degassing?

[hamy]

OK... I'm now on the degassing stage for my first ever home made wine (Kenridge classic Shiraz). They suggest a good stir 6 to 8 times over the next couple of days for a minute or so each time. I have had a look on you tube and now have a sterilised spoon attached to my cordless makita drill and have done a first stir for a minute.

Are the guide instruction OK to go by? ie: stir every 4 hours or so for 2 days or is there a better way?

 

[Arne]

Lots of folks on here vacuum degass. Stirring it will work, sometimes takes a lot of stirring. Also just letting it sit in bulk will usually eventually degass it over time. Arne.

 

[cpfan]

Arne:

Personally I don't think sitting in a carboy will degas the wine. Perhaps eventually, but how long is that?

Hamy:

I don't find that stirring round-and-round to be as effective degassing as going back-and-forth with a spoon or paddle. I do both. Round-and-round for a bit to make sure that additives are dissolved. Back-and-forth (or side-to-side) to degas.

When I started making wine, I stirred 2 or 3 times a day for 2 or 3 days. Seermed very hard on the arm until I get the drill attachment. These days, I just work away at the wine for a while until I think it's degassed. Lots of back-and-forth and a sore arm.

Steve

 

[Arne]

Steve, I do not have much problem with the degassing. Maybe it disappears with racking, when I get a covering of lees on the bottom of the carboy I will usually rack it. Usually a couple three rackings on any given batch. Also, maybe I don't know what I am looking for when degassing. Don't seem to have any fizz in the wine when I bottle. Maybe just lucky. LOL, Arne.

 

[Kev]

I am pretty new, but have a lot of carboys at the stage where degassing is done. I found the drill attachment seemed to add a lot of air as the surface starts to vortex, if you spin fast enough to degas. Started using the brake bleeder hand pump style vacuum to de-gas, and that seemed pretty good. However even that takes a lot of pumping to keep it at 20 inches of HG, to get all the gas out. So i just ordered an electric vacuum pump on Amazon, and we will see how that goes.

 

[djrockinsteve]

Either use a vacuum pump or I splash rack from the primary to the carboy thru a funnel/sieve. Then I'll give it a few good quick stirs with the spoon after I add the sparkolloid and sulfite. I have very little CO2 and that dissipates over the aging process and additional rackings.

Using an attachment on a drill will work but you must use caution as not to add additional air to your wine which can easily occur.

You can reduce the amount of CO2 in your wine by stirring frequently during the fermentation time. This will release much of the CO2.

 

[dwinemaker]

My Pear wine doesn't want to clear. I used a clearing agent, but haven't stirred it consistantly over a few days like it seems people here are doing. Would making a greater effort at degassing help my wine to clear? I did not use potassium sorbate in this wine because I was hoping to make it into a nice dry sparkeling wine. Any ideas or comments would be appreciated. My pear wine always seems to have a hard time clearing.

 

[Goldcup]

Re: pear wine clearing

If you are not using pectin enzyme before adding yeast, I would try doing it. You may have too much pectin haze.

 

[UBB]

Either use a vacuum pump or I splash rack from the primary to the carboy thru a funnel/sieve. Then I'll give it a few good quick stirs with the spoon after I add the sparkolloid and sulfite. I have very little CO2 and that dissipates over the aging process and additional rackings.

Using an attachment on a drill will work but you must use caution as not to add additional air to your wine which can easily occur.

You can reduce the amount of CO2 in your wine by stirring frequently during the fermentation time. This will release much of the CO2.

Would oxidation really be a concern during degassing if indeed your wine contains a lot of CO2? Wouldn't the escaping CO2 protect the wine from the oxygen?