Kirkland, WA – Pulsair Systems Inc. today announced that Bear Creek Winery, one of the country’s largest custom premium wine producers is expanding their Pulsair large bubble, air mixing system installation into four (4) 450-ton, 23 foot diameter red fermentation tanks to maximize efficiency for cap management and rapid tank devatting after primary fermentation is ended.   Pulsair is providing cap management equipment, engineering, training and a Pulsair Pneumatage multi-tank touchscreen air mixing controller for Bear Creek Winery in Lodi, CA.

“We’re thrilled to continue working with Bear Creek Winery as they expand and adopt winemaking technologies that help support their high-quality standards and lower productions costs without any compromise in wine quality,” said John Parks, Pulsair’s General Manager.  “Bear Creek first started using Pulsair during the 2019 harvest with amazing result.  What usually took 24-30 hours to completely empty and drain a 450-ton tank was reduced to 8-12 hours – an incredible 60-70% time savings. With a grape cap that is over 15-feet thick in a 450-ton tank, Bear Creek was skeptical of just how much ‘mixing’ was been achieved by their older sprinkler pump-over process during the fermentation process."

“Here at Bear Creek Winery, we have fermentation tanks sized from 25 tons to 450 tons. In 2019, we chose to trial Pulsair on our 450-ton tank because it offered the most potential time and labor savings. After our trial, we are completely convinced Pulsair works – it is amazing how it has improved our operations here.  It’s a fantastic and efficient technique for fermentation cap management, tank devatting and general tank mixing,” said Han Han, Winemaker at Bear Creek.  “We follow a very strict policy here when considering new technologies that can improve the winemaking process.  New technologies must meet achievable ROIs and not take away from the wine quality in any way – Pulsair’s solution for cap management, devatting and tank blending far and exceeded these requirements.“ “What we generally see during pump-overs is that the juice finds the path of least resistance and forms channels to the bottom of the cap. This means that regardless how much or how long you run the sprinkler pump-overs, there will be pockets in the cap that juice will not to reach during the fermentation until it’s time to drain and press. Now we are completely confident all the fermenting wine juice is mixing up into the buoyant grape cap to enhance the infusion and extraction process.”  “The overall quality of wine has also increased for many direct and indirect reasons. Some direct reasons include healthier fermentations due to better temperature control and less percent solids due to less sluicing. Some indirect reasons would be because Pulsair increases our pressing efficiency, we’re able to get more tanks drained and pressed at our desired tannin levels. This increased efficiency helps us bring in more fruit at optimal ripeness without needing more fermenter tanks or presses.”

Moving forward, Bear Creek Winery will also start to expand their use of Pulsair and outfit a “smaller” 200-ton red fermenter tank with Pulsair for cap management. Additionally, Bear Creek continues to use their mobile Pulsair Crush Carts with nitrogen gas to replace wine pumps, shortening all wine tank mixing and addition sessions from 90-120 minutes down to 10-20 minutes.

Pulsair’s gentle air mixing process for primary fermentation, tank devatting and wine tank mixing works by sequentially pulsing in large bursts of modulated air or gas bubbles beneath the cap.  The large air bubbles push and pull the juice up into and over the top of the grape cap to gentle dissolve, liquefy and uncompact the skin pomace yielding a healthier and less reductive fermentation.  Once the skins and juice are homogenously mixed in the fermenter after primary is over, they can then be pumped out to the wine press where the wine can be separated from the skins.

The patented Pulsair Systems air mixing process, first used in the wine industry in 1988, can be used in any size or geometrically shaped fermentation tank.  Pulsair offers air and gas mixing equipment solutions for any size winery and any size tank.   Pulsair offers a wide range of portable and mobile air mixing solutions for barrel, 1-2 ton macrobin and fermentation tanks of any size or number.

Pulsair’s revolutionary air mixing technology can also be used for any must modification, cold soak mixing, lees stirring and year-round tank mixing to help maximize efficiency without any tradeoffs in wine quality.

Bear Creek is one of the leading bulk wine producers in the country and is dedicated to providing the highest quality wines and services at exceptional values.

Bear Creek Winery, located in Lodi, California, is the 6^th largest family-owned U.S. grape grower and winery operations.  It has earned a reputation as one of the premier custom wine producers in California.  Bear Creek Winery is recognized as the preferred outsourcing partner for many of the world’s leading beverage alcohol companies and brand owners.

For more information about Bear Creek Winery, visit www.bearcreekwinery.net

Pulsair Systems revolutionized liquid mixing with the introduction of its fast, efficient and low maintenance mixing process in 1983.  Today, Pulsair leads the world in innovation with custom tank mixing solution for any size tank and type of liquid.  The Pulsair Systems team is dedicated to making the best mixing equipment on earth and leaving the world better than we found it.

For more information about Pulsair Systems, visit, www.pulsair.com

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