Bubbles in Bottles

[articwater]

Nedd some advice - just bottled my first wine, used the bucket bottle filler thingy from here. Unfortunately, I kept getting air in the line or when filling the bottle could hear air. Now ready to cork but many have bubbles on top. Should I leave bottles open until all bubbles disappear?


Warren

 

[AlFulchino]

if i ever get air in my line and then result in bubbles in the just filled bottle...i wait a bit by bottling a couple of others until the first one loses its bubbles....BUT overall.... the bubbles you likely have are inconsequential and as soon as you force that cork in your gonna have really all the air you ever were gonna get in anyway

try to remove any sources of air getting into the line from either direction if at all possble...at the very least this will speed up your task at hand

as you bottle more and more down the road, it will become all about efficiency

 

[Wade E]

I use little hose clamps on my hoses where they meet racking cane and filler. The ones from an auto parts store designed for fuel injection are the best as they dont dig in to the hoses like the other ones with the slots in them do and they are like $.50 a pce and actually are designed for high pressure so dont leak at all.

 

[AlFulchino]

you are right Wade.....its is usually at the clamp points where one gets air in the lines.....i recall a particular nuissance of a time i had one yr after i disassembled my bottler for a good thorough cleaning only to find on the next filling air was getting in the line....not only did i get bubbles but uneven fills and quite a bit of dripping between bottles......tightening was teh only answer

 

[articwater]

Thanks once again for the advice. My air was from 1st time mistakes. Grabbing another bottle while lifting the fillr line above the bucket.. dumb - air in line, allowing the filler the splash in bottle, even letting the bucket get too low before tilting. Oh well.. know better now. It is wierd taht I only got 15 1.5L bottles from the batch. Granted I left a little more than I could to keep from getting sediment but not 4-5 bottles worth.


Thanks for the help


Warren

 

[Wade E]

15 of those bottles is exactly what you should get from a 6 gallon batch and thats actually not what most get. Thats the equivalent of 30 705 ml bottles.

 

[articwater]

Maybe I'm not doing the math right.. NM... I've been thinking that the "normal bottles" were 1 liter.. (slaps head) duh.. had 20 stuck in my head for 1.5L. Pssstt don't tell anyone I screwed up the math

Did end up with a 3/4 bottle of the 15... might just have to drink it soon.

 

[admiral]

I bottled a pinot noir and a barolo last week. Most bottles, after corking had a fine row of tiny bubbles at the top. Now, after a week... all gone. Patience.

 

[whino-wino]

I've been away from the forum for a while so I was going back through some older posts to see what I've missed out on when I came across this one. I know I'm chiming in about 4 months late, but I have a trick that works really well for this.


When you get air bubbles in the line when filling you are dissolving a small amount of oxygen into your wine. It's not enough to cause serious damage, but it is oxygen and it's not good for your wine. Here's what you do:


It's a 2 person operation. One fills and one corks. The one who is filling should try to stay only a couple of bottles ahead of the corker.


Have the person who is corking take a vacu-seal wine stopper and insert it into the bottle. Now give the vacu-seal a few pumps to create a vacuum in the bottle. You'll see a bunch more bubbles quickly rise to the top. Don't worry. Once the next bottle is filled release the vacuum. You'll hear a quick "hiss" and all of the bubbles will instantly disappear. Cork the bottle and repeat.


That's it. Works like a charm. Give it a try.