Other Looking for definitive instruction - Degassing /w all-in-one-pump

[mog44net]

Hi everyone,

Long time reader, first time poster

I am semi new to the world of home wine making and enjoying my journey with my parents as a hobby to share and spend some time together as adults.

We have made two 6 gallon kits so far, a Pinot Noir that is now 2 years old and worth starting several wars over and a newly bottled Cabernet Sauvignon. For the Cab we mixed it up a little and aged it in the carboy for 6 months before bottling rather than bottling after last steps. I regularly checked the airlock, keeping the levels where they needed and after our recent bottling it has potential... however I got to use my new toy and have some questions about degassing with the all in one wine pump (deluxe).

In the instructions I have found there isn't anything specifically for degassing, only racking from carboy to carboy with splashing under vacuum, which I understand will degas in the process. However, even after 6 months under airlock and the needed metabisulphite added before aging, I racked from carboy to carboy 6 times and still saw 'foam' of about 1-2 inches that 'popped' after about 10 minutes. The instructions for the pump say that racking just a few times is enough to completely degas, was I doing something wrong?

Was I actually seeing gas still being released or just agitation from the splashing? Is there a non-rack process to degas using the all in one wine pump?

Side note - I was very happy to note that the pump worked awesomely for both racking (no more heavy lifting for us to get the 'pour from' carboy above the 'pour into' carboy) and bottling, both were fast and efficient.

Side note #2 - I also used my other new toy the ThermoStar temperature controller with the FermoTemp carboy wrap so I could put my wine in the basement in February (Midwest) without goofing the temp, worked great.

Please let me know any other info needed to answer or if I can share any of my experience for others.

 

[dcbrown73]

If you aged it for six months and have been vacuum racking it. Odds are good it's degassed. How much k-meta have you been using? Lots of k-meta can cause foaming too which is why rack and dose with k-meta and then wait a minimum of a week before will even attempt to bottle it.

 

[mog44net]

I only racked it after the 6 months of aging, the taste test at bottling wasn't sharp/spikey, mostly I was just confused about the amount of 'foam' even after the 6th vacuum racking.

Does K-meta = metabisulphite? I added 1.5 grams of metabisulphite so I could age rather than immediately bottle following the kit's instructions - http://www.winexpert.com/pdfs/Vintners Reserve World Vineyard instructions - Feb 20131.pdf

 

[Mismost]

mog.... when you say splash, did you just let the wine drop from the top all the way to the bottom of the carboy.... like a straight stream of wine?

That would certainly be splashing and I see where it could create a lot of foam....every time you did it....as well as introducing air. Not a good thing to my way of thinking could lead to oxidizing the wine.

My AIO has a splash rack attachment that is simply a piece of bent plastic tubing that directs the wine stream onto the side of the carboy, where it sheets down the side to the bottom. This causes very little actual splashing and produces no foaming. I also always get my wine up to about 75 degrees which helps the CO2 leave the wine.

 

[mog44net]

Hi Mismost,

I did use the splash rack attachment, sorry for my lack of details.

The temp was one thing I didn't think of, it was around 65-68 (my basement norm temp for season), I did stir it up between racking sessions.

 

[mog44net]

My understanding is that because the destination is under vacuum that even if I did splash there wouldn't be any way for air to enter the destination wine.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I just pm, u so we can talk and hopefully you can type what we have talked about.

I am only on my cell for the next several days

No need to do a separate process of degassing with the AIO

Done automatically when u transfer

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Please download the manual online , allinonewinepump.com and look at 3. 6 which talks about degassing

 

[GaDawg]

It would seam to me that a carboy under vacuum will bubble (pull co2 ) if it is not degassed. If under vacuum and it does not pull CO2 it is degassed. Am I wrong?

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Not always true Dawg

You can boil the alachol and get bubbles also ,
Best is some time and temperature and properly using the allinonewinepump