Brett
Sanitation
Brett
Sanitation
Our Questions to a Winemaker:
1. Treating Wine: When do you filter a lot of wine if you detect Brettanomyces above your threshold cfu/mL?
Winemaker’s Answer: Filtration is our last line of defense, and I view it as a silver bullet.
We do filter going to bottling if there is any Brett, and we'll filter at any point prior to that if we feel that we need to. We try to avoid filtration early in a wine's life, and to avoid filtering the same lots twice.
2. Sanitizing Barrels: Do you work at removing Brett from barrels? Any techniques that you could recommend?
Do you find that you can keep the Brett population down, without special effort cleaning barrels, using e.g. sulfite - as you rotate wines into previously Brett-exposed barrels?
Winemaker’s Answer: After
cleaning barrels, we ozone them to sanitize. I don't believe that SO2 gas alone
will kill the Brett in the wood, so before we fill previously used barrels, we
ozone them.
Z-Wine (SJL) Comment: I agree SO2 is unlikely to kill Brett in the wood. It can be 2 cm deep in wood. It is unclear if SO2 kills or induces VNC (a reputed 'viable but not culturable' metabolic state of Brett) – probably a mix depending on cell exposure to SO2 and state of protection (as biofilm cells will be protected).
Winemaker's Question: How should I sample Brett for testing, and how do I wash and sanitize the wine thief?
Z-Wine (SJL) Answer: First, its important to understand that Brettanomyces/Dekkera tend to settle quickly in wine. When present, Brett is most abundant within 1 inch of the bottom of the wine barrel or tank, and in sediment. Wine samples (exclusive of fermentation lees) collected from this location are ideal for Z-Brett detection.
Unitech offers the UniBrett Sampler (3, 5, 10, or 15-foot - Barrel & Tank collection) to optimize Brett collection. Between using your wine thief or sampler in barrels or tanks, we recommend
Soda Cleaning (rinsing the sampler in a Sodium Carbonate solution)
Neutralizing (rinsing the sampler in a Tartaric Acid solution)
Rinsing in tap water
Rinsing in at least 70% ethanol
Also available from Unitech is our UB-Sani a 6-foot container which minimizes ethanol requirement and facilitates this critical sanitizing step to your wine-thief cleaning procedure.