vacuum pump for bottling?

[MJOl]

Do any of you who have vacuum pumps to do your racking and degassing also use it to bottle your wine? If so, how do you do it? I'm just not happy with the wand-type bottle fillers and would like to use my vacuum pump to try to bottle. The stoppers that fit a 750ml wine bottle are pretty small, so I'm not sure how you would go about this. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[Wade E]

I dont have the set up yet but my friend does who uses this site sometimes and uses this setup below in the link.
http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDetA.asp?PartNumber=4887

 

[Woodbee]

Howdy. Out of curiosity, I have my neighbors A/C vacum pump and am trying different things. For racking I use a stopper with two holes in it. I place a tube from the bottom of the empty carboy through one of the stopper holes onto the racking cane into the bottom of the full carboy. Then a tube through the second stopper hole onto the pump. Make sure that the second tube only just goes through the stopper as to not get any wine into the pump. Turn the pump on and you will empty the 5 gallons in about a third of the time a siphon will take (less than 2 min.). I screwed up the first time by putting a stopper in the full jug so as to hold the cane just above the lees. I created a total vacume where no wine was flowing. When I realized what was going on, I loosened the stopper and blew tons of air into the second jug.It was like an air hose gone wild.I created quite a head of foam on my wine. So after I was done with the transfer I took a stopper with a single hole in it and stuck the pump onto a small piece of tubing and ran a vacum on the carboy for about 10 min. I also have been degassing the same way.
Another mistake I made was degassing a wide mouth gallon jug with a stopper that didn't have a shoulder on it. I caught my error just before the stopper was sucked into the jug.
I considered trying to bottle with the pump but I think that I would need two extra pair of hands. That would mean that I would have to replace all of my shirts. So for now I will stay with siphon power. I hope this info might help others from making some of the same mistakes I did. Brad

 

[surlees]

I have a vacuum pump and I've never been able to use it for bottling. It's good for degassing and for transfering between carboys, but the problem with trying to bottle with it is that the vacuum cannot be immediately released. So, if if you were trying to fill a bottle, the bottle would overflow before you could release the vacuum to stop the flow

I think the best setup for bottling is the one Wade shows in his post.

Fred

 

[Wade E]

Okay, finally got my Buon Vino Automatic Auto Bottle Gravity Filler and hooked it up to my vacuum pump and bottled my Chilean Malbec. Took 3 bottles to get it set and am in love!!!!!!!!! I bottled this batch in about 5 minutes instead of 20 with the wand. For anyone with a vacuum pump I surely recommend this unit and Im sure it works as great without the pump. Just 1 more cheap tool that makes 1 of the not so fun parts of wine making better.

 

[ferratus]

Well we started a nice concord grape must from our own grown grapes !!! at any rate.. degassing is turning out to be a nightmare......

Here is what we have come up with .

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD0EtkfnkDo[/ame]

we are using a food saver but dog gone that foam is horrible.

 

[rawlus]

I have a vacuum pump and I've never been able to use it for bottling. It's good for degassing and for transfering between carboys, but the problem with trying to bottle with it is that the vacuum cannot be immediately released. So, if if you were trying to fill a bottle, the bottle would overflow before you could release the vacuum to stop the flow

I think the best setup for bottling is the one Wade shows in his post.

Fred

instant release of vacuum.

 

[rawlus]

Okay, finally got my Buon Vino Automatic Auto Bottle Gravity Filler and hooked it up to my vacuum pump and bottled my Chilean Malbec. Took 3 bottles to get it set and am in love!!!!!!!!! I bottled this batch in about 5 minutes instead of 20 with the wand. For anyone with a vacuum pump I surely recommend this unit and Im sure it works as great without the pump. Just 1 more cheap tool that makes 1 of the not so fun parts of wine making better.

this is interesting as i have never been satisfied with the superautomatic, either gravity or with the vacuum. the contraption is clumsy and top-heavy to me and ive never been able to really dial it in to work as i expect it should... mine requires some force to open the valve and then invariably i end up dumping a good amount into overflow during a 30 bottle session as well as leaking down the sides of bottles... maybe mine is broken?

im using the 2-hole drilled stopper method now and that seems to work pretty quickly with less equipment to deal with, clean and fuss about. different strokes.

 

[Boyd]

this is interesting as i have never been satisfied with the superautomatic, either gravity or with the vacuum. the contraption is clumsy and top-heavy to me and ive never been able to really dial it in to work as i expect it should... mine requires some force to open the valve and then invariably i end up dumping a good amount into overflow during a 30 bottle session as well as leaking down the sides of bottles... maybe mine is broken?

im using the 2-hole drilled stopper method now and that seems to work pretty quickly with less equipment to deal with, clean and fuss about. different strokes.

I use my minijet to filter and bottle at the same time. Works fine.

 

[ERASMO]

raw

I need that stopper setup. Who sells that?

 

[Wade E]

You could buy a solid rubber bung, freeze it, and drill it!

 

[mjdtexan]

You could buy a solid rubber bung, freeze it, and drill it!

How come you have to freeze it? Is rubber to soft to drill?

 

[Fiftyoon]

instant release of vacuum.

rawlus, I just bought a Gomco vacuum pump and would really like to build and try this for bottling my wine. Did you buy or make your 2-hole stopper? What size is the stopper? What size are the holes? Are the ell and tee 1/4" fittings? Are the fittings installed friction fit or with adhesive? Source for the stopper and fittings? I haven't been able to find any local stores that carry this stuff. Thanks, Bob!

 

[Lurker]

I use this exact system with my vacuum pump. However, I don't have a 2 hole bung that will fit into a wine bottle. I have the 2 hole bung (#6) pushed into a cutoff funnel. It works just fine for bottling. Freezing the rubber does not work. I drilled small holes then enlarged them with my dremel. Wade can probably do that for you.

 

[winemaker_3352]

I use the same thing wade has - the Buon Vino Automatic Bottle filler - hook it up to the vacuum pump and off you go. Works great!!

 

[ibglowin]

Buon Vino all the way!

 

[Runningwolf]

Buon Vino all the way!

Thats a 10-4 here also

 

[ffemt128]

Buon Vino all the way!

Still need to order one of those.

 

[BobF]

Still need to order one of those.

I ordered one yesterday. My Ferrari works well with gravity, but I'm trying to elimnate as many steps as possible.

I already have the vacuum racking/degassing going, so this is a no-brainer, IMO.

 

[Wade E]

Boun Vino would be much better, this way you can cork the previous bottle while that one is filling. It will also fill to the right amount unilke holding your finger over that 3 way and guessing!