I had an "Ah Ha!!"
moment while contemplating buying a bottle tree or building a drying rack out of plywood. I was thrilled when I tried inserting a bottle and found out that it really worked! The child safety gate is too low for our flying miniature dachshund, anyway. And it easily holds 30 bottles.
EDIT: I refer to this now as the Derm-O-Matic Bottle Dryer....
So, here's how I spent my night. First, I sent my assistant, Roomba, on a search and destroy mission on the kitchen floor after I had cleaned off the countertops and wiped them down with sanitizer. While Roomba was going, I grabbed my FIRST BATCH OF WINE, my 'Graduation Day Pinot Noir', that was hiding behind my newer Welch's and Peach wines in the utility closet. Note that I added four square peel-and-stick vinyl floor tiles to my small aging area to hopefully elminate carboy fractures.
I racked to a primary with a spigot, so that I could add the optional K Meta and then bottle using the spigot. I can't imagine not doing it that way now, it made it so easy.
About an hour later, 1,2,3,4,5.....30!
And then another 35 minutes (notice it's now 12:45am), I was finished except for the cleanup. Notice that I'm not having any real consistency with the corking. Some are recessed nicely, but quite a few are sticking out a bit from the bottle. This was done using a double lever hand corker. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to how they turn out....I tried my best to be steady and consistent.
I'm very happy with the whole experience. Thanks to all that offered advice along the way, both on the forum and off.
Brian
Edited by: BrianD
EDIT: I refer to this now as the Derm-O-Matic Bottle Dryer....
So, here's how I spent my night. First, I sent my assistant, Roomba, on a search and destroy mission on the kitchen floor after I had cleaned off the countertops and wiped them down with sanitizer. While Roomba was going, I grabbed my FIRST BATCH OF WINE, my 'Graduation Day Pinot Noir', that was hiding behind my newer Welch's and Peach wines in the utility closet. Note that I added four square peel-and-stick vinyl floor tiles to my small aging area to hopefully elminate carboy fractures.
I racked to a primary with a spigot, so that I could add the optional K Meta and then bottle using the spigot. I can't imagine not doing it that way now, it made it so easy.
About an hour later, 1,2,3,4,5.....30!
And then another 35 minutes (notice it's now 12:45am), I was finished except for the cleanup. Notice that I'm not having any real consistency with the corking. Some are recessed nicely, but quite a few are sticking out a bit from the bottle. This was done using a double lever hand corker. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to how they turn out....I tried my best to be steady and consistent.
I'm very happy with the whole experience. Thanks to all that offered advice along the way, both on the forum and off.
Brian
Edited by: BrianD