Peter wrote:

I have been making wine for your and until recently never had problems
lifting 23L carboys from floor to table for bottleing etc. Now I have
put my back out twice in the last year and have 4 23l carbouys on the
floor. I either need to be able to pump to higher elevation or as I
saw purely bt perchance a Brew on Premses location that looked to have
a simple hand powered sort of fork lift that appeared to be lifting a
carboy as high as 7 feet. Does anyone know where one would be able to
purchase one of these or have Ideas for other solutions. Or do I have
to stop making wine and sell my gear.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/wineblognew.asp is the URL
for Jack Keller's Wine Blog. Search down for March 17th, 2005.
There he discusses the Carboy Lifter Martin Benke invented for
Jack. There are pictures and the pictures are accurate. I can
say this because I purchased one. I have two slugs of plaster
in my back holding up two compressed vertebrae and am still
recovering from shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum. I
paid Martin $230 for it and I wouldn't go without it for one
day. It is an awesome device and is a steel at the price!

Martin is not in mass production. I ordered mine in February
and Martin says I have #7.

I have found only one problem using it. It's legs must be able
to slide under whatever surface onto which you want to load the
carboy. Otherwise you have to move the carboy from the lifter
to the surface. This means I need to raise my fermentation
fridge off the floor.

As Jack notes in his blog, Martin Benke can be reached at
L & M General Store, 7800 FM 471 South, Castroville, Texas 78009,
(210) 854-2178 or at home at (830) 538-6492. And I add that
Martin's e-mail address is .

An extremely happy customer,

Dick