All in One wine pump question - overflow bottle

[TemperanceOwl]

Hi. I just finished bottling with the AI1 for the first time. I found it to be MUCH handier than the old way. In fact, I'm not sure I could have done the entire operation by myself without it, and I did that today, including stopping halfway through the batch to back sweeten the second half before bottling.

I do have a couple of questions…

1) What do you do with the wine that ends up in the overflow bottle? It has gone through the vacuum release valve, which isn't supposed to need to be washed and sanitized (and seems to impart a bit of a valve oil flavor to it).

2) According to the website, the vacuum release valve should never contact the wine, but multiple times as I was trying to gently top off a bottle, it would suddenly foam up and run back down both the feed tube and the vacuum tube. I was trying to use the valve to "feather" the level up, but I guess I don't have that much fineness. Do other people experience this?

3) Are you supposed to be able to filter and bottle at the same time? I found that it made the wine foam too much that way, and decided to filter into a fresh carboy and bottle from there.

Thanks!!

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Hi. I just finished bottling with the AI1 for the first time. I found it to be MUCH handier than the old way. In fact, I'm not sure I could have done the entire operation by myself without it, and I did that today, including stopping halfway through the batch to back sweeten the second half before bottling.

I do have a couple of questions…

1) What do you do with the wine that ends up in the overflow bottle? It has gone through the vacuum release valve, which isn't supposed to need to be washed and sanitized (and seems to impart a bit of a valve oil flavor to it).

2) According to the website, the vacuum release valve should never contact the wine, but multiple times as I was trying to gently top off a bottle, it would suddenly foam up and run back down both the feed tube and the vacuum tube. I was trying to use the valve to "feather" the level up, but I guess I don't have that much fineness. Do other people experience this?

3) Are you supposed to be able to filter and bottle at the same time? I found that it made the wine foam too much that way, and decided to filter into a fresh carboy and bottle from there.

Thanks!!

1= it is all depending how much we are talking about ? I will typically will personally drink it as long as it is not the first time I have used the system

2 = You may have a bit go thru the valve as described in question #1
I will usually only have 1-2 tablespoons of wine in the overflow container after bottling 30 bottles

3 = no you can not bottle and filter at the same time - It is best to filter prior to bottling

Any other questions or concerns please PM me and I can call you

.

 

[TemperanceOwl]

Thanks for the quick response, Steve! It was about 5 ounces that ended up in the overflow bottle, mostly due to the few bottles I tried to do at the same time as filtering. This was the second time I'd used the system and the wine in the overflow bottle tasted funny, so I tossed it out.
It is a really neat system!

 

[dralarms]

I never use the overflow wine. Once you get used to it you will be able to bottle or transfer with little to no loss. I bottled 96 bottles at one time and had maybe an ounce of waste.

 

[Boatboy24]

I never have any overflow wine, so no opportunity to drink it.