My first Enolmatic experince

[Coaster]

I bottled 54 gals this weekend with my new filter/bottler. Took about 2 hours of playing with water to get the set up working as expected. I had to move the carboy to the same height as the filler (on the table) and I placed the filter on a chair (so it was a little below the table). On the filter, you have to ensure the connectionsare tight, any leaks seriously impact performance. Also, the manual says "Warning: to maintain a constantly precise filling, after ENOLMATIC has filled the bottle and the foam eliminated, rapidly remove the bottle out of the nozzle."and it means rapidly. Takes a certain practiced touch to get it consistent.If the flow rate is lower it is easier but as the volume drops the fill rate needs to be tweaked up. I am better at it now but still I could be better at it.
Took about 6 hours including a healthy lunch break. Three of us were working at one time. I was racking and cleaning, they were sanitizing, filling, corking and boxing. I didn't have my labels done yet =/.I have a fill jet and a super jet filter and I was going to use both set ups but my wife broke her hand last week and had four pins put in. She was only good for taste testing

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In the boxes are a Riesling-Traminer, Late Harvest Riesling, Muscato, Vinho Verde, Pinot Grigio, White ice Wine, Red Ice Wine, Black Currant with everclear and honey, Black Currant with brandy, Orange Chocolate Port, andChocolate Raspberry Port. I didn't bottle the Chocolate mead, still looks very cloudy and tastes too much like cocoa powder.


I'm travelling this week but next week I get to start the first of the limited editionsI ordered this year.

 

[grapeman]

That's a whole lot of bottling - and drinking. Should be able to get a bit of age on some of those!

 

[Wade E]

Would you recommend this product to someone or does it have to many flaws. You are supposed to be able to pump up or down and not have to worry about carboy being on the floor and machine being at counter top from what I read.

 

[Coaster]

Once set up, it was easier and faster than separate filtering and filling. I always filter so that is an important consideration to me. <?amespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><O></O>


It was very expensive with the filter and housing adding even more cost. I wish it had been a little slicker than it was for the cost but now that I have it I won't go back. My experience with previous set ups and reading here and other sites helped tremendously. It definitely did not draw from 13 feet away, at least not how I set it up. I might add some hose clamps as I read on the 'net. <O></O>


The filter worked better than a super jet filter; less leaks, easier to clean, less mixing when moving from one wine to the next. However my fill jet was spring loaded like a corker so it would handle different size bottles one after another and the Enolmatic needs to fill same height bottle in a row to be efficient (it can be adjusted up and down but it worked better when you do several bottles in a row of the same height). The Enolmatic was easier to clean, used vacuum, and was adjustable fill height and fill rate. So, what I would recommend is trying one if you can (maybe at Winestock?). <O></O>Edited by: Coaster

 

[Wade E]

Thanks Coaster, I definitely am not ready to buy 1 yet but have heard to many negative things about it to buy it with out trying 1st as you say.