Carbonation

[cuz]

I started a Sangiovese in November 2018 and had it in a 6 gallon carboy for about a year. Bottled it in December 2019. I thought that it would be safe to bottle. However, the wine is carbonated. I thought if it was sitting in a carboy for a year I wouldn't have to degas.

Any thoughts?

 

[jbo_c]

Lots of folks say it will degas naturally in a carboy if you wait. That hasn’t been my experience. I’ve had wine in carboy as long as two years not fully degas. Now I always vacuum for insurance.

I think a barrel would take care of degassing naturally due to the slight vacuum being maintained by evaporation.

Jbo

 

[Johnd]

I started a Sangiovese in November 2018 and had it in a 6 gallon carboy for about a year. Bottled it in December 2019. I thought that it would be safe to bottle. However, the wine is carbonated. I thought if it was sitting in a carboy for a year I wouldn't have to degas.

Any thoughts?

Airlock the whole time, or solid bung?

 

[Rice_Guy]

* if it is at a low level where a few bubbles are on the edge of a glass, but it is not actively bubbling, I have seen this in about 20 to 25% of the state fair wines. It doesn’t affect the score as a defect and I simply note it.
* from the post I would assume it is dry however if the carbonation is increasing I would be concerned about exploding bottles, gravity? Stuck fermentation? or back sweetening

 

[cuz]

Has anyone tried uncorking - degassing and re-bottling. Just wondering if there is any pitfalls in doing that.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Has anyone tried uncorking - degassing and re-bottling. Just wondering if there is any pitfalls in doing that.

, , , Uncork - pump a vacuum - recork.
Had to buy more T’s and #2 stoppers to set it up. Works about as fast as pulling a vacuum on a carboy.
How bad is the CO2 ? Beer or champagne are obvious visually and by taste. Bubbles that collect on a glass but don’t coalesce and come to the surface aren’t a major defect.

 

[cuz]

can't see the bubbles in the glass but you can feel the fizz in your mouth. it was air locked.

 

[cuz]

Rice_Guy I do use a vacuum pump on my carboys but got lazy this time around. Did you use a vacuum pump directly on each bottle? I would imagine that you had to loose some wine in each bottle if you do that.

 

[Ajmassa]

If it’s enough to feel the co2 in your mouth then you really should be able to see visual signs with some agitation.

Gravity siphon and bottling IMO is more work than vacuum pump too. Plus it would lose co2 at racking and would see the bubbles at bottling. But also this ca——-wait HOLD UP———-

Did you bottle your wine without tasting it at all?!

 

[Ajmassa]

Rice_Guy I do use a vacuum pump on my carboys but got lazy this time around. Did you use a vacuum pump directly on each bottle? I would imagine that you had to loose some wine in each bottle if you do that.

Not sure I’m understanding your thought process here. Bottling with a vacuum pump is great. Makes quick work of it and gives you consistent fills on each bottle. And if the wine was still gassy you would notice right away with a thick layer of co2 fizz

 

[Rice_Guy]

Rice_Guy I do use a vacuum pump on my carboys but got lazy this time around. Did you use a vacuum pump directly on each bottle? I would imagine that you had to loose some wine in each bottle if you do that.

Try connecting the bottles in series. For a gallon it meant pump with tube to one of Steve’s regulating valves then horizontally to the first T this goes down to a cork which fit to bottle 1 and horizontal with tubing to the next T which goes down to the bottle 2 and horizontal via tubing to the next T etc till the last bottle which is piped directly. Yup when you see foam climb up the neck cut the vacuum down. And after it settles give it a tad more.

I had back sweetened this mulberry wine so the next step was to pasturize them for an hour.

 

[Ct Winemaker]

Was this a kit? If not, and was made from grapes, you my be experiencing CO2 due to malolactic fermentation in the bottles. Solution would have been to let it age longer in the carbon under airlock, or deliberately put it through Malo prior to bottling.

 

[jbo_c]

Good point, CT. I just assumed it was a kit.

Jbo