Want to bottle but wine still fizzy

[Khorax]

Greetings all.
First time RED wine maker here (been making beer and white for 3 years now) and I am having trouble with the reds. I am making 2x wine kits that i started the same day, 2 months ago.
1. Grand Cru Heritage Estates Vino Del Vida CHIANTI
2. Wine-time premium MALBEC
Both instructions would have had me bottle on day 30, but it's been in secondary for 2 months. I degassed with the white spoon for 2 days on and off. On day 30 i tasted each wine and swished it through my teeth and it was tart and fizzy. Read up on these forums and decided to let it bulk age for another month. So i reracked both wines off the lees bed, back into another carboy and degassed again. They have been in my basement for another month, at about 65C. I wanted to bottle this weekend, just took a taste, and they are just as fizzy as before when swished in my mouth.

I don't own any fancy vacuums, don't have a drill mounted degasser and don't really want to buy all that stuff. The stabalizing and clearing agents have been in the wine for over 30 days, just wondering if I should keep stirring? If so, there is still a bed of sediment on the bottom of each carboy and the wine is crystal clear... wouldn't it stir the sediment right back into the wine? Or should I re-rack for a 3rd time and then degass again? Or let it bulk age for another month or so and would the CO2 escape by leaving it alone?

Last thing i should mention is that I don't "top up" my wine with water as the instructions say. I have a 6 GAL carboy and the wine level is at the shoulder of the carboy, where it starts to curve, so there is a lot of headspace in between the airlock and wine level. Is that causing oxydation or preventing degassing? Don't want to water down my wine...
Sorry for the rant... really need some help, don't know what my next move should be. Thanks

Phil

 

[Scott]

Phil, if there is still sediment rack again and top off with like wine or satitized glass marbles, or reduce size of carboys to make sure all are within an inch or two of stopper.For the Malbec getting another bottle of Malbec to top off with won't hurt a thing and maybe get to drink what doesn't fit!!

Good luck

 

[jswordy]

It sounds like fermentation is not done. Have you stabilized?

Standard procedure is:

Rack into a clean and sanitized carboy. You can stabilize here if you wish.

Degas with your stirring spoon handle, a plastic rod or even a wood dowel (all sanitized beforehand, of course).

Make a swishing movement back and forth in the carboy and the gas will start to fizz to the top. Keep going until it stops fizzing. Try not to splash the wine around a lot.

Let it set a few days and try degassing again if there was tons of CO2 in there. Allow to settle after degassing, then stabilize if you have not already, and proceed to bottle.

 

[Khorax]

Thanks for the answers gents, but like I said the wine is more then 2 months in, i seriously doubt fermentation is not complete since the airlock doesn't bubble and has not moved in the last 4 weeks. Stabalizing and clearing agents have been used as per instruction, again several weeks ago.

My issue is there still seems to be a lingering, subtle fizz when I taste it. My question is what to do about this fizz. Rerack and degass again? I already degassed twice. Or would leaving it in the carboy as it is now and bulk age for X amount of time get rid of this fizz? Also what's the danger of having a big gap of air at the top (i didn't top up with water, and buying like wine seems pretty expensive since the point of this is to save money).

 

[jswordy]

Thanks for the answers gents, but like I said the wine is more then 2 months in, i seriously doubt fermentation is not complete since the airlock doesn't bubble and has not moved in the last 4 weeks. Stabalizing and clearing agents have been used as per instruction, again several weeks ago.

My issue is there still seems to be a lingering, subtle fizz when I taste it. My question is what to do about this fizz. Rerack and degass again? I already degassed twice. Or would leaving it in the carboy as it is now and bulk age for X amount of time get rid of this fizz? Also what's the danger of having a big gap of air at the top (i didn't top up with water, and buying like wine seems pretty expensive since the point of this is to save money).

Gee, I thought I answered that. Let me try again, then, more plainly:

Rerack.

Stir to degas.

Wait a few days.

Stir again.

Bottle.

---- OR -----

Let it sit around for a few months and degas on its own. Up to you.

BTW, I have never seen such a problem ever before on any wine forum. Never have seen unending CO2 in a finite carboy liquid. It is indeed possible that fermentation has not ceased or may have restarted because otherwise you would have depleted the CO2 already. How could it restart? Well, could be if you sloshed the wine around like the Atlantic Ocean while "degassing," you introduced oxygen to it again, and if there was residual sugar, voila!

The air gap question was answered in the thread. Top it up or use marbles to lift the liquid level.

UNDER EDIT: The only other thing I can think of is that your "fizzy taste" is not gas, but rather high acidity or some other problem. Take some wine and put it in a vial, test tube, or small jar. Cover the top and shake it up. See gas coming out? If not, it isn't CO2 causing the trouble.

 

[Khorax]

Thanks! I'll follow your instructions and let you guys know!

 

[winemaker_3352]

Welcome aboard!!!

You posted 65C - if that is correct that is 149*F.

If you meant 65*F - then you need to bring up the temp to about 75*F to degass successfully.

You still have trapped CO2 in there.

Do not bottle until you have degassed fully - otherwise you blow the corks.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Welcome aboard!!!

You posted 65C - if that is correct that is 149*F.

If you meant 65*F - then you need to bring up the temp to about 75*F to degass successfully.

You still have trapped CO2 in there.

Do not bottle until you have degassed fully - otherwise you blow the corks.

Gassy wine won't blow the corks, unfinished fermentation can.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Sure it will - bottle wine that has a lot of CO2 in it - stick it in a warm room - CO2 releases out - pushes the cork out.

 

[Khorax]

Thanks for the help guys. So with all your suggestions, yesterday I re-racked both wines back into clean carboys. I fashioned myself my own drill mounted degasser using a thick plastic coat hanger that I cut into a "J" shape, boiled and folded it into... well some weird shape. I drilled thoses suckers for several rounds of 1-2 minutes over the next 2 hours. I even rigged a wine pump (you know the handheld ones you use if you dont finish a bottle of wine in one shot you can put a cap and pump out the air) over the airlock and would pump it silly right after the degassing and bubbles were coming up the sides of the carboy and there was still a generous about of foam.

Should this be enough to remove the fizziness? And now, how long before I can bottle, is there a specific time i need to let things settle down? Both wines are crystal clear and there was hardly any sediment when i racked them over. I don't intend on filtering. A few days, weeks?
Phil

 

[jswordy]

If it were mine, I'd wait a week and try the pump again to see if I got any more bubbles. If not, I would bottle.

 

[Arne]

I would wait at least til the sediment gets done falling out. If you still have sediment, it will probably fall out in the bottle. Doesn't really hurt anything, but personally I really don't like the looks of it. Arne.