Vacuum assisted racking ...
 

Ted Underhill in his book "Making Better Wines" suggests an alternative to
racking wines by gravity siphoning. With vacuum you can rack down, up or
sideways and it does not involve any lifting - except, maybe, to lift the
carboy you have just emptied, for cleaning.

It involves making two holes in a bung. A vacuum source goes into one hole,
a hose from a wine source (the carboy you want to rack) goes into the other
hole and the bung is placed into a receiving carboy. Turn on the vacuum and
VOILA !!! I can empty a carboy in about two minutes.

According to Underhill you cannot introduce air into a wine that is being
vacuum racked since the wine is under negative pressure.

My vacuum source is our house (built-in) vacuum cleaner which produces about
6 Hg (3lb) vacuum. This, according to Underhill will not pull out excess
gasses from the wine.

I am testing the system with jury-rigged parts. In my final assembly I will
find some way to reduce the vacuum to 2-4 Hg (1-2 lb).

I racked my first few carboys this afternoon. Took a photo.
If anyone is interested I can e-mail the photo and/or draft up a schematic.

Is anyone out there using a vacuum system ???
Does anyone have comments about pros or (especially) cons of a vacuum system
???

Roger in the RainForest (similar to the dark).

Vacuum assisted racking ...
 

"Analogueman" > wrote in message
news:IyCjc.25447$i61.3940@clgrps13...
> Ted Underhill in his book "Making Better Wines" suggests an alternative to
> racking wines by gravity siphoning.

[snip]

> Does anyone have comments about pros or (especially) cons of a vacuum
system
> ???

I can't see any reason this shouldn't be OK - especially for wines that have
dissolved CO2 that you'd like to degas anyway.

Don't get me wrong; wines under partial vacuum are still exposed to oxygen.
It's just not as much as at standard pressure.

Tom S

Vacuum assisted racking ...
 

I've been using my ENOLmatic for years now to rack from carboy to carboy,
up, down, left, right, cutting down on the sulfite thanks to less oxygen,
and also to bottle my wines. Great machine. Simple to use. Works with all
sizes of carboy and all sizes of bottles. Just doesn't work with plastic,
for the vacuum will wreck plastic carboys in stead of racking them (grin).

Ed
Susteren, Holland.

"Analogueman" > schreef in bericht
news:IyCjc.25447$i61.3940@clgrps13...
> Ted Underhill in his book "Making Better Wines" suggests an alternative to
> racking wines by gravity siphoning. With vacuum you can rack down, up or
> sideways and it does not involve any lifting - except, maybe, to lift the
> carboy you have just emptied, for cleaning.
>
> It involves making two holes in a bung. A vacuum source goes into one
hole,
> a hose from a wine source (the carboy you want to rack) goes into the
other
> hole and the bung is placed into a receiving carboy. Turn on the vacuum
and
> VOILA !!! I can empty a carboy in about two minutes.
>
> According to Underhill you cannot introduce air into a wine that is being
> vacuum racked since the wine is under negative pressure.
>
> My vacuum source is our house (built-in) vacuum cleaner which produces
about
> 6 Hg (3lb) vacuum. This, according to Underhill will not pull out excess
> gasses from the wine.
>
> I am testing the system with jury-rigged parts. In my final assembly I
will
> find some way to reduce the vacuum to 2-4 Hg (1-2 lb).
>
> I racked my first few carboys this afternoon. Took a photo.
> If anyone is interested I can e-mail the photo and/or draft up a
schematic.
>
> Is anyone out there using a vacuum system ???
> Does anyone have comments about pros or (especially) cons of a vacuum
system
> ???
>
> Roger in the RainForest (similar to the dark).
>
>
>
>

Vacuum assisted racking ...
 

Thanks Ed;
I Googled ENOLmatic.
Notice that their advertising says the bottle filler function will fill to a
pre-set level automatically.
How does ENOLmatic detect when the bottle is full and turn off ?
Maybe I can incorporate the turn off function in my home-made system.
LOL !!! Yes, makes a plastic receiver look very different...

TKS,
Roger



"ed montforts" > wrote in message
...
> I've been using my ENOLmatic for years now to rack from carboy to carboy,
> up, down, left, right, cutting down on the sulfite thanks to less oxygen,
> and also to bottle my wines. Great machine. Simple to use. Works with all
> sizes of carboy and all sizes of bottles. Just doesn't work with plastic,
> for the vacuum will wreck plastic carboys in stead of racking them (grin).
>
> Ed
> Susteren, Holland.
>
> "Analogueman" > schreef in bericht
> news:IyCjc.25447$i61.3940@clgrps13...
> > Ted Underhill in his book "Making Better Wines" suggests an alternative
to
> > racking wines by gravity siphoning. With vacuum you can rack down, up
or
> > sideways and it does not involve any lifting - except, maybe, to lift
the
> > carboy you have just emptied, for cleaning.
> >
> > It involves making two holes in a bung. A vacuum source goes into one
> hole,
> > a hose from a wine source (the carboy you want to rack) goes into the
> other
> > hole and the bung is placed into a receiving carboy. Turn on the vacuum
> and
> > VOILA !!! I can empty a carboy in about two minutes.
> >
> > According to Underhill you cannot introduce air into a wine that is
being
> > vacuum racked since the wine is under negative pressure.
> >
> > My vacuum source is our house (built-in) vacuum cleaner which produces
> about
> > 6 Hg (3lb) vacuum. This, according to Underhill will not pull out
excess
> > gasses from the wine.
> >
> > I am testing the system with jury-rigged parts. In my final assembly I
> will
> > find some way to reduce the vacuum to 2-4 Hg (1-2 lb).
> >
> > I racked my first few carboys this afternoon. Took a photo.
> > If anyone is interested I can e-mail the photo and/or draft up a
> schematic.
> >
> > Is anyone out there using a vacuum system ???
> > Does anyone have comments about pros or (especially) cons of a vacuum
> system
> > ???
> >
> > Roger in the RainForest (similar to the dark).
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>

Vacuum assisted racking ...
 

"Analogueman" > wrote in message
news:UJPjc.25486$en3.19481@edtnps89...
> Thanks Ed;
> I Googled ENOLmatic.
> Notice that their advertising says the bottle filler function will fill to
a
> pre-set level automatically.
> How does ENOLmatic detect when the bottle is full and turn off ?

It doesn't turn off. It starts sucking wine up through the overflow tube
into the receptacle. You are expected to pull the bottle off when it reaches
that point, or ideally just before to minimize... well, you can't call it
wastage, but at least wine that needs to be drunk up that day.

BTW, I do not believe for a second that vacuum assisted racking or bottling
is free from the threat of oxidation. You are indeed creating an area of
lower pressure which allows air pressure to force wine from one vessel to
another. However, nobody has yet given me any information on the level of
vacuum created in a bottle or a carboy. I believe there is still air in
there, and that it will cause premature degradation of wines that receive
this treatment.

My Enolmatic now sits largely idle, other than for occasional degassing use.
I have gone back to manual bottling with a racking tube and bottle filler.

Brian

Vacuum assisted racking ...
 

"Analogueman" > wrote in message
news:IyCjc.25447$i61.3940@clgrps13...
> Ted Underhill in his book "Making Better Wines" suggests an alternative to
> racking wines by gravity siphoning. With vacuum you can rack down, up or
> sideways and it does not involve any lifting - except, maybe, to lift the
> carboy you have just emptied, for cleaning.
>
> It involves making two holes in a bung. A vacuum source goes into one
hole,
> a hose from a wine source (the carboy you want to rack) goes into the
other
> hole and the bung is placed into a receiving carboy. Turn on the vacuum
and
> VOILA !!! I can empty a carboy in about two minutes.
>
> According to Underhill you cannot introduce air into a wine that is being
> vacuum racked since the wine is under negative pressure.
>Snip.......

"Cannot introduce air" seems to be a bit strong. Wouldn't there be some
oxygen pickup due to the temporary headspace in the container being racked?
In addition, some oxidation would be introduced in the receiving container
unless the pressure was extremely low.

Lum
Del Mar, California, USA

Vacuum assisted racking ...
 

Allright, Brian, that's the way it works. Try the following: place an empty
bottle - start your enolmatic - wait untill you see the wine (or water, as
it is only for trying out) coming - shut the enolmatic down - look how the
bottle fills up anyway - conclude that the vacuum had to be almost complete
when it fills the bottle even without a working enolmatic - believe me when
I say that with glass carboys it is almost the same?. We (my brother and I)
make pleasant use of the fact that some wine ends up in the receptacle; we
use it to fill up the last bottle or, better still, drink it as a reward
after all that "hard work" (LOL). You are right of course: the enolmatic is
perfect for degassing! It deserves a better fate than sitting on your shelf,
unemployed though.

Ed
Susteren, Holland.
No flowers, no bees,
no leaves on the trees,
no wonder,
november.


"Brian Lundeen" > schreef in bericht
...
>
> "Analogueman" > wrote in message
> news:UJPjc.25486$en3.19481@edtnps89...
> > Thanks Ed;
> > I Googled ENOLmatic.
> > Notice that their advertising says the bottle filler function will fill
to
> a
> > pre-set level automatically.
> > How does ENOLmatic detect when the bottle is full and turn off ?
>
> It doesn't turn off. It starts sucking wine up through the overflow tube
> into the receptacle. You are expected to pull the bottle off when it
reaches
> that point, or ideally just before to minimize... well, you can't call it
> wastage, but at least wine that needs to be drunk up that day.
>
> BTW, I do not believe for a second that vacuum assisted racking or
bottling
> is free from the threat of oxidation. You are indeed creating an area of
> lower pressure which allows air pressure to force wine from one vessel to
> another. However, nobody has yet given me any information on the level of
> vacuum created in a bottle or a carboy. I believe there is still air in
> there, and that it will cause premature degradation of wines that receive
> this treatment.
>
> My Enolmatic now sits largely idle, other than for occasional degassing
use.
> I have gone back to manual bottling with a racking tube and bottle filler.
>
> Brian
>
>

Vacuum assisted racking ...
 

There should be very little air pickup in the carboy receiving the wine as
the pressure would be tending to cause gas to leave the wine rather than
enter it. But in the carboy that the wine is coming from, you would still
have the normal air contact as it must be open for this to work. Normally
you would have air contact in both so maybe this would tend to cause less
air contact than normal. Of course you would have some lose of volatile
molecules due to the vacuum. There are always minuses to go with the
pluses. Still it sounds to be a very viable way of moving wine as I am
getting old and my back is not aging well. Be aware that a 3 lb pressure
drop would only lift water about 6-7 feet but that is more than enough to be
very useful to the "home" winemaker.

Question: Do you have any trouble with the hose collapsing under the
pressure?

Ray

"Lum" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Analogueman" > wrote in message
> news:IyCjc.25447$i61.3940@clgrps13...
> > Ted Underhill in his book "Making Better Wines" suggests an alternative
to
> > racking wines by gravity siphoning. With vacuum you can rack down, up
or
> > sideways and it does not involve any lifting - except, maybe, to lift
the
> > carboy you have just emptied, for cleaning.
> >
> > It involves making two holes in a bung. A vacuum source goes into one
> hole,
> > a hose from a wine source (the carboy you want to rack) goes into the
> other
> > hole and the bung is placed into a receiving carboy. Turn on the vacuum
> and
> > VOILA !!! I can empty a carboy in about two minutes.
> >
> > According to Underhill you cannot introduce air into a wine that is
being
> > vacuum racked since the wine is under negative pressure.
> >Snip.......
>
> "Cannot introduce air" seems to be a bit strong. Wouldn't there be some
> oxygen pickup due to the temporary headspace in the container being
racked?
> In addition, some oxidation would be introduced in the receiving container
> unless the pressure was extremely low.
>
> Lum
> Del Mar, California, USA
>
>
>
>