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).

"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

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).
>
>
>
>

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).
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>

"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

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
>
>
>
>