BubbleFlo™ Generates Excitement at Wine & Beer Show
New Winemaking Technology Introduced at St. Catharines Conference in Canada
Amherst, NY, June 28, 2006 --(PR.com)-- 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 by displaying both the fermentation rate and its percent of completion, promising the home winemaker consistently high quality in every batch. 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 Technologies 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 Executive VP and Chief Technology Officer of the company. “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. Then I remembered reading that in anaerobic fermentation the yeast ceases to reproduce and converting sugar to alcohol produces equal molecules of carbon dioxide to ethyl alcohol.”
Mr. Pazik set about to create an instrument that would quantify the gas and convert the output into both a fermentation rate and an 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. He approached Dan Kornacki, an old friend with an engineering degree from RIT and an MBA from Purdue as a General Motors Fellow. The timing couldn’t have been better. With Mr. Kornacki’s background and expertise, he set about building a company to create the product.
When the company required marketing talent, 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. Mr. Chew will also help to recruit a VP of Sales and Marketing to take the company’s sales to the next level.
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. In addition to the digital measuring instrument, the product includes a software interface, an airlock, a USB cable, and a wall transformer. Eventually, Bubble Flow intends to post “ideal” fermentation files on its website with multi-lingual instructions and hotlinks to wine kit manufacturers and to wholesalers for the convenience of home winemakers in the U.S. and Canada. 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 (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 dkceo@bubbleflow.com, or check the website at http://www.bubbleflow.com
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“We received a terrific response to BubbleFlo from some important members of the trade in St. Catharines,” says Dan Kornacki, Bubble Flow Technologies 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 Executive VP and Chief Technology Officer of the company. “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. Then I remembered reading that in anaerobic fermentation the yeast ceases to reproduce and converting sugar to alcohol produces equal molecules of carbon dioxide to ethyl alcohol.”
Mr. Pazik set about to create an instrument that would quantify the gas and convert the output into both a fermentation rate and an 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. He approached Dan Kornacki, an old friend with an engineering degree from RIT and an MBA from Purdue as a General Motors Fellow. The timing couldn’t have been better. With Mr. Kornacki’s background and expertise, he set about building a company to create the product.
When the company required marketing talent, 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. Mr. Chew will also help to recruit a VP of Sales and Marketing to take the company’s sales to the next level.
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. In addition to the digital measuring instrument, the product includes a software interface, an airlock, a USB cable, and a wall transformer. Eventually, Bubble Flow intends to post “ideal” fermentation files on its website with multi-lingual instructions and hotlinks to wine kit manufacturers and to wholesalers for the convenience of home winemakers in the U.S. and Canada. 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 (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 dkceo@bubbleflow.com, or check the website at http://www.bubbleflow.com
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Contact
Bubble Flow Inc.
Dan Kornacki
1-800-817-1440
www.bubbleflow.com
Dan Kornacki
1-800-817-1440
www.bubbleflow.com
Contact
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