Degassing Confusion

[loumik]

I am working on a Vineco California Connoisseur Merlot kit. Last Thursday I racked the wine from the secondary fermentor to a carboy, added the packet of Potassium Metabisulphite and mixed the wine vigorously with my de-gassing paddle. The wine has been maintained at 73 degrees and the S.G. is 0.992. Today is Sunday and I have mixed the wine about 12 times and I'm still getting a thick head of foam each time. There's very little activity in the airlock though. Could I still be getting gas from the wine or is the foam just a result of the paddle action? Should I continue degassing or move on to stabilizing and clarification? Any advise would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[WOLFIE8]

Degassing Problem

Yesterday, I degassed some Coastal Sunset White and Red. I have stopped using the paddle and have gone to a mechanical stirrer on the end of my drill.I degass for a continuous 3 minutes and end up with a layer of foam about 3 inches tall. I put the cap back on and walk away. I check in 30 minutes until the foam has disappeared. If it is still there, I degass again.I keep doing this util there is very little foam left. That's my practice. With my wine yesterday, I only had to degass twice.

 

[loumik]

Degasssing Confusion

The degassing paddles I am using is on the end of a drill. The foam I'm getting is only about 1/4 to 3/8" deep. Accorking to my kit instructions the degassing stage should have only taken 2 days, I'm into day 4 now.

 

[WOLFIE8]

Degassing Problem

How long did you degass. The instructions I follow says that 3 minutes with the mechanical stirrer, wait 24 hours, then add the clarifier.

At the end of 24 hours, I do what I said in my previous post about the degassing, 30 minute wait. I do not do the Clarifier step until most of the gas has cleared.

 

[cpfan]

Personally I find that going round and round (drill or spoon) is not as effective as going back and forth (or side to side) with the paddle.

If you are concerned, thief a small sample and taste it. If it tastes a bit carbonated, keep degassing.

Steve

 

[Wade E]

I agree with Cp as creating a vortex in your carboy does nothing but introduce 02 into your wine. I use high speed and start slow so as not to get the VOLCANO and then go full bore forward until the wine just starts to move in that direcyion and then nail it in reverse until its just gets going in that direction and I do this many many times if Im not using my electric vacuum pump. You want to really disturb the wine not just spin it.

 

[surlees]

loumik,
I didn't see any mention of your adding Sorbate. Did you? If not you could still have some fermentation going on; however, at sg .992, your wine is dry and that is probbaly not the case. Just wondering.

IMO you should go ahead and clarify. The wine will continue to degas on it's own. The critical point for degassing is prior to bottling. You don't won't to bottle gassy wine.

Fred

 

[smurfe]

I use short bursts of the drill when I degas and found it to work much better. If you just nail it with the drill you will create the tornado looking vortex. When you do this you are sucking oxygen into the liquid. A lot of that foam you see will be that oxygen. It is the same as when I make a yeast starter with my stir plate. You create that vortex because you want to get oxygen into the liquid to feed the yeast. My first few batches I would stir for sometimes up to 15 minutes straight with my drill stir device and still have gassy wine.

 

[loumik]

My instructions say to stir at least 6-8 times over a two day period. I use the degassing paddles for 1 to 2 minutes at a time reversing the direction before a vortex can form. I stirred again this morning and still get a head of foam but no action in the airlock. My instructions say to add the sorbate after degassing. So do I go ahead and fine or continue stirring?

 

[bryano]

I've always added the sulfite and the sorbate at the same time, then degassed with the drill.

 

[loumik]

I got a small sample of my wine and tasted it. It tastes alot like Merlot, no carbonation. My next question is, since it has been 4 days since I put the K-meta in should I add more before putting in the sorbate and Fining Agent? The instructions with the kit require 6 days to pass before racking and bottling.
Since I'm going to have to be out of town for several weeks shortly after the wine is ready to bottle I'm a little concerned bout bottling it right away. Will it be ok to leave it in the betterbottle for a few weeks and bottle when I get back?

 

[cpfan]

loumik:

You don't need more K-meta at the moment. You should be fine leaving it in a BB for a few weeks.

Steve

 

[loumik]

Thanks all of you for your help and advice. I'm starting to think I may get this finished and actually have drinkable wine.LOL
loumik

 

[Wade E]

Like Cp siad, your fine as is but if you want to bottle it and want to age this gracefully for a year or more then add another dose of k-meta before bottling. You should add another dose every 3 months of bulk aging and it sounds like your gas is all out.

 

[dderemiah]

I am curious. I have a batch of Ed's Applewine going and when it was done fermenting I tried stabilizing it and sweetening. So I degassed until I couldn't get anymore bubbles. I made the mistake of adding the sugar dry directly into the carboy. There was a volcano (think Mentos and Diet Coke) and I lost a couple liters on the floor
If I had added the sugar as syrup, would it have volcanoed anyway? or was that because I didn't get all the CO2 out?