OK, here's an engineering challenge... I, er, well I dropped a plastic
lees stirrer into the depths of a barrel of wine. It's sitting at the
bottom of the barrel and I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to
get it out without racking all the wine. Any of you brainy
engineering types have any ideas? It's about 2 feet long.

"Michael Brill" > wrote:

> OK, here's an engineering challenge... I, er, well I dropped a plastic
> lees stirrer into the depths of a barrel of wine. It's sitting at the
> bottom of the barrel and I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to
> get it out without racking all the wine. Any of you brainy
> engineering types have any ideas? It's about 2 feet long.

You could fish it out with a hook, tongs, grappling rod, or a miniature
scuba diver, but why bother? Plastic is relatively inert. Wait until you
have a better reason to rack, and meanwhile, use another piece of plastic.

"Michael Brill" > wrote in message
om...
> OK, here's an engineering challenge... I, er, well I dropped a plastic
> lees stirrer into the depths of a barrel of wine.

LOL! I did the exact same thing earlier this year. I just left it in there
and built a new one. Mine's stainless - not plastic. I chuck it in an
electric drill for stirring.

Tom S

"Negodki" > wrote in message >...
> You could fish it out with a hook, tongs, grappling rod, or a miniature
> scuba diver, but why bother? Plastic is relatively inert. Wait until you
> have a better reason to rack, and meanwhile, use another piece of plastic.

I like the miniature scuba diver idea. I just put an ad on
craigslist, so let's see what I come up with. In the meantime I guess
the "relatively" part of "relatively inert" is what concerns me. I am
not planning on racking until I bottle in about 10 months and I don't
know what the impact is of leaving in a piece of plastic. I'd hate to
have 300 bottles of slightly plastic-y wine. If I only had a really
long pair of chopsticks.

"Tom S" > wrote in message igy.com>...

> LOL! I did the exact same thing earlier this year. I just left it in there
> and built a new one. Mine's stainless - not plastic. I chuck it in an
> electric drill for stirring.
>
Yeah, I have (or had, well I guess still have) the same one. As it
dropped out of the drill everything went in slow motion... seemed like
it lasted 15 seconds and then glub-glub-glub and it was gone in the
murky depths of a barrel of pinot. If it were stainless I'd have no
problem just leaving it. I am a bit concerned about leaving plastic
anything in wine for a year.

> "Negodki" > wrote:
> > You could fish it out with a hook, tongs, grappling rod, or a miniature
> > scuba diver, but why bother? Plastic is relatively inert. Wait until
you
> > have a better reason to rack, and meanwhile, use another piece of
plastic.

"Michael Brill" > wrote:
> I like the miniature scuba diver idea. I just put an ad on
> craigslist, so let's see what I come up with. In the meantime I guess
> the "relatively" part of "relatively inert" is what concerns me. I am
> not planning on racking until I bottle in about 10 months and I don't
> know what the impact is of leaving in a piece of plastic. I'd hate to
> have 300 bottles of slightly plastic-y wine. If I only had a really
> long pair of chopsticks.

miniature scuba diver --- I was thinking of Rachel Welch (Fantastic
Journey).

Not having seen the stirring rod, I can only speculate, but I doubt that you
will have any more of a plastic-y flavour from leaving it there than from
stirring with it. I.e. you won't notice the difference. [I hope this theory
is true, because I have a 10" length of plastic tubing in the bottom of one
of my carboys, and tubing has more of a "plastic-y" odor than stirring rod.]

If you want it out that badly, take a 4' piece of 3/4" x 1/16" steel, and
bend it in half around a 3/4" pipe (i.e. round the inside end, rather than
kinking it). If you can slightly round the two ends (spoon like), it will be
easier to grip it. That will give you a nice pair of spring-loaded tongs
(better than chopsticks unless you have a very strong thumb). Steel is oiled
before storage, so clean it with ammonia, and then rinse it well before
putting it in your wine. [Even then, it will probably do more flavour damage
than plastic.]

Scrap that idea. Get a couple of 2' pieces of 1" x 1/8" hardwood, and put a
hinge on one end (or just wire the two pieces together). Insert a spring a
few inches below the hinge/wire. If you can't grip the rod properly, you can
soak the ends, and bend them slightly to form the "fingers". The hardwood
will do zero damage to your wine.

I would still recommend waiting until next racking.

Ok
It is in the barrel or carboy. Now what is in there!!
If it is polypropylene on high density polyethylene it is ok.
Was it bolted together with carbon steel hard ware, then your in trouble.
If the hardware keeping you stirrer together was some sort of stainless
steel you have a fair chance.
The real point is, will it leach metals or esters into your wine.
Polypropylene or high density poly ethylene do not have any esters to be
concerned about.
Thus the metals count.
So what metals did you drop into your fermentor?
Eddie V.

"Negodki" > wrote in message
...
> > "Negodki" > wrote:
> > > You could fish it out with a hook, tongs, grappling rod, or a
miniature
> > > scuba diver, but why bother? Plastic is relatively inert. Wait until
> you
> > > have a better reason to rack, and meanwhile, use another piece of
> plastic.
>
> "Michael Brill" > wrote:
> > I like the miniature scuba diver idea. I just put an ad on
> > craigslist, so let's see what I come up with. In the meantime I guess
> > the "relatively" part of "relatively inert" is what concerns me. I am
> > not planning on racking until I bottle in about 10 months and I don't
> > know what the impact is of leaving in a piece of plastic. I'd hate to
> > have 300 bottles of slightly plastic-y wine. If I only had a really
> > long pair of chopsticks.
>
> miniature scuba diver --- I was thinking of Rachel Welch (Fantastic
> Journey).
>
> Not having seen the stirring rod, I can only speculate, but I doubt that
you
> will have any more of a plastic-y flavour from leaving it there than from
> stirring with it. I.e. you won't notice the difference. [I hope this
theory
> is true, because I have a 10" length of plastic tubing in the bottom of
one
> of my carboys, and tubing has more of a "plastic-y" odor than stirring
rod.]
>
> If you want it out that badly, take a 4' piece of 3/4" x 1/16" steel, and
> bend it in half around a 3/4" pipe (i.e. round the inside end, rather than
> kinking it). If you can slightly round the two ends (spoon like), it will
be
> easier to grip it. That will give you a nice pair of spring-loaded tongs
> (better than chopsticks unless you have a very strong thumb). Steel is
oiled
> before storage, so clean it with ammonia, and then rinse it well before
> putting it in your wine. [Even then, it will probably do more flavour
damage
> than plastic.]
>
> Scrap that idea. Get a couple of 2' pieces of 1" x 1/8" hardwood, and put
a
> hinge on one end (or just wire the two pieces together). Insert a spring a
> few inches below the hinge/wire. If you can't grip the rod properly, you
can
> soak the ends, and bend them slightly to form the "fingers". The hardwood
> will do zero damage to your wine.
>
> I would still recommend waiting until next racking.
>
>

"Negodki" > wrote in message
...
> > "Negodki" > wrote:
> Not having seen the stirring rod, I can only speculate, but I doubt that
you
> will have any more of a plastic-y flavour from leaving it there than from
> stirring with it. I.e. you won't notice the difference. [I hope this
theory
> is true, because I have a 10" length of plastic tubing in the bottom of
one
> of my carboys, and tubing has more of a "plastic-y" odor than stirring
rod.]

If I were you I wouldn't leave that tubing in the bottom of that carboy, for
just the reason you stated. I'm not even crazy about using plastic tubing
for pumping wine around, but there doesn't seem to be any reasonable
alternative.

The stirrer in question is of unknown material, but it's probably a rigid
plastic such as PVC, Nylon etc. Those don't seem to be a problem for long
term contact with wine.

Tom S

Yea, but how are you going to get the scuba diver out before the wine is all
gone?

Ray

"Michael Brill" > wrote in message
om...
> "Negodki" > wrote in message
>...
> > You could fish it out with a hook, tongs, grappling rod, or a miniature
> > scuba diver, but why bother? Plastic is relatively inert. Wait until
you
> > have a better reason to rack, and meanwhile, use another piece of
plastic.
>
> I like the miniature scuba diver idea. I just put an ad on
> craigslist, so let's see what I come up with. In the meantime I guess
> the "relatively" part of "relatively inert" is what concerns me. I am
> not planning on racking until I bottle in about 10 months and I don't
> know what the impact is of leaving in a piece of plastic. I'd hate to
> have 300 bottles of slightly plastic-y wine. If I only had a really
> long pair of chopsticks.

Good one!

"Ray" > wrote in message
. com...
> Yea, but how are you going to get the scuba diver out before the wine is
all
> gone?
>
> Ray
>
> "Michael Brill" > wrote in message
> om...
> > "Negodki" > wrote in message
> >...
> > > You could fish it out with a hook, tongs, grappling rod, or a
miniature
> > > scuba diver, but why bother? Plastic is relatively inert. Wait until
> you
> > > have a better reason to rack, and meanwhile, use another piece of
> plastic.
> >
> > I like the miniature scuba diver idea. I just put an ad on
> > craigslist, so let's see what I come up with. In the meantime I guess
> > the "relatively" part of "relatively inert" is what concerns me. I am
> > not planning on racking until I bottle in about 10 months and I don't
> > know what the impact is of leaving in a piece of plastic. I'd hate to
> > have 300 bottles of slightly plastic-y wine. If I only had a really
> > long pair of chopsticks.
>
>

"Negodki" > wrote in message >...
> If you want it out that badly, take a 4' piece of 3/4" x 1/16" steel, and
> bend it in half around a 3/4" pipe (i.e. round the inside end, rather than
> kinking it). If you can slightly round the two ends (spoon like), it will be
> easier to grip it. That will give you a nice pair of spring-loaded tongs
> (better than chopsticks unless you have a very strong thumb). Steel is oiled
> before storage, so clean it with ammonia, and then rinse it well before
> putting it in your wine. [Even then, it will probably do more flavour damage
> than plastic.]
>
> Scrap that idea. Get a couple of 2' pieces of 1" x 1/8" hardwood, and put a
> hinge on one end (or just wire the two pieces together). Insert a spring a
> few inches below the hinge/wire. If you can't grip the rod properly, you can
> soak the ends, and bend them slightly to form the "fingers". The hardwood
> will do zero damage to your wine.
>
You know as well as I do that the very first thing that will happen is
I will drop in whatever I'm using to fish out the lees stirrer. I'll
fret about it this week and take your inspiration, go to the hardware
store and assemble a lees stirrer remover. Tom, I'll ship it off to
you when I'm done.

"Michael Brill" > wrote:
> You know as well as I do that the very first thing that will happen is
> I will drop in whatever I'm using to fish out the lees stirrer. I'll
> fret about it this week and take your inspiration, go to the hardware
> store and assemble a lees stirrer remover. Tom, I'll ship it off to
> you when I'm done.

If you make your "fish" sufficiently long, it won't be able to fall in.
Alternately, you can tie a long cord to the end, so --- if it does fall
in --- you can pull it out.

Rather than trying to shape the ends of the hardwood into "fingers" (as I
suggested earlier), take a pair of "ice tongs", and attach it's "fingers" to
the end of your hardwood.

But before doing all that construction, if your "stirrer" has something
which you can hook, why not try a (long) piece of wire, with the end bent
into a "v". That may work.

"Ray" > wrote in message
. com...
> Yea, but how are you going to get the scuba diver out before the wine is
all
> gone?
>
> Ray

Don't scuba divers pee in their wet suits to keep themselves warm? If so I
think the plastic stirrer is the least of the worries.

'H'




>
> "Michael Brill" > wrote in message
> om...
> > "Negodki" > wrote in message
> >...
> > > You could fish it out with a hook, tongs, grappling rod, or a
miniature
> > > scuba diver, but why bother? Plastic is relatively inert. Wait until
> you
> > > have a better reason to rack, and meanwhile, use another piece of
> plastic.
> >
> > I like the miniature scuba diver idea. I just put an ad on
> > craigslist, so let's see what I come up with. In the meantime I guess
> > the "relatively" part of "relatively inert" is what concerns me. I am
> > not planning on racking until I bottle in about 10 months and I don't
> > know what the impact is of leaving in a piece of plastic. I'd hate to
> > have 300 bottles of slightly plastic-y wine. If I only had a really
> > long pair of chopsticks.
>
>

"Negodki" > wrote in message >...
> But before doing all that construction, if your "stirrer" has something
> which you can hook, why not try a (long) piece of wire, with the end bent
> into a "v". That may work.

That's about what I did. I took a 3' piece of wood and attached a
straightened piece of trellis wire near the end of the wood. Then I
made a little hook at the end and blindly fished around for awhile.
Everytime I would make contact and start to bring up the stirrer from
the murky depths, it would fall back down. Then about 15 minutes
later, I was bringing it up... it tugged, I pulled hard, it put up a
good fight, but finally I'm pleased to announce that that I snagged
one of the four 1/2" holes on the head of the stirrer and brought it
in - 6.5 oz! I'm having it mounted.

Thanks to everyone for the engineering advice.

michael,
surely you practice "catch and release" d;^) jim
"Michael Brill" > wrote in message
om...
> "Negodki" > wrote in message
>...
> > But before doing all that construction, if your "stirrer" has something
> > which you can hook, why not try a (long) piece of wire, with the end
bent
> > into a "v". That may work.
>
> That's about what I did. I took a 3' piece of wood and attached a
> straightened piece of trellis wire near the end of the wood. Then I
> made a little hook at the end and blindly fished around for awhile.
> Everytime I would make contact and start to bring up the stirrer from
> the murky depths, it would fall back down. Then about 15 minutes
> later, I was bringing it up... it tugged, I pulled hard, it put up a
> good fight, but finally I'm pleased to announce that that I snagged
> one of the four 1/2" holes on the head of the stirrer and brought it
> in - 6.5 oz! I'm having it mounted.
>
> Thanks to everyone for the engineering advice.