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55 Gallon Drums


HedgeBird

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My understanding is that a lot of GNS is shipped in 55 gallons drums that are not stainless. Can anyone give me some info on what type of drums these are? I assume they are "food grade" metal drums with some type of liner?

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Yup, usually lined with a urethane product, but sometimes an epoxy-type liner. I prefer totes.

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On the steel it seems like a lot of the lined ones have a "phenolic linning" or an "epoxy phenolic linning". Any though on if this specific type of lining would be suitable for alcohol? Also, is there any time frame given by GNS suppliers on how long you can store in the containers they ship in?

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An epoxy phenol is a class of epoxies that use phenols to change the properties of the coating. There are 3 main phenolic epoxy resins, and you could class them as Bisphenol A, Bisphenol F, and Novolac epoxies.

In drum, there would be little reason to use the first two, and the outstanding characteristics of novolac epoxies is that there is increased crosslinking during the cure, which means a stronger, more chemical resistant finish...but decreased flexibility and ductility. Generally, steel drums are very strong, so using a novolac epoxy makes sense. Bisphenol A phenolic resins have a pretty bad rep, but the resins that leach BPA are thermoplastic, not generally epoxy-based. A plastic barrel is usually made of a different class of thermoplastics, polyethylene (hey, crosslinked booze!). Pure ethanol or ethanol-water binaries will have virtually no effect on these materials.

I might point out that the polyphenols created when phenolic epoxies cure are also found in nature...green tea, yerba mate, grapeseed oil, black garlic...to name a few...

There should be no practical limit to the time your GNS sits in the container...at any proof.

Having said that, don't heat up the container and then use it! If you have a polyphenolic lined steel drum, and you weld a fitting on, DON'T fill it up with ethanol and store it! Use a bulkhead fitting instead. Once those phenols are heated to the point that they degrade (pretty hot, but well within welding temp) they release all sorts of not-lovely compounds.

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We are planning to use stainless steel drums for holding low wines (currently looking at Bubba's) and we would also use the same tank (rinsed first) to proof spirits immediately prior to bottling. Do we need "sanitary" stainless or will standard stainless tanks work fine?

Thanks.

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I use a Bubba's supplied 100 gallon tank for holding feints and have had a good experience ordering from him in the past.

My understanding is that "sanitary stainless" has nothing to do with the type of metal used, but is rather used to describe the type of welding/attachment of fittings used. When something (a tank, fitting, weld, etc.) is described as "sanitary" it means that the welds/fitting/tank are grinded/sanded/polished smooth to such a degree that they are easy to clean and that it does not allow space for bacteria to start growing in them. In brewing equipment "sanitary" seems to imply that it can be cleaned by a CIP (clean in place) system.

Read the description of these two different style 2" x 1.5" stainless reducers and notice that one is sanitary and the other is not despite being made of the same material:

https://www.brewershardware.com/Eccentric-Reducer-Tri-Clover-Compatible-Clamp-2-X-1.5-TCECCRED20X15.html

https://www.brewershardware.com/Tri-Clover-Compatible-2x1.5-Cap-Style-Reducer-TCCAPRED20X15.html

hope that makes sense!

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The LETINA Closed Top Tanks from St. Pats are another good option if you want to go bigger than 100 gallons. Assuming 5 bottles per gallon and a 100 gallon proofing tank you are limited to bottling about 500 at a time. As time goes on we have been able to wait longer between bottling and then bottle in larger quantities. Even with our all manual labeling/bottling setup 10 people can bang out 1,000 bottles in half a day. Product storage and proofing tank space is the one thing I way undersized starting out.

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Yeah - we are planning to get a few from St. Pats to hold finished spirits and use a 130G tank from Bubba's to proof and hook up to our bottler. We're thinking the same thing, 130G or so is a decent amount of bottles for the short term but we may need to go bigger down the road or get a second tank. The LETINA tanks look fine for storing but we couldn't really wheel them around (at least they don't look conducive to that). We have a pretty good handle on the size of holding tanks and the number we would ideally want but like most start ups are going to have to make some choices between getting the right size and number from the get go or waiting and upgrading as we can.

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