Other Degassing with the All in One Wine Pump

[Pumpkinman]

ShaunDanz, I use it for racking, degassing, filtering, bottling, and yes...bottling beer as well!
Steve Rocks!!!

 

[saramc]

I love my All-In-One, it was my first equipment purchase outside of carboys and additives. You cannot go wrong with it, plus Steve is a great guy.

 

[roger80465]

Received my allinone pump a couple weeks ago and used it for the first time this weekend. I racked 3 and bottled one batch. Racking was terrific and degassing was a breeze. I do need to get a brew belt since my temps were in the mid to upper 60s. I am sure a few degrees warmer would have helped.

As for bottling, a totally different experience. I found myself quite uncoordinated with bottling. While some have said they end up with a couple teaspoons in the overflow bottle, I ended up with a half bottle. Obviously, I need practice. I may practice with some water to get the hang of the timing I need. I was a bit disappointed there weren't better instructions with the kit. Since others have not had a problem, it seems the problem is with me. Practice, practice, practice.

 

[dralarms]

Roger,

I had almost a whole bottle my first time. It does take a time or 2 to learn to feather that valve just right.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Roger
I will PM you and I am sure that we can make your bottling more enjoyable !!

 

[Vintner]

Steve,

I have been using my Allinone for degassing only at this point. I plan to attempt bottling this weekend. Could you post some tips here or PM me? I am all of a sudden a little nervous after reading these posts. I do not want to waste any wine on my higher end kit. Thanks!

Doug

 

[dralarms]

Watch your levels and if it starts foaming use the release valve to cut the foam down, also the carboy needs to be lower than your bottling area, that way when you press the release valve the excess will go back to the carboy. It will actually suck the wine out of the bottle down to the level of your attachment. I would recommend getting a bucket of water to play with to get the hang of it.

 

[roger80465]

Steve,

I have been using my Allinone for degassing only at this point. I plan to attempt bottling this weekend. Could you post some tips here or PM me? I am all of a sudden a little nervous after reading these posts. I do not want to waste any wine on my higher end kit. Thanks!

Doug

Vintner,

I hope my post didn't discourage you too much. Steve called me this evening to discuss tips and tricks to improve my bottling technique and I can see some of the mistakes I made.

Also, in the interest of complete disclosure, on that particular Friday I racked 3 batches and bottled one batch. The rule in my winery is you MUST sample each wine as you complete the necessary activity associated with each wine. Since bottling was the last item on my to do list that day, I had 'sampled' 3 other wines before getting to my Showcase Shiraz/Mataro. As I mentioned, I started out great with bottling but my technique deteriorated as the process continued. Now, I am not saying my sampling was to blame, but I confess it may have contributed to my lack of technique.

There, Steve. I have given my full confession. Vintner, don't hesitate to use the allinone for bottling. Practice with a carboy of water. Sanitize your overflow bottle if you hope to use that wine and age it. I ended up drinking mine with dinner that evening. Oh, the sacrifices we make for this hobby.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I will try and explain the bottling process in full detail.
1st - always have the carboy lower than the bottling height
2nd - always practice with water, to get confortable with the machine and techniques
3rd - turn on pump and leave it on during the whole process - insert bottling attachement into bottle. The vacuum line if it is before the red line it will fill slower and you can always cover up the line once you get the hang of things.
4th - As the level gets approx 1/2 way up - press the vacuum release(once) to relieve the vacuum in the bottle - otherwise everything will be speeding up too fast as you are removing air and replacing it with liquid
5th - keep filling all the way to above the filling height and then press the vacuum release and hold as you watch the bottle be sucked down back into the carboy by gravity.
6th - start process all over again - takes approx 15 seconds or so per bottle
Keep an eye on the overflow container - always empty it at the 1/2 point (after using the machine you wil proubly have about 2 tablespoons per 30 bottles or so )

 

[Vintner]

roger80465,

I, in no way was attempting to "throw you under the bus" with Steve! HeHeHe.... But, I also have a tendency to sample the finished product as I do my most important work in my "winery". So, I completely understand where you were coming from. I will be careful with this when I bottle this weekend.

Steve, being the best customer service rep./business owner I know called me today and explained a few things. I also had a chance to digest the tips above. I am MUCH more comfortable now, but will practice on a few bottles with water until my technique is spot on before bottling.

Thanks again Steve for the prompt follow up. You are the best!

Doug/Vintner

 

[roger80465]

Hey Vintner,

No 'tread marks' here and no sign of a bus. I understand there is a learning curve and I recognize the problems with the system are mine, not with the system. I know, based on what others have said, it works well. I just have to get with the program. Guess I will just have to bottle more wine!

Roger

 

[ShaunDanz]

I'm a little disgusted with myself after purchasing my all in one wine pump last week. I just used it for the first time when I racked a carboy that I degassed with a wine whip 24 days ago. I cannot believe how much MORE gas the pump pulled out. I've bottled 540 bottles of wine in the last year and I have no doubt they have excessive gas in them. On a positive note, my wine should be greatly improved going forward.

 

[Brew and Wine Supply]

Just got some at the store (thanks Steve), Played around with practice bottling and doing some stuff for beer ( bottling and filling corny kegs). Brought it home and racked 8 carboys of wine in no time then played around with just putting a vacuum on the carboys to degass more, worked great until about the 6th carboy where I sucked the stopper into the carboy. guess I'll get it out later...LOL

 

[Boatboy24]

Doug: I did that with my brake bleeder several months ago. Put a 6.5 stopper in instead of a 7 and PLOOP! In it went. I racked and got it out of there.

 

[Brew and Wine Supply]

Yup it was the 6.5

 

[pioneergirl]

Going to use ours for the first time today to bottle. My husband talked me into following Steve's advice above to practice with water first, which I will (have to) do in order to avoid critique! Although I don't quite understand the name of each piece (what is the vacuum release and such) that is referred to in Steve's post, I am sure I will figure it out while practicing. For me, the included paperwork is difficult to follow and look at because the printer used must have been low on ink; very faded pictures. It would be great if Steve made a separate video on how to use the equipment from receiving it the box stage, assembling it for racking, cleaning parts, assembling and using for bottling. The video on his site is a great intro on the capabilities of the pump, but not very detailed of course as it was meant as an overview.

I will follow up on how my bottling experience went.

 

[Brew and Wine Supply]

bottling is easy, just practiced on only one bottle and got it right a way.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

pioneergirl I just sent you a PM so we can chat over the phone and I will walk you through the entire process. The suggestions I make to others is to watch the video and look over the paperwork that is given in the packaging. Alot of times people are just plain over welmed by a new product - especially this system because you are doing everything different from what you are tradionally used to doing it.

All the hose connections are designed so they can only be connected 1 way, this prevents any possibilities of incorrect conncetion - Taken from the video

Please, if anyone else is having any issues using this please pm me - or explain how I can make the instructions easier to understand.

 

[Vintner]

Well, I finally got around to using my All in one to bottle this weekend. Steve gave me a call this week with a few pointers along with the ones he listed on this thread. It works great! I practiced first on a few bottles with water. It was really easy to figure out. I think I did pretty good for the first time. I bottled 12 gallons of wine this weekend and only lost about .75-1.0 inches of wine in the catch bottle on the All in one. I think I could do even better next time since I now have the hang of it.

Thanks for your great product Steve!

 

[pioneergirl]

Update.

I practiced bottling with water, which I would recommend to all new users. I also, for the sake of practice, and to eliminate any possible remaining gas racked the wine into another carboy (even though I was confident that it was degassed). That was pretty easy. Bottling went smoothly too, but I am still not convinced that I am using it correctly. Steve was kind enough to send a PM offering to talk on the phone, but we had too many things going on yesterday. Might take Steve up on that in the future. Do you have FaceTime Steve? I do better visually.

Anyway, bottling went easily, cleanly and quickly. I guess you just stick that cork thing into the bottle and create that vacuum there and just pull it out when you near the overflow tube at top. This is what i did and it worked. i ended up with a glass of wine in the overflow bottle. It will be my fault for not being a reader.....if there is any important piece of info I am missing from the enclosed papers. The metal bit in the line I see is for a filter to be connected and I don't think there is anything there to do with bottling? Disassembly and cleaning the tubes was easy too.

We are anxious to use it to rack the beer too.