vacuum degassing with Better Bottle??

[slopenutz]

Maybe I am missing something, but I attempted to use a vacuum pump to degass today and just ended up sucking in the sides of a Better Bottle. Is it possible to use a pump successfully on a PET carboy??

 

[Wade E]

Nope! Thats why I dont have any!

 

[slopenutz]

I was afraid you would say that!

 

[Goodfella]

I 2nd that Wade

 

[slopenutz]

so, what is the bottle really "Better" at????

 

[Wade E]

Weighing less and not breaking as easy!

 

[slopenutz]

I guess I will be buying glass in the future! I spent 3 1/2 hours degassing my IM BB Merlot with a drill today!!!

 

[cpfan]

I spent 3 1/2 hours degassing my IM BB Merlot with a drill today!!!

and I thought I spent a LOT of time degassing.


Personally I find that going round-n-round is not that effective at degassing. So I use my Fizz-X on a drill to make sure that additives are well mixed. For degassing I use the paddle end of my spoon and move it back-and-forth (or side-to-side) rather than round-n-round.


Steve

 

[smokegrub]

I love my Better Bottles! I do my last racking from secondary into glass where I then degas, clear and bottle.

I feel I get the best of both worlds.

 

[xanxer82]

I have 2 - 6 gallon better bottles. They are nice and light and I like them but I plan to invest in two glass 6 gallon carboys for bulk aging. But that won't bee for a while as they are expensive.

 

[pelican]

Better Bottles manufacturers website has an article about degassing with better bottles -- I don't have the link, sorry, but it had to do with the fact that the sides are not rigid, they do flex, that you can bang on the side of the bottle and set up a waveform in the liquid in the bottle which then helps outgassing occur. They also had (By recollection) image or maybe it was animated, of putting the better bottle ontop of a tennis ball and rotating around to get the motion going. This in lieu of the vigorous stirring, there's no advantage so to speak in the physical contact of the wine with the paddle but in the motion and disturbance which debubblizes (getting tired of the word degassing here)... I've tried this at home and find it is helpful. I've also managed my vinting in better bottles so that I rack from the better bottle into glass and then use the brake bleeder.

I go along with your plan Xanxer82 -- It's kind of hard to get by with just one carboy, I like having both the glass and the better bottles. Storage is easier, no breakage, lighter weight, less risk of dropping it because I can keep a better grip on plastic than on heavy glass.

 

[hannabarn]

Those are all good ideas, Susan. Maybe I will invest in a Better Bottle and see if these ideas work!!

 

[grapeman]

I have six of the Better Bottles and find them good for temporary storage and limited aging. They are a lot lighter so I can lift them onto the workbench easier than the glass. I have to rack into them with the autosipon or gravity since I can't apply vacuum to them. It is easier to use the vacuum transfer into glass from the large primaries sitting on the floor When I run out of them, I transfer from the bench by gravity to the Better Bottle and then have to lift back up to the bench for storage.


So what is easier on my back? No good answer for me unless I buy more glass carboys.

 

[cpfan]

The banging the side did not work for me. Maybe I didn't bang it hard enough.


There is another suggestion. Put a tennis ball in the dimple on the bottom of a BB. Rock the BB back & forth. I tried this once without any obvious success, but further discussion/reading indicates that you need to bang the carboy around. Something I did not do.


I've gone back to stirring with a Fizz-X and degassing with a spoon going back-and-forth (or side-to-side).


Steve

 

[pelican]

Maybe my wine just loves giving up bubbles without too much struggle. I smacked the sides of my better bottle with chokecherry wine and it just went to town. Now however with the kit wine (ChocoRaspberry Port) there's not so much action from the side-smacking but it was creating a lot of foam/bubbles when I stirred it as per the directions.

For me the storage ease of the BBs is a big plus. I have mentioned many times in posts how cramped for space I am (in the house, the "yard" is acres of space... any design of wine-racks-in-trees with LOTS of insulation brrrrr its getting cold already please post them! hahahahaha).

I love being able to pile the few BBs I have up in the corner of the Junk Room/Office along with whoknowswhatelse and I don't have to worry about the cats knocking them down with a crash. The glass carboys tend to be the base of that pile, in their shipping boxes. So the BBs are easiest to grab when doing the first transfer from primary to secondary; when it's time to rack again I deconstruct the pile of stuff and dig out the glass carboys for the final stage.