Degassing fears

[DaveV]

Hi everyone.
I've read pretty much every thread about degassing and have chosen to degas by way of a brake bleeder setup. Seems pretty straight forward to me but I do have some apprehensions placing a glass carboy under a vacuum.

I've followed everyone's advice and have the carboy filled halfway between the shoulder and the rim to allow the liquid to provide support to the glass.

Still....at what level of vacuum should I be frightened. I started and got to about 20"HG. Lots of gas by the way.

Do I need to go much beyond that? Any feedback would be very appreciated.

 

[Runningwolf]

Dave there is no need to go higher than 20 although I have gone up to 28. I think 20 is perfect. Once you can get it there without all the tiny bubbles you should be pretty good.

 

[Wade E]

If you can hold it at 18" for a few minutes you are fine, dont go much beyond 22". Not sure its much of a problem for the carboy at that point, more of a problem with the wine. You really actually do want small amounts of C02 in your wine as it would truly fall flat without any C02 at all in the wine.

 

[Wade E]

Freakin Dan beat me. You went up to 28 Dan? Were you behind a steel wall?

 

[DaveV]

Went to 24 before I saw your responses, Dan and Wade. Surprised how quickly it degassed. Tasted afterward and no outward evidence of CO2. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Wade E]

Vacuum is the way to go, I used to have one of the Mity vacs myself.

 

[Ernest T Bass]

Dan & Wade, where do all the bubbles the size of BB's and a little larger come from and what are they. Seems like I read that the larger bubbles are air? In my elderberry wine, I have a lot of BB size and larger bubbles and can't get rid of them, I also have some small bubbles, they seem to originate about half way the carboy. I guess, after my exploding bottles I'm parenoid about fermenting "dry" and degassing. I agree with what ya'll said about the wine still fermenting, the fermenting I think I can correct but I don't know how much CO2 you can safely leave in the wine.
Thanks for you time and replys
Semper Fi

 

[Wade E]

Like I said about it, I dont believe foir a second that Left over C02 in wine can explode bottles unless you left them in your car on a hot day in the sun! But anyway, the bigger bubbles are air or vacuum being pulled through your wine and that usually doesnt happen until after your wine is thoroughly degassed. The very small bubbles in the beginning are the C02

 

[Ernest T Bass]

Thanks Wade, I needed that assurance.
Semper Fi

 

[terroirdejeroir]

Very interesting stuff. Is it safe to vacuum degas wine in a Better Bottle carboy?

 

[pete1325]

What brake bleeder set up are you using. I've heard guys swear by the $25 bleeder from Harbor Freight..........opinions?

 

[Flem]

Very interesting stuff. Is it safe to vacuum degas wine in a Better Bottle carboy?

No, you can't degas in a Better Bottle. It will collapse the sides. It needs to be in glass to vacuum degas. Good Luck!

 

[terroirdejeroir]

I have belatedly discovered that my initial batch of cab was probably not degassed sufficiently before I bottled it. I just degassed a bottle using a Vac-U-Vin and it is much better. What is the best way to correct this problem? Can I just carefully pour the bottles back in to a carboy, bulk vacuum degas and then re-bottle?

 

[Ernest T Bass]

terror, if you will read my post on "chit-chat" you will see that I don't know much about wine making. But, I recently had the same problem and it turned out to be that the wine was still fermenting. I was told that if the wine was young, a couple of months old it would be okay to do what you want to do, just to add a pinch of k-meta in the carboy with the wine. You may want to leave it in the carboy for a couple of days to check the SpGr to make sure it's not still fermenting. Like I said, I don't know nothing, I'm just passing on what happened to me and what it was recommended for me to do. Yours may be altogether different. Someone who know more about wine making than me ( and that covers about everyone else on this site) will come on and give you a more detail answer when they get home from work.

Semper Fi

 

[bzac]

nope plastic doesn't work for degassing it caves in and spills wine.

I've had an empty carboy in a plywood box upto 29 inches with an electric vacuum pump

so I figure a mostly full one at 20 inches is fine.

 

[rms]

nope plastic doesn't work for degassing it caves in and spills wine.

I've had an empty carboy in a plywood box upto 45 inches with an electric vacuum pump

so I figure a mostly full one at 20 inches is fine.

What did you use to pull that much of a vacuum and how did you measure it????I thought that 29.92, commonly called 30"s or one atmospere is the maximum capacity of a "roughing" vacuum pump?

 

[hvac36]

nope plastic doesn't work for degassing it caves in and spills wine.

I've had an empty carboy in a plywood box upto 45 inches with an electric vacuum pump

so I figure a mostly full one at 20 inches is fine.

45" of vacuum?? I would like to see the pump you are using. I work in the HVAC field and I have never seen a pump that could pull that. Let me rephrase that not one that works under 75CFM and 240 Volts. AT 45" the empty carboy would have imploded. You are talking 1.5 atmospheres.. Wow!!!! I just finish a 200Ton chiller and would have loved to had that pump, 5 days 4 Pumps to get to 28.5...

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I am sure Bzac made a mispelling, we all typically know that 30'' of hg is the most you can pull on a vacuum. I am sure he will come back and correct his mistake or let us know what he was trying to say

 

[hvac36]

I hope so if not I want that pump for work..

 

[bzac]

It was using a 1 hp pigging pump 3 phase power.
It didn't implode . A friend of mine has the video of it , i sent him an email to View it And check the Gage . We were intentionally trying to implode it .
I might be wrong on the conversion from metric .

My hvac pump I use in the cellar pulls 25 no problem , been using it for years without issue