No more leaking around the bung hole. And the airlocks seem to have equalized. I topped off almost to the bottom rim of the hole. Both barrels took about 1/2 bottle, or 200 mL each of topping wine. This is mostly to put back in what I was taking out when trying to figure out why it was leaking.
I’ll put normal bungs back in in a week or so, when we are sure the wine is still.
Erwin and I picked up some new bungs and stoppers to see if we could stem the leak. When we looked at the barrels, we could see a little bubbling going on. The barrel was under positive pressure! Probably out gassing from the racking, or at least we hope that is it. The MLF is done, and the wine is dry, so anything else (other than out gassing) going on at this point is bad.
We put airlocks on around noon; this evening the barrel is still dry, so I think that was successful.
These barrels are a pain! Wine is leaking from the bung. It is as if it is wicking up between the barrel and the bung. I have removed probably three glasses of wine from each barrel, and it is still coming up. There is at least 1/2 inch between the top of the liquid and the bottom of the bung hole.
I am going to beverage people tomorrow and see if I can get some better bungs. The current ones seem long, and reach quite a ways into the barrel, and contact the wine.
Erwin saw the photos…thought there was too much wine leaking out the bung hole. I read a little of Jeff Cox’s From Wine to Vines book. He says the same. No wine should seep out when the bung is inserted.
So I took a little wine out of each. Tasted awesome. Resanitized the bungs, reinserted them, and wiped up with a sulphite solution. All’s well.
I decided to go with 0.5 g/L, or 23 grams total for 46 liters. I mixed the Bentonite and 1 cup of water in a blender, over the span of about 6 hours. It became a thick slurry. I then used a syringe to inject the slurry into the carboys while stirring. They clouded up immediately, although later in the day they were already clearing.
We racked into two used French Oak barrels. Here are the stats:
Label from 13 gallon:
Labels from 15 gallon: 
We have 2 1 gallon jugs, plus 2 bottles left over for topping off the barrels. Which needs to be done every 2 weeks! So I am going to use Google calendar to remind me…
Time to evaluate.
First, the clarity of the wine in the test jars, before pouring into a wine glass for tasting. I brought them into the kitchen under brifght lights, but it is easiest to see the clarity against the background of our light oak cabinets. It is harder to see it against a white background. One thing…there are some clumps floating still, although most of the bentonite has fallen to the bottom.
The nose seems to be the strongest on the cntrol, with the least nose on the 1.5 g/L. The 1.5 also seems to have the least fruit in it. There is grapefruit on the finish, and it really hangs in there for awhile. I taste no difference between the control and the 0.5 g/L. The nose on the 0.5 has a slightly more bready or savory character, which I actually like. Can we actually smell bentonite? Or maybe the savory is there, but covered up by something the bentonite is removing.
Based on this, I am going to go with the 0.5 g/L. Containers are 23L each, so that is 11.5 g/container, or 23 g total. Not enough time to do it this morning, but hopefully this weekend.
Here is what Erwin and I spent to make this wine…
Once we buy bottles, the last big expense, we’ll probably be at $9-$10 a bottle. Not too bad considering some of the expenses, like the demijohns and barrels will be amortized over many years.
So the SB has a slight haze. It needs to be fined. I am going to fine with Bentonite, whcich helps to remove protein hazes. I will so some bench trials, based on MoreWines discussion of Bentonite fining.
Tomorrow I’ll take a look and see how well it has settled. I could also leave it for a fewq days, while we go skiing.