse at Beam but couldn't manage to satisfy this board's 13KB limit on image attachments.

Thanks Chuck. I will check out the issue...just arrived today.

WH

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  • 2 years later...

Here is an image of one of many warehouses at Glen Grant in Scotland. They palletize most of their whiskey now. No mention of leaks. When it comes time to rack, they leave all the barrels banded together on the pallet, drill a hole through the top head, pump out the whiskey and then shortly thereafter pump in new make whiskey.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8507/8598621295_c4ef3a1446_m.jpg

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  • 4 months later...

you can buy western square pallets used by the truckloads for 25.00ish in wine country in california. they sit 3 high generally or even up to 5 or 6 high since thats about as high as aforklift can typically reach. however, with ethanol there may be fire code limits, you should check into that. Also, now there are earthquake clips for barrels to be clipped in so they are more secure. cool videos of experimental testing. barrels are all over the place but don't fall at 5 barrels high or more. they move more than 3 feet in swing. earthquakes will make the biggest difference. don't store them on their heads though, it changes flavors and can leak.

there are a few different brands, dont buy rusty ones, they can break up load over years of neglect from internal rusting.

Dave Pickerall suggested pallet racks with wood beams going across racks to make a rick house for 8.00/barrel I think he suggested the calcs to be. 5 high, hand rolled onto the beams, nice idea for a barrel program.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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