Whip technique for degassing

[Brickhouse]

Just curious if there is a technique for using the drill attachment for degassing.

Meaning, do you drill and kind of go up and down within the carboy? Do you keep it at the bottom? The middle? The top?

What the best method for using a drill attachment to degas? Any tips are appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[dcbrown73]

I really don't use my degessing whip anymore now that I use the all-in-one pump and time in the carboy. Degassing happens on it's own without intentionally attempting to degass.

That said, I do not believe you really need to go up and down with it. Once you get a whirlpool going, the liquid is drawn down in the middle and up on the sides.

That said, once I get the whirlpool going, I would usually then reverse the drill's spin till I get a whirlpool the other direction. This increased agitation helps release the co2.

 

[bkisel]

Get the wine up to temp then whip clockwise, counter clockwise , up, down and middle. When I finally get tired of all that I vacuum degas.

 

[Johnd]

Get the wine up to temp then whip clockwise, counter clockwise , up, down and middle. When I finally get tired of all that I vacuum degas.

My method is a variation of yours, get the wine up to temp, then vacuum degas, I'm getting old, so I skip the tiring part................

 

[Brickhouse]

Yeah, I've read plenty on the AIO and it sounds like something I will definitely invest in, in the near future. But I don't even have my first batch in bottle yet. So I'm just going old school until I get my feet wet a bit.

 

[lilvixen]

I have a J-curved whip, not the 3-prong whip. On the first 3 batches, I kept it at the bottom and went 15 seconds in either direction. All those batches had gas when I went to bottle a few months later.

On the last 2 batches (one at bottling stage, one at degassing stage), I used the Brew Belt to get them to 75* and very slowly moved the whip from bottom to top and back down again while spinning for 15 seconds each direction. I saw a ton more gas than the first tries, and I've also noticed that I get a bunch more gas near the top. My theory is that the J-curved whip doesn't agitate the wine at the top enough when it's at the bottom, so I driving out the gas at the bottom only to have it hang around the top section. Or something.

Anyway, I'm going to keep up the slow vertical move in the carboy for 15 seconds per direction while the wine is at 75* and see how that works out. I prefer plastic carboys - gasp! - so I don't have the option to vacuum.

 

[Amanda660]

From left to right is how I have shifted in degassing. I ruined a batch or two along the way but to be honest I just whipped the heck out of it thinking I was being extremely productive. I'm all about taking my time now. Time really is the best in my opinion - wish I'd believed that a few years ago.

 

[Brickhouse]

My fear on having it at the top was that it might be pulling in too much oxygen at the same time. So although it appears to be degassing more....more bubbles....is it actually pulling in a lot of oxygen which would be bad?

I don't know, something that I was curious about as well.

 

[Ajmassa]

What's that degasser in the middle there with the green twine ?

 

[lilvixen]

My fear on having it at the top was that it might be pulling in too much oxygen at the same time. So although it appears to be degassing more....more bubbles....is it actually pulling in a lot of oxygen which would be bad?

I don't know, something that I was curious about as well.

That's definitely a concern. As far as I can tell in my newbiness is that the CO2 bubbles are super pinprick tiny, whereas the few times I got too high, the bubbles were slightly larger. So I try not to go too high.

 

[bkisel]

Yeah, I've read plenty on the AIO and it sounds like something I will definitely invest in, in the near future. But I don't even have my first batch in bottle yet. So I'm just going old school until I get my feet wet a bit.

I don't as yet have an AIO. I use a hand pump for my vacuum degassing.

 

[Brickhouse]

Last night I degassed a batch and did about 20-30 minutes of drill whipping. I thought I did a really good job.

But then I put the VacuVin on the carboy cap, and started pumping.....holy smokes, tons of bubbles. I ended up doing the VacuVin pump method for about another 15 mins and it did a fabulous job. Got it to the point where I simply could not pull any bubbles to the surface anymore.

So my follow up question is this. Can I simply use the VacuVin pump method? Or brake bleeder method? Without any whipping? I feel like it was highly more effective.

 

[AZMDTed]

In my experience it's best to whip and then vacuum. It seems as though there is something about whipping that makes it easier for the remaining gas to release under a vacuum. I've tried all manner of ways to degass and for now what seems to work best for me is:

1. Get the wine to 75 degrees and keep it there for a day before degassing.

2. Whip the wine for 10 - 15 minutes. Depending upon the wine you may get an early heavy release (i.e., a wine volcano), or it may take 3 minutes before anything happens and then you get a good head of foamy release. Most often you need to just whip a few times (15 seconds or so at full speed in alternating directions) and then let the foam go down, and repeat until you stop pulling up large quantities of gas.

3. Then put it under a vacuum. Again, once under a vacuum you will likely initially only be able to pull a partial vacuum for a short period of time as you need to let the foam dissipate before you continue. But eventually you can pull a steady vacuum and pull out the tiny bubbled CO2. That's about 10 minutes if you whipped first.

4. Once you get to larger bubbles you're done.

I've tried vacuum without whipping and it just doesn't seem to pull the gas out as effectively. Everyone seems to eventually find what works for them and more power to all who have found that. My final advice is to never bottle until you're confident you have the gas at a level you're happy with.

 

[Amanda660]

What's that degasser in the middle there with the green twine ?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007RT8U1S/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

This one is crazy excellent for getting beer ready for the yeast.

 

[Mismost]

FIRST GET THE WINE TO 75 DEGREES

There I yelled it out...man, I feel better now! Skip this step and you will be whipping yourself.

 

[Floandgary]

Just curious if there is a technique for using the drill attachment for degassing.

Meaning, do you drill and kind of go up and down within the carboy? Do you keep it at the bottom? The middle? The top?

What the best method for using a drill attachment to degas? Any tips are appreciated.

Thanks,

So just to put the CO2 issue in perspective,,,, look at it as you would a bottle of Pop (Soda to some), or a bottle of Beer. It's a liquid with CO2 dissolved in it and simple agitation is all that is necessary to release it. Also, the vacuum technique and even time (as in bulk aging under airlock) work well to allow CO2 dissipation. Early bottling will not allow CO2 to escape so when it is eventually uncorked the wine will have that bite to it.

 

[bkisel]

Last night I degassed a batch and did about 20-30 minutes of drill whipping. I thought I did a really good job.

But then I put the VacuVin on the carboy cap, and started pumping.....holy smokes, tons of bubbles. I ended up doing the VacuVin pump method for about another 15 mins and it did a fabulous job. Got it to the point where I simply could not pull any bubbles to the surface anymore.

So my follow up question is this. Can I simply use the VacuVin pump method? Or brake bleeder method? Without any whipping? I feel like it was highly more effective.

The VacuVin is what I've been using for the last 4 years. I'm on my second one with the first having lasted ~3 years. Bought two last time so I've got a spare but I haven't seen the same model still available.

 

[Ajmassa]

Learning a lot from this thread. In the past before I was a member here I was never concerned with degassing. If my batch had CO2 then it just simply wasn't ready yet. I would check again in another few weeks and would always let CO2 release naturally.
I don't see why one would go through all this trouble when time and patience is the only thing needed. Unless bottling early was necessary for some reason or another.
With that being said, I never knew of the VacuVin technique on carboys either. I like that. A lot. Another reason I choose to wait was because I wanted to disturb the wine as little as possible. 'Too many things can go wrong' I'd think.
But I will no doubt be picking up one of those VacuVins. Leaving my wine untouched and helping speed up that wait time sounds like the right combo for me.

 

[Redbird1]

Because some people don't have time and/or patience.

 

[Mismost]

Because some people don't have time and/or patience.

While I suspect that are right about the lack of patience....I degas so the wine will clear better and faster. Yes, give it more time and it will clear on it's own. But, if I degas and add time, it works even better IMO.