A Fondness for Stainless Steel - August 11, 2023

A sixtel is a stainless steel container which is 1/6 of a beer keg. Ivy’s kegerator has 2 compartments each holding 2 sixtels. One compartment chills to 40 °F, which is perfect for white wine and the other to 55 °F which is good for light bodied red wines. This week I spent a good bit of time moving white wine from my stainless steel tank to my stainless steel sixtels which brought to mind the realization of my fondness for stainless steel.

I wouldn’t say it brings me joy and happiness but I it does bring pleasant thoughts when I think of my transition to stainless and how clean and shiny it looks. More importantly, it is lightweight and I can work with it easily myself, but this wasn’t always the case.

As in all things winery, I was forced to learn a few tricks. I had to find an inexpensive way to clean the sixtels and I needed a tool to fill them so I built one by using a sankey coupler (the tap) and removing the check valves. I now have a pump set up for only the sixtels which fills them and cleans them. I take pride in this accomplishment and quite honestly I love saying “I removed the check valves” because up until 2 years ago I had no idea what ‘check valve’ meant.

Ivy’s kegerator is fully loaded with Chilean Pinot Grigio and Chilean Malbec for the farm. I also have bottles of Chilean Malbec available for sale, as requested. I hope to see you today!

Salud,

Sharon