Long or short cane?

[rms]

Just tried the All in one pump last night for racking and degassing, should have pulled the trigger on one a while ago! Turned a less than exciting chore into a breeze, but my wife and I now have a question? When vacuum transferring and degassing is it better to use a racking cane on the receiving carboy that goes to the bottom of the carboy or a short piece of tubing that allows the wine to free fall to the bottom. Sort of splash racking under vacuum. It seems that the shorter tube would be a better option for degassing but I seem see to all transfer setups pictured with a full length racking cane. The shorter tube shouldn't hurt anything as the exposure is in a vacuum? Opinions?

 

[ffemt128]

My cane is long enough to fit a gallon jug. When I'm racking into the carboy it does not extend to the bottom. I do have an extra cane that I use on occasion. If you are vacuum racking you are not exposing your wine to any air as you need to create negative pressure to start the vacuum. JMHO.....

 

[robie]

That's a good, but tough to answer question, as it is very subjective. Some personal style is involved, here.

Here is what I do:
Right after secondary, when it is time to degas anyway, I use a short cane, so the wine will splash into the bottom. Creates a lot of foaming and lots of CO2 is released this way. This will help immensely to degas the wine.

On subsequent rackings, if the wine seems to be well degassed already, I would switch to the longer cane, so oxidation will not be an issue. However, on these subsequent rackings, if the wine still has some CO2 present, do one more short-cane racking.

Just make sure to keep your SO2 levels up.

 

[rms]

Not as many opinions as I had hoped for.............. Not discounting the two who dared to express theirs! I appreciate yor input

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I will agree with Robie ^
I like to splash rack myself - as is seems to remove the co2 more easily.
I am glad that you are enjoying racking while degassing !

thanks steve

http://allinonewinepump.com/

 

[rms]

Thanks for your imput and one heck of a product Steve!!!!
My opinion, as a hobby wine maker your product is the bomb.... as my kids say.

 

[Wade E]

My opinion, I think splash racking is ok only if you are racking onto some sulfite with newly fermented wine as its sulfite levels are dangerously low and I have seen it first hand once where just the act of splash racking it oxidized a white wine. Now, after that initial splash racking I would not do it anymore so I would get a cane long enough to do it both ways and just hold it higher when splash racking, after that bring it way down to the bottom to reduce your chances of 02 exposure as much as possible.