Degassing with a pump

[Paddy]

I'm new to both this site as well to wine making. I will be starting soon. Question though. A friend mechanically degasses with a vacuum pump prior to bottling. In the carboy stopper, he places the vacuum line. Turns on the pump for 15-30 sec then shuts it off. He leaves the line attached so it stays under vacuum. The gass begins the rise. Once it settles down, say two min, he does this again. He does this over and overin a15 min period. At some point the wine does not respond to the vacuum and he calls it ready. I should note that he must shut it down or the foam would get pulled in to the vac hose. Also, this is not a vacuum cleaner!


Have you ever seen/heard of this technique?

 

[masta]

Welcome Paddy,


Yes this technique is used by some home winemakers. The expense of buying a vacuum pump prohibits more winemakers from doing this and you need a drill mounted stirrer anyways for makinga happy must ready for yeast!

 

[Paddy]

Masta,





Not sure the connection between the using a drill stir and de gassing? I'm talking about the final step before it goes to the bottle.


As for the expense, just working on the sience here first. Is it good for a total de gass because what I saw was very effective. I'm an engineer so creating a vacuum can be done quite cheap. One method is to make a 3" PVC syrign. Basicly you make a piston to fit the id of the pipe. When you pull the piston out you create a vacuum. A $12 12vdc air pump can have the intake modified aswell. So vacuum..no problem. The question is; how critical is degassing?


patrick

 

[masta]

Degassing is critical to a quality wine and it is more of an issue when making wine from kits since they are designed to get the wine into the bottle ASAP and need to be stirred aggressively to force the CO2 out of solution.


For newbie kit wine makers this is the #1 issue..bottling wine that has not been degassed properly.

 

[Paddy]

OK then, I will build a low cost vacuum degasser. If it goes well I will post a material list and 'how to'.


patrick

 

[masta]

Sounds great Patrick....Thanks!

 

[peterCooper]

Pictures work really well!

 

[Steve]

Can't wait to get the parts list!!!

 

[MedPretzel]

Well, I hate to sound like a drag, but.....





You need to check the sulfite levels of your wine when you vacuum degas. At least that is what I have read. I have read that your wine, through the degassing process is also stripped of it's free sulfite. Myth or not, I'd check it out, since I really can't tell you 100% if it's true or not.


I tried to vacuum degas with a "vacuum" sealer a few months ago, but I never got the vacuum tight enough. I ended up with the good-ole stir method.

Which is much better now that I have a Fizz-Ex!!!

 

[Waldo]

Aw comon martina..i dont believe you got no fizz x ..I wanna see a picture of it

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Welcome to the forum Paddy.

You questioned earlier what Masta was refering to regarding the drill
mounted stirrer and degassing. The Fizz-X chucks into an electric drill and
is used for several things, mainly stirring the beginning must prior to
fermentation, and later on to vigorously stir the wine to degas. The kits will
instruct you when it is appropriate. With scratch wines, you are the judge.
After fermentation is finished the wine will have CO2 in suspension, some
wines quite a lot and others not as much. In order to clear, the gas needs to
be beaten out of the wine, or as you are planning, suctioned out. Martina's
point may be a very good one needing some research.

Bill

 

[MedPretzel]

Aw comon martina..i dont believe you got no fizz x ..I wanna see a picture of it

Believe it or not, I don't have any wines requiring degassing just yet.

 

[jobe05]

Paddy, I would be very carefull using a vacume that has no guage or way of telling how much vacume you are pulling. My son and I had a bad experience with this when it emploded our 1 gallon jug using my wifes vacume sealer. For Christmas she got me a MityVac to use (Ebay). It has a gauge and draws a vacume quickly. I have read other post on the net where the users of the mityvac draw 25 Hg of vacume and let it hold. I have used this on my Orange Cranberry and only had the nerve to go to 12 Hg so far since my last bad experience, I wish not to repeat. But even at 12 Hg, it pulls a lot of bubbles out. I plan on doing this over a several day period, then finish the process with my fizz-ex. I highly suggest that you not use any type of vacume without a gauge!

 

[PolishWineP]

jobe05,


What kind of 1-gallon jug was it that imploded with vacuum? Was it glass? The kind cider or juice comes in? Either way you have a big mess, but if it was glass...

 

[Paddy]

Jobe,


From my experince watching; you could not vac long because the foam would get sucked in the vacuum. He would do very short bursts and wait for the gas to rise. As this happened, the vacuum would decrease.


Your point is taken about a gage Could be a big expensive mess





patrick

 

[masta]

Here is a great past post with lots of info on vacuum degassing.


[url]http://www.finevinewines.com/Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7 86&KW=imploding&PN=0&TPN=12 [/url]http://www.finevinewines.com/Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=786&KW=imploding&PN=0&TPN=13Edited by: masta

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Degassing the one gallon jugs is quite easy just by shaking them with your
hand clamped over the mouth. It can be done in several minutes.