Bubble Flo receives a warm reception at the 2006 American Wine Society Conference

Bubble Flo Inc. continued to showcase its BubbleFloTM at the 2006 American Wine Society conference in Baltimore, MD.

Baltimore, MD – Bubble Flo Inc. continued to showcase its BubbleFloTM, (a self-contained computerized monitoring device for making wine that can be operated manually) at the 2006 American Wine Society conference in Baltimore, MD on November 9th, 10th and 11th.

The American Wine Society which boasts over 120 chapters is the quintessential organization for wine enthusiasts of all stripes and the sanctioning body for wine competitions both amateur and professional.

“The experience and response of the membership has been enthusiastic.” Says Dan Kornacki, Bubble Flo Inc. President and CEO. “We want everyone to enjoy a lifestyle of making great wine and we created self-contained computerized monitoring device to enable even amateurs to create great wine simply and inexpensively. With the availability of juices from the greatest wine-producing regions of the globe, everyone can enjoy fine wine without overpaying for commercially produced wine.”

The patented technology works by quantifying the emissions of carbon dioxide gas from the fermentation and converting it to a fermentation rate. The BubbleFloTM was on exhibit at the conference and grabbed the attention of both amateur and commercial winemakers, as well as attendees from Cornell, Rutgers and the University of Maryland.

“It’s been a great conference.” Says Tom Doran, Bubble Flo Inc. Chairman, “We sincerely thank everyone for visiting our booth and for the enthusiastic response to the BubbleFloTM device. The questions were great! We look forward to attending future American Wine Society events and seeing everyone there.”

Bubble Flo Inc. is located in and supported by the University at Buffalo’s Baird Research Park, 1576 Sweet Home Road, Amherst, New York 14228

For more information on BubbleFloTM, please contact Dan Kornacki at 1-800-817-1440 or dkceo@bubbleflow.com, or check the website at http://www.bubbleflo.com/

Fruit Wines and Fruit Winemaking – Part 2 of 2

Tips from Andre: Fruit Wines and Fruit Winemaking –Part 2 of 2

I hope that this summer was a pleasant one for you and a productive fruit wine season. Here in Western New York the availability of summer tree fruits like apricots and peaches is winding down. For berries, cultivated blackberries and blueberries are still available, and locally grown blueberries will be available until the first frost. This year I managed to get strawberries, mulberries and blueberries for winemaking.

There is a terrific website that can aid you in locating pick-your-own farms across the country, and even in other parts of the world along with fruit availability and picking tips. Go to http://www.pickyourown.org/. There is even a section of unusual fruit, their characteristics and availability. This resource is updated daily, and I’ve found U-pick places locally that I never knew existed. So, if this year was a wash because you weren’t quite sure where to pick, you can plan for next year.

I took a bronze for my 2005 semi-dry blueberry in the 2006 Western New York Home Wine Competition at The Niagara County Fair on August 6th. My sincerest gratitude goes out to my fiancée Patty Gniazdowski and my future mother-in-law Donna Hanel for the perennial help they offer me with harvesting, cleaning and crushing fruit. They are my right arm and make the whole experience more of a family outing. Kudos also goes out to Tom Chiappone of Chiappone Cellars Winery of Newfane, New York for hosting the event at his winery. If you visit his winery, try the Traminette, its awesome!

The recipe for this wine was a very basic one that I had found several years ago on Jack Keller’s Winemaking Homepage http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/, a resource every home winemaker should utilize. I picked the berries at Childs Blueberry Farm in Humphrey, New York just south of Franklinville. Good wine always begin in the vineyard, orchard and field. The Childs family offers a superior product and this is attributed to their philosophy and methodology in cultivating blueberries. I encourage you to check out their web address, http://www.childsblueberries.com/ and visit their farm.

Below is the anaerobic fermentation presented in graphical form. A prototypal BubbleFlo was used with non-prototypal airlocks. After the wine finished the primary fermentation and was put in carboys, the degradation of the secondary fermentation by number of CO2 discharges per hour was closely monitored. I used Lalvin 71B-1122 (Narbonne) to ferment the wine.
As with any winemaking sanitation is the first concern. When underway, temperature control plays a large role in the quality outcome of the wine. This wine was fermented in a temperature range of 73 to 74 Fahrenheit, a temperature range many would say is a bit high for anaerobic. I won’t argue with that, but more importantly most winemakers have found that maintaining a consistency in fermentation temperature leads to a better outcome. Blueberry wine is usually a long fermenting wine regardless of the type of yeast used to do it. This one logged 863 hours (nearly six weeks) in anaerobic. It was the long, seemingly unending fermentation of blueberry wine that inspired the concept of the BubbleFlo.

We are heading for the grape harvest and locally the weather last April dealt a harsh blow to Western New York wine grape producers. A late spring freeze last April devastated wine grape crops locally. Last May the Amherst Times reported the losses in the affected counties. Below are the estimated crop value losses for each affected county:
Estimate County Loss

Chautauqua
$7,000,000
Cattaraugus
$496,800
Erie
$1,552,000
Niagara
$108,000

Estimated crop value losses $9,156,800

Not to end on a sour note but, if you source your juice locally you may want to contact your supplier and find out if they were affected by the freeze and if it will impact your winemaking plans for this year.

Tips from Andre: Fruit Wines and Fruit Winemaking –Part 1 of 2

Tips from Andre: Fruit Wines and Fruit Winemaking –Part 1 of 2

Once again we have advent of the summer season in Western New York and Ontario and while some home winemakers limit their endeavors to the grape, others, including myself, anxiously await the arrival of the fresh fruit. Once dismissed out of hand by some as inferior and often quaintly referred to as “country” wines, fruit wines are enjoying a surge in popularity never seen before, embraced by amateur and professional vintners alike.

And why shouldn’t they? Our region has the good fortune to possess a burgeoning agribusiness in fruit other than grapes and, as many fruit farmers have discovered (as indicated by the surge in farm winery licenses), wine returns a much more appealing margin than fruit alone. For those who are still on the fence about the virtues of fruit wine, may I suggest that you take a day to tour some of the local wine trails and try them.

For me, a family outing to the local fruit farms, especially a “U-Pick,” was always gleefully anticipated as a summertime ritual. The delicious baked goods and the jellies and jams made from the fruit could be enjoyed into the cold winter months. That is, of course, if they lasted that long.

We still make and love all these things, but taking the extra time and expense to produce wine from the strawberries, cherries, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, and other fruits adds another dimension that will challenge and hone your skills. This is because, unlike grapes (especially those varieties which one may regularly vint year after year), fruits, berries, and other feedstock used to make these wines have less predictable characteristics in their pH, acid, and sugar. Therefore, careful testing and attention to making the proper adjustments is important to producing a good fruit wine.

There is an abundance of websites that have good basic fruit wine recipes, and even recipes to make wine from vegetables and herbs. Simply plug ‘fruit wine recipes’ into a search engine.
Now for another reason why home winemakers should have a second look at fruit wines. Today, people are more health-conscious than ever. Almost every day for the past decade, starting with “The French Paradox,” we’ve been bombarded with one clinical study after another that touts the health benefits of drinking red wine in moderation.

Well, surprise! The same health-promoting compounds found in Pinot Noir are found abundantly in fruits and berries. The polyphenol pigments that impart color to the fruit are known collectively as anthocyanins, a family of powerful antioxidants. The compound found in Pinot Noir called resveratrol is produced in greater amounts in this varietal as an antifungal because the skin of the grape is thin and susceptible to splitting. Resveratrol has been studied for its ability to block cell inflammation and oxidative stress related to arthritis and other degenerative diseases, as well as cancer treatment and prevention. *

Blackberries, mulberries, and especially blueberries are rich in powerful antioxidants like resveratrol. Blueberries also contain phytosterol and pterostilbene, which have recently been shown to be useful in lowering bad (LDL) cholesterol, preventing heart disease, and protecting the body against certain cancers.

None of these beneficial compounds are lost in the winemaking process, so why not raise a glass of fruit wine and drink to your health?

*Joseph, J.A., Shukitt-Hale B., Denisova, N.A. Bielinski D., Martin, A., McEwen, J.J., and Bickford, P.C. "Reversal of Age-Related Declines in the Neuronal Signal Transduction, Cognitive, and Motor Behavioral Deficits with Blueberry, Spinach, or Strawberry Dietary Supplementation," Journal of Neuroscience, September 15, 1999, Vol. 19, No. 18. pp. 8114-8121.]

BubbleFlo Generates Excitement at Wine & Beer Show

BubbleFlo™ Generates Excitement at Wine & Beer Show

New Winemaking Technology Introduced at St. Catharines Conference in Canada

International trade across the Peace Bridge may have just taken a big leap forward with the introduction of BubbleFlo™, an amazing new instrument that assists home winemakers in monitoring the fermentation of their wine. BubbleFlo takes the guesswork out of the fermentation process. BubbleFlo is the brainchild of two Buffalo entrepreneurs whose invention quickly captured the attention of participants at the Home Wine & Beer Trade Association (HWBTA) conference in St. Catharines during the second weekend in June.

“We received a terrific response to BubbleFlo from some important members of the trade in St. Catharines,” says Dan Kornacki, Bubble Flow, Inc. CEO. “Distributors for home winemaking products in North America were very impressed with our product.”

Everybody knows that wine is becoming big business as the nation’s alcoholic beverage tastes encompass more reds, whites, and blushes and new labels seem to materialize at each visit to the wine shelves. But not all of the wine poured these days is being sold by wine merchants. An increasing amount of good serviceable table wine is coming from the bottles, vats, and carboys of North America’s burgeoning number of home winemakers. This operation usually goes on at home but can also take place at a u-vint, a store where knowledgeable wine folks will assist your winemaking efforts. With do-it-yourself vintners rapidly increasing on both sides of the border, Bubble Flow hopes to corner both markets with its new product.

The trickiest and most delicate part of making a decent wine is getting the fermentation right. Today’s commercial wine kits provide all of the necessary ingredients, primarily the grape juice and the yeast, but calculating the progress of fermentation is largely a matter of guesswork. That’s where Bubble Flow’s principals saw a niche for a product that would monitor the fermentation, take out the guesswork, and enable the home winemaker to make “great wine every time.” To keep things simple, they named the product BubbleFloTM, the same as the company, without the w. But what is a BubbleFlo and how does it work?

“Several years ago I was making a batch of wine and the anaerobic fermentation seemed to go on forever,” recalls Andre Pazik, who is the Executive VP and Chief Technology Officer. “I watched the airlock for activity and dipped into it to do hydrometer tests even though it risked contamination. I just wanted to know when the fermentation would stop.

Mr. Pazik set about to create an instrument that would quantify the fermentation rate and alcohol production rate. This technology would enable anyone to make great wine, from the novice following step-by-step instructions to the expert using charting and data analysis tools.

Mr. Kornacki contracted John Chew, a former associate, as a consultant to organize marketing and launch BubbleFlo into the eager hands of winemakers and distributors.

With a patent for the product in hand, the company is moving quickly to capitalize on the excitement generated among the trade at the HWBTA conference. An introduction to world markets is planned for later this year.

Bubble Flow’s successful product introduction has been assisted by a $200,000 venture loan from the ECIDA/Niagara Region Ventures Fund (http://www.nrvf.com/) and the Buffalo and Erie County Regional Development Corporation. Al Culliton, CFO of the development corporation, stated, “RDC and the Niagara Region Ventures Fund are happy to assist in the commercialization of new technologies by local companies.”

Bubble Flow is located in and supported by the University of Buffalo’s Baird Research Park, 1576 Sweet Home Road, Amherst, New York 14228.

For more information on BubbleFlo™, please contact Dan Kornacki at 800-817-1440 or mailto:dankornacki@bubbleflow.com, or check the website at http://www.bubbleflo.com