best way to fill small glass

[tuckermtn]

I am looking at doing some wedding favors this summer and wondered what is the best way to fill the small (50ml) maple leafs, etc. I have about 200 to do for one wedding and 100 to do for another. I see that Leader makes a vacuum rig that they say works well. Is that the way to go? Does the small tip on the hands-free bottler that the mapleguys sell work also?

If the leader rig is the way to go, anyone want to rent me theirs for a weekend?

thanks -

Eric

[Haynes Forest Products]

When I do the small bottles I went to Ace Hardware and in the brass fitting isle they also have small SS pipe fittings. I plumbed mine down to the 1/4 size. I got a 4" nipple and cut it at a 45 degree angle and round filed the inside to remove all burs. It works nice and the Angle cut keeps the foam to a minimum:) It cost me about $10.00 to do. I dont think the vacuum head is small enough to fit the small tops.

[Rhino]

I put a small funnel that is necked down really small onto my canners spigot. After a few practice leafs a person can get pretty good at fillin and not spillin. Bottled up 150 gal. of assorted bottles and sizes with the couple cold/ rainy/sometimes snowey weather we had for a couple days. Wish the Ground would warm up so i could get some garden planted.

[upsmapleman]

On my canner I necked down to a 1/4" brass barbed fitting. For nips I found a small plastic barb fitting which I can push onto the 1/4" which necks it down to nip size. I filled a case yesterday in under 20 minutes with not a drop spilled.

[softmaple]

i used the smallest fitting on the mapleguys rig and thats works fine for us. we just got the fittings not the whole unit.

[TF Maple]

I would think a coffee maker would work well for this.

[Homestead Maple]

I don't know what type of fill valve you have on your canner but I have a leader canner. With the valve on this canner I use one of the 7/16ths. - 5/16ths. spout adapters ( DARSPADPT ) in the Bascom catolog. On the short end of this adapter, there is kind of a raised or stepped up portion that will fit snugly up into my canner valve. This reducer has a small opening and I have used this to fill the same bottles your talking about.

[gearpump]

Eric,

We have a Leader vacuum filler that you could use for a weekend. It works great. Ideally you need to have 3-4 people helping: one supplying the bottles, one working the filler, and one or two capping the bottles. It really goes that fast.

-Marty

[tuckermtn]

Excellent- thanks to all who have replied-

Gearpump- was talking with a few Loudon sugarmakers the other day and they mentioned you have a nice spot- hope to swing over sometime soon and check it out.

-Eric