# How are you degassing your wine?



## foursons (Sep 25, 2014)

Hello Everyone, 

This is the way I have been degassing my wine. Simply mounted a drill onto the shelf and attached the whisker.

Its great because I dont have to sit there, holding on to the heavy drill.

I was curious to see what you guys use

Cheers


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## richmke (Sep 25, 2014)

I use splash racking attachment for the All-in-one.

When I did use the drill method, I would drill in one direction until a slight movement of the top of the wine was created. I would then reverse the drill until a slight movement in the reverse direction was created. This enhances cavitation behind the paddles/whips, that helps draw out the CO2. By minimizing the movement on the surface of the wine, you minimize O2 introduction into the wine.

However, I do not degas the wine until I am about to bottle. During primary fermentation, I degass or a minute by stirring daily with a slotted spatula. After that, I let the periodic racking and bulk aging take care of the CO2. That minimizes the need to splash rack at the end. The CO2 helps protect from oxidation during bulk aging.


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## sour_grapes (Sep 25, 2014)

I degas by pulling a vacuum on a half-empty carboy, then sloshing the heck out of the carboy. It helps if the wine is a bit warm, like 70 or 75F.


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## Elmer (Sep 25, 2014)

In order of use:
I use the back end of my giant spoon when adding sorbate and K-meta at the end of fermentation. (usually switch between clock wise and and counter ever minute).

I splash rack with the AI1,

I also have piece of plastic hanger I attach to my hand drill. I whip the wine changing directions.

Let father time take care of it.

Or I pull a vacuum on a partially filled (or is it partially empty) carboy!


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## bkisel (Sep 25, 2014)

Use the drill whip then a Vacu Vin hand pump with many many pumps over the course of generally two days.


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## vacuumpumpman (Sep 25, 2014)

Well - 
I am a bit bias - because I use the Allinonewinepump to degass every time I am doing a transfer.

.


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## bkisel (Sep 25, 2014)

vacuumpumpman said:


> Well -
> I am a bit bias - because I use the Allinonewinepump to degass every time I am doing a transfer.
> 
> .



About how many transfers are needed to degas 6 gallons?

Thanx...


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## vacuumpumpman (Sep 25, 2014)

If you start using it from the beginning - (primary) you will be degassed by the time you need to bottle. You are constantly at every racking removing CO2 -


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## bub307 (Sep 25, 2014)

I haven't degassed any put fixing to use my AIO


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## rhoffart (Sep 25, 2014)

Yup, about 5 - 10 inch vacuum will degas very well. The video show a vacuum applied - removed - applied.
http://youtu.be/16bwKZsEVbQ?list=UUkaOF53r9rXYAaHWntscafw

Warning a vacuum on any container can be dangerous !!!


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## seth8530 (Sep 26, 2014)

I degas out my airlock over time. Takes a while, but no special tools needed.


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## Elmer (Sep 26, 2014)

vacuumpumpman said:


> If you start using it from the beginning - (primary) you will be degassed by the time you need to bottle. You are constantly at every racking removing CO2 -



Steve, 
not to nit pick, but "by the time you need to bottle." is relative to the winemaker and the process they are following. Therefore it becomes arbitrary.

Where as someone making a kit (strictly following instructions) would rack 2 or 3 times at most before being instructed to bottle at the end of the pamphlet.

Others may follow the "rack every 3 months" and therefore rack 4 times a year, not counting primary, secondary etc....

That being said, the magic (and I do believe it is magic, not fancy gears or science) of the AI1, is that if you are on a short schedule and need to make space, you can always rack numerous times consecutively or in s short period, for the purposes of degassing, with out the fret of introducing that pesky oxygen to the process!


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## bkisel (Sep 26, 2014)

I think I prefer a degassing phase where you apply the vacuum and watch the bubbles until done. Couldn't the AIO be used in this manner or must the degassing be done through vacuum racking?


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## berrycrush (Sep 26, 2014)

seth8530 said:


> I degas out my airlock over time. Takes a while, but no special tools needed.



ditto here. The only thing you need is patience.


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## vacuumpumpman (Sep 26, 2014)

Elmer
Yes it was designed for the kit maker as well - after you rack around the 3rd time it is degassed. (All depending that you are degassing at the proper temperature) 

Bkisel - 
I prefer promoting the splash racking method as it is the simplest and most effective.
It is also the safest method - considering I am dealing with the public to make it the safest and easy to use.


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## Greydog (Oct 16, 2014)

I devised a neat little item last year that is the berries for degassing using a vacuum. I bought a hand held vacuum pump used for bleeding brake lines on a car. The little kit contains everything you need and costs under $20.00. I used one of the plastic fittings from the kit and pushed it into the hole in the rubber carboy bung that the airlock normally fits in. I then attached one end of the supplied 1/4" clear hose to the fitting and the other end to the hand vacuum pump. Stick the bung into the carboy and pump away!!

This thing will rapidly pull 25 inches of vacuum on a full carboy so be careful not to pump it up too high. It will also suck foam up into the hose if the carboy is topped up and has a lot of CO2.

It really works great. I can upload a couple photos if anyone is interested.


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## bkisel (Oct 16, 2014)

Greydog said:


> I devised a neat little item last year that is the berries for degassing using a vacuum. I bought a hand held vacuum pump used for bleeding brake lines on a car. The little kit contains everything you need and costs under $20.00. I used one of the plastic fittings from the kit and pushed it into the hole in the rubber carboy bung that the airlock normally fits in. I then attached one end of the supplied 1/4" clear hose to the fitting and the other end to the hand vacuum pump. Stick the bung into the carboy and pump away!!
> 
> This thing will rapidly pull 25 inches of vacuum on a full carboy so be careful not to pump it up too high. It will also suck foam up into the hose if the carboy is topped up and has a lot of CO2.
> 
> It really works great. I can upload a couple photos if anyone is interested.



About how many pumps over the course of how much time till you've fully degassed 6 gallons?

Thanks


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## olusteebus (Oct 17, 2014)

First, every time I rack, I splash rack by putting the curved end of the racking cane in the carboy, thereby directing the wine to the side of the carboy. I finish with a brake bleeder.


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## oldwino54 (Oct 17, 2014)

I splash rack, then the conventional slow stir with a variable speed drill and finish with the brake bleeder!!


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## Greydog (Oct 17, 2014)

I generally rack back to the primary bucket and let it splash in. I then stir pretty aggressively with the drill attachment. Then rack back to the carboy and finish with the bleeder. You can usually tell when most of the CO2 is gone because the bubbles rising to the top will get bigger. I never counted the pumps but it generally takes less than 15 minutes. 

I don't like to use the drill and attachment in the carboy. I have had some very spectacular wine volcanoes from releasing too much CO2 in a small space too fast.....and once those suckers start they keep going til they're done!


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## dralarms (Oct 17, 2014)

I used beano. 



























I'm kidding. Ok?


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## foursons (Oct 18, 2014)

Greydog said:


> I devised a neat little item last year that is the berries for degassing using a vacuum. I bought a hand held vacuum pump used for bleeding brake lines on a car. The little kit contains everything you need and costs under $20.00. I used one of the plastic fittings from the kit and pushed it into the hole in the rubber carboy bung that the airlock normally fits in. I then attached one end of the supplied 1/4" clear hose to the fitting and the other end to the hand vacuum pump. Stick the bung into the carboy and pump away!!
> 
> This thing will rapidly pull 25 inches of vacuum on a full carboy so be careful not to pump it up too high. It will also suck foam up into the hose if the carboy is topped up and has a lot of CO2.
> 
> It really works great. I can upload a couple photos if anyone is interested.



Can you plz post some pictures, 
and typically, how long do you have to pump for?

Thanks


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## Greydog (Oct 18, 2014)

dralarms said:


> I used beano.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



LOL!! It took two days but your comment finally made sense after I re-read my post. Now that's funny....I don't care who you are!!!


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## Greydog (Oct 18, 2014)

Attached a pic. As I said...I don't count the pumps but it's a pretty simple procedure. The little gauge will let you know how much vacuum you have on the carboy.


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## spaniel (Oct 19, 2014)

I've never seen a need to degas. I bottle about 8-9 months after starting a wine.

Back when I had a couple old vacuum pumps and used them to rack, I guess I automatically degassed with every rack.


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## Elmer (Oct 20, 2014)

yesterday on a whim, I took my ziploc brand vacuum pump (little blue, plastic, hand held thing)
I took a #7 bung placed it over my white niagara, placed the pump over the hole and started pumping.
the bubble raised from the dept of the jug in seconds.
Within a minute my arm got sore and started barking.
Then I remembered why I bought a AI1.
but it was worth a try just to see if it would work.
I would never do this to a 5 gallon carboy!


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## garymc (Oct 20, 2014)

I've never done anything extra to degas. I rack every 3 (or 4 or 5) months for 8 to 12 months. With all this talk about degassing, I've arranged it so that some of the racking in the later stages involves pumping up from the floor to a carboy on the table with the AllInOne. This requires more vacuum that just going from one carboy to the other side by side and, therefore, should suck any lurking CO2 out. But before I got the AllInOne, 8 months or more under an airlock and 3 siphon rackings always produced wine without any CO2.


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## RedPlanetWinery (Oct 20, 2014)

So far have only been doing WE kits and following the 5 week 'schedule'. Although I don't have an actual AI1, I use the same techniques. Before dosing with k-meta and sorbate and adding f-packs and clarifier, I splash rack four or five times (have a comfy chair and a flat screen in the 'winery'). I also use vacuum to pull it through a whole house filter before bottling.
My first few kits I tried the drill-mounted paddle stirrer. Spent a lot more time and didn't work nearly as well as the splash racking under vacuum.


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