I have an interesting situation. I have noticed a bit of green material around the bung of my barrel. I currently do not have wine in it. I have a water/Barolkleen mixture in it while some current wine reaches secondary fermentation.
Anyways, has anyone ever had anything like this before? And is there anyway to clean and disinfect this area and still keep the barrel viable for more wine?
Thanks for the help!
Make a solution of SO2 and citric acid in water (3 tablespoons of each in 1 gallon of water).
Use a natural or plastic fiber brush, scrub the problem area with some of the solution.
Important: do not get the citric acid/SO2 solution on the metal hoops as it will corrode them if left there. Also, you do not want to get any of the citric acid/SO2 solution into the wine, so when treating the bung area make sure that the bung is tightly sealed and that the solution has completely dried before removing it.
BTW: You should be using a storage solution in your barrel.
