I need help!

[shoebiedoo]

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.

I am also alone when I bottle maybe we should rent a warehouse combine our efforts!!!

 

[digitaleye]

Wow, bottling alone is tough. We usually have a crew of 3-4 but I think it could be done effectively with 2. We're usually doing 30-60 gallons so maybe it would scale down enough for 1 person but I still think you're better off with at least 2.

We use one of these
http://www.homebeerwinecheese.com/wpe2.jpg
and its flawlessly simple and quite clean

 

[Pumpkinman]

I use the All in One, I have absolutely no issues with it, recently i bottled 14 cases of wine within a few hrs, including corking, not to mention bottling 4-6 cases at a time.

 

[ou8amaus]

Not sure if the stores are set up the same way in the states, but my LHBS also functions as a u-brew site (ie they charge a flat rate to ferment kits for you and you show up only on bottling day). They have large washing/sanitizing machines that can process 30 bottle in about 5-10 minutes. They charge $2.00 per load to wash/sanitize. I go on my lunch and run them through, and then I am ready to bottle using my AIOP that evening. This needless to say has significantly decreased my bottling time...

 

[Pumpkinman]

No disrespect but what fun is it to have everything done for you? It would be easier just to go to the local liquor store and buy a bottle of wine.

 

[grapeman]

No disrespect but what fun is it to have everything done for you? It would be easier just to go to the local liquor store and buy a bottle of wine.

Not in Canada. The taxes there are very high so it pays to make your own and some choose to do very little of the making.

 

[richmke]

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 had my own aspirator pump, and bought the tubing from AIO. Had a nice chat with Steve to figure out what I needed, and he built to suit (matched the port size on my pump). With AIO's bottling tubes, there is no problem.

1) The stopper is sized for wine bottles. Easy on, easy off.

2) The pump sucks in the wine until you depress the bleeder valve on the line.

3) Reverse siphon takes the excess wine in the bottle back to the carboy. The level is set by how high you extend the inlet tube in the stopper.

You can't see it in AIO's webpage (unless they updated it recently), but the bleeder valve is a high quality brass valve. That is why the tubing setup costs so much.

The only problem I have, is all the tubing lying around my kitchen. Limited in counter space, so it is fairly disorganized at bottling time. Hard to find a clean space to drop the tubing for a minute to do something else.

 

[jamesngalveston]

i dont know if you have a vacuum system are not, but if you do not, this may be of some help to you...and there cheap, like 15.00

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zSbu8RSOWY[/ame]

 

[ibglowin]

I had one of those and it leaked pretty much nonstop. Ended up sending it back for a full refund. YMMV as the say.

 

[WI_Wino]

I think I posted this link recently but this is the technique I use now for bottling both beer and wine. I had always some problems trying to manage the autosiphon, hose, bottling wand, and the bottles. Now I can sit down and bottle w/o having to hang on to 3 different things. The key for me was to get the bottling wand with the spring loaded tip, not the one that relies on gravity to close it off.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

 

[vernsgal]

I don't mind bottling day as much as capping and labeling. My husband usually helps by doing the corking for me, especially if I have more than 12 gal at a time to do. That would probably change if I had as much to bottle as you and some others here do though Rocky.

 

[jamesngalveston]

ibglowin, i have one and it doesnt leak...funny how one product can differ from the other. I had a sawzall that lasted for 2 years...i bought another of the same, and it did n0t last one week....same dang saw.

 

[ibglowin]

I traded in the Ferrari Bottle Filler for the 2X more expensive Buon Vino Filler. Leaked almost as bad. So much that you had to bottle with your wines in a secondary container as by the time you had finished you had about half a bottle in the bucket. Not to mention you had a sore back from kneeling/squatting up and down from the floor for an hour or so.......

 

[BernardSmith]

Is there a Zen of bottling?

I think I posted this link recently but this is the technique I use now for bottling both beer and wine. I had always some problems trying to manage the autosiphon, hose, bottling wand, and the bottles. Now I can sit down and bottle w/o having to hang on to 3 different things. The key for me was to get the bottling wand with the spring loaded tip, not the one that relies on gravity to close it off.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

That dip tube idea is brilliant!
But I think Rocky is nevertheless making a really important point. With everything anyone does there is the creative and pleasant side and then there is something we might think of as a chore. The chore needs to be done if the creative part is to be done. Working with the must, the yeast, tweaking the ingredients to create the right balance between sweetness, acidity and flavor, clearing and fining are all (for Rocky) parts of the creative process. Bottling is drudge work.
Now, some of you have found ways to insert play into the drudgery - inviting others over, making it a bottling party and so on, but that itself does not change the nature of the beast. It simply puts the drudgery into a more pleasant context.
It strikes me that we need to look for the Zen of bottling, in the same way that it is possible (and I speak from experience) to find the Zen of dish washing. I enjoy washing dishes. I don't view it as a chore or as drudge work. I recast the activity as time to stop what I am doing, stop thinking, and take pleasure in the moment. I won't use a dish washer and I work hard to beat my wife to dirty dishes and pots because for me washing dishes is a kind of meditation.
So what I would say to Rocky is YES, Bottling CAN be a chore. It CAN be drudge work compared to the other activities that surround wine making and YES, there can be ways to bury the drudge work in the company of others... but I wonder if you can work to recast bottling as a time to simply sit (comfortably) with your wine and the bottles and with gravity or the physics of a vacuum and the motion of your hands and the changing focus of your eyes as you watch each bottle fill and become more aware of how you move the filling wand from one full bottle to the next empty one...so the journey of bottling then fills your attention rather than the destination of 25 or 30 or more, filled bottles

 

[Kraffty]

Great concept Bernard but what if you're bottling a cabernet and not a Zin?

Jokes aside, I kind of liken it to weeding the garden, it's simple mindless work that you can just unwind and relax while doing. A little music and a glass of what-ever you're bottling help too.
Mike

 

[jamesngalveston]

I have found the Zen of dishwashing: her name is carmen, she comes twice a week...I throw stuff in it, she moves everythng to where it is suppose to be an runs it, next time she is here she unloads it and puts all away..

Perfect dish washing.

 

[BernardSmith]

Great concept Bernard but what if you're bottling a cabernet and not a Zin?

Jokes aside, I kind of liken it to weeding the garden, it's simple mindless work that you can just unwind and relax while doing. A little music and a glass of what-ever you're bottling help too.
Mike

Ah, but mindfulness is not the same as mindlessness. The idea is to fill you mind with the activity not to empty it.

 

[Rocky]

Just an update. Thanks to some of the excellent input I got on this thread, I have done the following. Firstly, I have selected the wood for my bottling fixture. Believe it or not, it will be cherry. I have some pieces left over from a project, so why not. Secondly, today I bottled 10 gallons of Pinot Grigio partially using an idea I got here from WI Wino. I had a bottling wand so I attached it to the end of my auto siphon, set my source carboy on a 27" high bench, sat on a chair and bottled on the floor (the clean bottles were in a case) and then corked. Whole thing took about an hour and while not a monumental improvement over what I had been doing, it was a lot easier and my thumb was not cramped from operating the pinch cock. Little steps but still a significant improvement. I did not hate it and I found my use of "technical terms" that I usually utter was minimized.

 

[ibglowin]

If you need any measurements PM me.

 

[RCGoodin]

Just an update. Thanks to some of the excellent input I got on this thread, I have done the following. Firstly, I have selected the wood for my bottling fixture. Believe it or not, it will be cherry. I have some pieces left over from a project, so why not. Secondly, today I bottled 10 gallons of Pinot Grigio partially using an idea I got here from WI Wino. I had a bottling wand so I attached it to the end of my auto siphon, set my source carboy on a 27" high bench, sat on a chair and bottled on the floor (the clean bottles were in a case) and then corked. Whole thing took about an hour and while not a monumental improvement over what I had been doing, it was a lot easier and my thumb was not cramped from operating the pinch cock. Little steps but still a significant improvement. I did not hate it and I found my use of "technical terms" that I usually utter was minimized.

Now, that's the spirit........I love the power of positive thought.

Happy Holidays to you and your family.....