I need help!

[Rocky]

Does anyone other than me hate bottling wine? There must be something irrational going on with me but I put off, avoid, ignore bottling until the very last moment. Am I alone in this?

Asking another way, do any of you really enjoy bottling wine? If so, why? What equipment do you use?

I have 115 gallons of wine going at present and at least 70% of it should be going into bottles real soon.

Thanks.

 

[the_rayway]

I actually enjoy bottling my wine (although, I have far less to do than you). We find it quite therapeutic.

We take our time, set up the kitchen, put on some music, and invite friends to help if there are several batches. Have some food ready too. Makes it a fun evening!

 

[jamesngalveston]

i do the same as raylene, invite some friends, turn on some music, make some kind of food, and just make a party.
I have 12 gallon i need to bottle for christmas...I invited everyone over next wed....they all show...

 

[Elmer]

I use the AIO an bottling seems to be quicker than it used to be.

Corking can take a while,
However I usually bribe on of my kids I stand next I me with a bag of corks an Hand them to me as needed

 

[cpfan]

In my experience, the folks that hate bottling are trying to accomplish too much in a short time. Sourcing bottles, cleaning bottles, removing labels, sorting bottles can all be done in advance.

That leaves sanitizing the bottles, bottling, and corking that must be done together. Labelling and shrink capping can be done a couple of days later when the bottles are laid on their side.

I don't know how a crowd would work for a bottling day, but a buddy and I used to do two 6 US gallons a day with the following process....

Before lunch, sanitize, bottle, cork, and sometimes label batch 1. Make and eat lunch. After lunch, sanitize, bottle, cork, and label batch 2. Then we would boil up the water and apply shrink caps. Then dinner. A good productive day (at least that's what we thought).

We figured that we could easily squeeze in a third batch, especially as we usually started about 11am.

Steve

 

[cimbaliw]

Mrs C and I make an evening of it. She vacuum fills bottles and I'm on my knees corking. Funny how that works. I can cork at a rate of 4:1 so I usually fill in the extra time with keeping the bottle supply going, making sure my blood alcohol level doesn't get too low and important stuff like that. Like you I hate bottling so we never do more than 60-75 bottles at a time. My current cadence is about two kits/month so the math works well.

 

[firejohn03]

Sub the work out. Find a winery near by and have them bottle for you.

 

[dralarms]

Since I got the allinone I love bottling. Up till then I hated it. It was a nasty mess every time I did it.

 

[grapeman]

Any kind of vacuum bottling makes the job easier and more enjoyable. I have a single spout stainless one and you can fill a bottle and cork it while the next one fills. It takes about 10-15 minutes for a 6 gallon carboy.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I know for myself the Allinone will bottle with ease and you are standing up the entire time, Consistent liquid height and no overfill spillage and no more cleaning up of bottles due to spillage.

These 2 other items are a life saver also -
the bottle cage which can be used to dry and carry and fill and move your bottles from 1 station to another

The power sanitizer which will reduce time and increase efficiently.

 

[ibglowin]

I LOVE bottling since I got this thing……

It is a real joy. I am now filtering and bottling in one step these days. If your not handy with wood and don't think you could build one of these yourself I would seriously look into an AIO. I LOVE bottling time…….

However I still HATE delabeling, cleaning, sanitizing bottles…... This Summer i had to get 20 cases of bottles cleaned and ready for bottling and it was still drudgery for like 2 weeks straight every day I would clean a few cases up and move on. Hate it, hate it, hate it!

 

[sdelli]

I think it is all about investing in the proper tools to make the job go fast and smooth. I fill my bottle tree with rinsed/sanitized bottles... I use the all in one pump with the bottle adapter to fill them. Then a floor corker to install the corks. Labels are printed out on sheets so those are an easy install. Pop all the bottle sleeves on all of them at once and use my hand held heat gun to shrink them up. I would be surprised if it takes me an hour to do a carboy once the bottles are done hanging on the tree!

 

[shoebiedoo]

I'm with Rocky. I have an AIO and a pretty good system but still tend to put it off. I 30 gallons that should already be bottled but I always manage to find something else that needs to get done.

 

[jamesngalveston]

ibglowin....thanks for the pic...will get out my table saw tomorrow...

 

[Dugger]

Like some others, we usually have a bottling party. Four couples seems to be the best number for us to do the required tasks and fit comfortably around to eat, drink and chat afterward. I will assign someone to handle the bottles, one to fill, one to cork and I usually do the labelling. Seems to go quite smoothly. Each couple gets a bottle to take home.
Bottling is actually the most enjoyable part of making wine for me.

 

[RCGoodin]

Does anyone other than me hate bottling wine? There must be something irrational going on with me but I put off, avoid, ignore bottling until the very last moment. Am I alone in this?

Asking another way, do any of you really enjoy bottling wine? If so, why? What equipment do you use?

I have 115 gallons of wine going at present and at least 70% of it should be going into bottles real soon.

Thanks.

Rocky, you of all people, I thought would have this down to a science. Do you have the All-In-One vacuum pump? Since I have mine, bottling is very easy.

Cleaning bottle labels is another issue, but like someone said, that can be done days prior to bottling. I have found a bottling supplier where I can get bottles free of labels for $.79 each and some of my purchase goes toward a charity, so it's a no brainer for me.

I hope you find an acceptable solution. Maybe try a box type solution?

 

[Julie]

I enjoy bottling, weekdays are always so hectic and now with Mike getting that new job it is more hectic. So when we have bottling to do, it's grab a couple of glasses taste and bottle. We vacuum bottle, Mike does that and I do the corking, doesn't take long.

 

[Rocky]

Thank you all for some great ideas!

I normally bottle alone and that may be part or most of the problem. I have had offers to help but I have always rejected them. I might need to re-think this.

I like the fixture that Mike shows and this may be the solution to some of my issues. I have an aspirator pump that I use for transferring and filtering. It appears from the picture that Mike posted that the position of the arm, determined by the pivot pin controls the arc when the stopper is lowered to the bottle. It would seem that all of the bottles would need to be about the same height and that is not a problem. One of my issues (and it may be due to my failing manual dexterity) is getting the stopper reliably in the bottle, creating a good seal for suction and then removing the stopper without undue effort. I like the arm on that apparatus that Mike has. I think I can make one myself. Thanks for the picture, Mike.

One of the best ideas is to farm out the bottling! We have a boutique winery here in Powell and I have become well acquainted with the owner. Maybe I could work that angle. It would involve a lot of transportation but it has possibilities.

 

[ibglowin]

ibglowin....thanks for the pic...will get out my table saw tomorrow...

More pics, a video, a link to the shut off valve are located here:

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f83/bottling-day-hoffart-auto-bottle-filler-16351/

 

[LoveTheWine]

I like bottling as long as there is someone there for company. My Dad helps me from time to time (he makes wine too) and this is a good time for bonding too!!

I bottled a batch of beer yesterday myself and enjoyed that too.