Barrels of wine - do they burn?

I know barrels of spirits explode. I don't know about wine.

A wine barrel will burn but a barrel of wine won't. Unless it is thrown into a hot fire it won't explode either. The alcoholic content is too low and before it heats enough to explode, enough of the barrel will burn to release the liquid before it gets that hot.

There was a huge wine warehouse arson fire in California a few years ago.

The wine was in bottles and didn't burn, but the destruction was total.

Some photos here:

http://fermentation.typepad.com/fermentation/2005/11/exclusive_image.html

The alcohol content in wine is low enough that it would effectively be the same as water.

Interesting question. And I don't know the answer. Wine isn't flammable, and the wood will burn, although probably not well from the dampness.

But here's the question. I would presume that wine expands when heated. The question is going to be how well do the barrels contain the wine as it expands and puts pressure on the barrel. Eventually the pressure will cause the barrel to split, and if that pressure is high enough, it will appear explosive as the barrel decompresses.

That requires a fairly high p.s.i. inside the barrel, however. And I think there are two limitations on this happening. One is that wood is a poor conductor of heat, so the external temperature caused by the fire is only going to cause a slow rise in temperature. Second is I think enough seams will split in the barrel before the pressure becomes too high.

Depending upon the fire load in the warehouse will depend upon how hot and long the fire lasts. A modern metal warehouse can have very little in it that burns. An old wooden one can create a lot of intensity.

But my guess would be the barrels would burst at a relatively low pressure increase on the barrels, resulting in the barrels dumping their contents on the fire. Each barrel would result in putting out some of the fire. It will make a mess, but it probably won't be that impressive a fire. (The pictures of the fire in California seem to show more damage from water/wine then from fire.)

However, an old wooden factory, with floors that are heavily coated with old oil and grease, could get a fire going hot enough so that the wine is turned into steam almost immediately (you can get fires hot enough that a fire hose turns to steam before the water actually hits the fire) upon its release from the barrels. It would be producing an interesting smoke/steam plume. This has the potential of producing some popping sounds, but the fire is going to be noisy just from its volume.

But in my time as a volunteer firefighter, I don't recall anyone dealing with this exact issue.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

http://books.google.com/books/about/Winery_fires_in_California.html?id=9-p8NwAACAAJ

Why not write a few wineries, explaining your plot a bit, and ask?

Just a few points to supplement:
a) Wine barrels are made of oak. They seem to be somehow fire resistant.

b) This photo shows a fermentation storage of Michel-Schlumberger Winery in Sonoma County, California. As Jim suspects, the structure (racks and floor) may burn easier than the barrels.

c) Many wineries dig caves for fermentation storage. I'd be more inclined to believe the said ill-fated warehouse is a public storage (lets out rack spaces to small wineries) than a major winery producing top notch Syrah.

rosehips said:

Thanks, all. Great information and lots to think about. It sounds like if I want my mc's act of arson not to end before it's begun, I'd better be precise about the warehouse's age and the oil and such on the wood (thanks Jim!). This is very good to know. And Medievalist, great suggestion! I'm always shy about doing that sort of thing, but maybe I'll get my courage together and give it a try.

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You know what?

Winery folk are generally really really nice.

Pick a smaller winery rather than a larger one. Check 'em out via their Website, Facebook, and if they have one, a blog.

Make sure they know you're a novelist and not an arsonist.

Medievalist said:

Make sure they know you're a novelist and not an arsonist.

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Just wondering about that--thinking that if someone called me and asked about burning down my business, I might get a little nervous.

jclarkdawe said:

But here's the question. I would presume that wine expands when heated. The question is going to be how well do the barrels contain the wine as it expands and puts pressure on the barrel. Eventually the pressure will cause the barrel to split, and if that pressure is high enough, it will appear explosive as the barrel decompresses.

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It depends also on what type of wine you are making and what stage in the process you are at. I'm not familiar with large scale wine making methods, but I make wine at home in a small scale, traditional way and wine can, and sometimes does explode of it's own accord.

Mostly you'll find it in sparkling wine - which is fizzy because it's bottled before fermentation has completed. Sometimes the pressure gets too much and the bottle will explode.

However, I'm not sure if this would be the case with barrels, the pressure would have to be pretty high to split a barrel, and I'm not sure about large scale sparkling wine making - we do it in fermenation buckets and glass demi johns.

It seems to me that the second the barrels lost integrity the wine would put the fire out.

shaldna said:

It depends also on what type of wine you are making and what stage in the process you are at. I'm not familiar with large scale wine making methods, but I make wine at home in a small scale, traditional way and wine can, and sometimes does explode of it's own accord.

Mostly you'll find it in sparkling wine - which is fizzy because it's bottled before fermentation has completed. Sometimes the pressure gets too much and the bottle will explode.

However, I'm not sure if this would be the case with barrels, the pressure would have to be pretty high to split a barrel, and I'm not sure about large scale sparkling wine making - we do it in fermenation buckets and glass demi johns.

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a barrel in an actual winery would have a bung to release pressure and/or wouldn't even be there until fermented dry.....when wine explodes at home (I too have experienced this joy) it is because fermentation re-started and you built up CO2 until the pressure became unbearable....


I BELIEVE (do ask a winery) barrels are usually corked with a bung; as the heat built up the bungs would pop and wine would dribble out, at some point flames might consume enough of the barrel to "burn through" also, but I'm not entirely sure; you may just have lots of scorched barels, perhaps burned 1/3 of the way down or however much the wine boiled away and left bare wood, while the wet, immersed wood was protected.

quicklime said:

a barrel in an actual winery would have a bung to release pressure and/or wouldn't even be there until fermented dry.....when wine explodes at home (I too have experienced this joy) it is because fermentation re-started and you built up CO2 until the pressure became unbearable....


I BELIEVE (do ask a winery) barrels are usually corked with a bung; as the heat built up the bungs would pop and wine would dribble out, at some point flames might consume enough of the barrel to "burn through" also, but I'm not entirely sure; you may just have lots of scorched barels, perhaps burned 1/3 of the way down or however much the wine boiled away and left bare wood, while the wet, immersed wood was protected.

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That would make a lot of sense.

jclarkdawe said:

I would presume that wine expands when heated.

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Wine doesn't exactly expand, as a liquid. It will produce vapor when heated, however (just as water does), and that will increase pressure. But wine barrels aren't hermetically sealed in the way a metal container would be. The increased vapor pressure probably would pry apart seams in the wood barrel and release vapor and liquid long before producing enough pressure to actually explode the thing.

caw

Ordinary wine would not be flammable. Brandy, on the other hand, could be a problem.