Wine Degassing

[tofer]

I have been degassing my kit wine for over a week now, and there is still bubbles forming. How long does is take to completely degas wine. I am doing a kit shiraz, the temp was fairly cold at the beginning but is about 25 C now

 

[Pauly2275]

I have been degassing my kit wine for over a week now, and there is still bubbles forming. How long does is take to completely degas wine. I am doing a kit shiraz, the temp was fairly cold at the beginning but is about 25 C now

What is the specific gravity? has it finished fermenting?

 

[Rocky]

Are you sure that the wine has completed fermentation? What is the current SG? The temperature that you are at now, 25 C (about 77 F), is a good temperature for de-gassing. When you say "fairly cold" what temperature are you referencing? I always try to de-gas in the mid 70's F.

 

[PCharles]

Degassing

How are you degassing?

 

[Tom]

Yes all above

Are you "whipping" it? Don't.

What are you using to degas?

Need more info...

 

[Wade E]

Sorry for everyone answering your question with questions but those are things we need to know to let you know if your doing something wrong or not. Has your sg been stable for 3 days in a row? Thats what needs to happen before you can even think of degassing or youd be wasting your time!! Keep that temp up untl you are degassed and also if you are going to use a fining agent. Once your wine is degassed and cleared then you can le those temps go down.

 

[tofer]

The S.G has been sitting at 0.997 for over a week now. I have been using a combination of a drill fizz x tool, and the plastic spoon. When using the fizz x tool i get very minimal bubbles, but with the plastic spoon i get a lot.

 

[Wade E]

It sounds like you have been doing everything right then. There are items that make wine give off gas more then others. Time V, who is the spokesperson for Winexpert wines displayed this in a WineMaker Mag story showed us this by actually using a new sanitized carboy brush mounted in his drill to degas hos wine and because of the bristles and the metal being rough it gave the C02 in the wine nuclease points for the C02 to attach o and release far better so thats probably whats happening with your wine.

 

[Lurker]

Put some in a wine bottle. Cover the opening with your thumb and shake it. Carefully remove your thumb. Then you will know how much gas is left.

 

[Dugger]

It could be that you have already degassed and are just getting air bubbles from your stirring. Whipping a fully degassed wine will still produce bubbles, but air bubbles and not CO2.

 

[pete1325]

Can you degas wine by splash racking or do you need to use something more vigoruos, i.e. a wand and drill?

 

[robie]

Splash racking will degas somewhat, but not thoroughly. Splash racking also lets a lot of oxygen into your wine.

 

[Wade E]

AS gar as splash racking goes I advise to only do it while under good sulfite levels or you could easily oxidise your wine.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Did you ever consider using vacuum to remove co2 while transfering ?
It is alot easier than whipping and less air contact

steve

 

[LCTitan]

I have to admit the Wine Whip does a great job of degassing. You really need to keep the drill on slow speed though as you degass and mix. Great tool until I ugrade to a pump.

 

[edv]

Did you ever consider using vacuum to remove co2 while transfering ?
It is alot easier than whipping and less air contact

steve

This.

I've been getting great results using a MityVac (a simple hand pump for the auto industry..brake bleeding, etc). You need 3 or 4 inches or more of head space in the carboy. My house-rule is to continue de-gassing with the vacuum pump until the system can hold 20 inches Hg for at least 5 minutes.

It's my humble opinion that de-gassing is the single most important thing that a home winemaker can do to ensure the quality of the results.