degassing wine

I have made wine off and on for over 20 years. In the last year I have become more serious with it and trying to perfect it. In the last year, I have had a problem that I have never experienced before. CO2 build up popping corks.

Not sure why all of a sudden I am faced with this issue.

I am about to make a rod de-gasser tool that will fit in my drill. You have likely seen these DIY pictures. I have some really thin oak pieces that I plained down to use for the two wings that actually do the agitating.

My question is; should I seal the oak pieces or just soak them in sterilizing solution before I use the tool?

Does it matter if it is red or white oak, since it will only be used in the wine for 10 minutes?

At this link you can see the plan I am using as a guide: https://tapsclub.wordpress.com/technical-topics/diy-drill-mixing-paddle/

Get a vacuum pump...much better at removing CO2 and no air exposure.

I wouldn't worry about the oak per say. As long as you sand it down and clean it well. Do you have to use oak, or do you have options. Also what is your still wine, has it been fined and settled, racked etc? With the oak the only problem I see is sanitising it completely. Don't use caustic or chlorine on it. Maybe just clean it off and store it with a light sulphur Citric solution. Or spay with a 70% ethanol solution

http://labelpeelers.com/stainless-steel-mix-stir/

They also have an attachment you can use as a carboy cleaner.

Unless there is a fault with the wine, that you are trying to correct, do you really want to purposely expose your wine to oxygen? I've never had complete success with whipping wine, but a few vacuum racks will rid the wine of CO2 and not expose the well cared for wine to oxygen...or just let it rest in bulk for a year or so.

Not sure why you want to make your own degassing tool when you can buy a stainless steel Mix-Stir at a reasonable price. Works like a charm.

I've been having my Elderberry wine of 2015 blowing corks. The 1st batch I put back into the carboy for a month and a half and seems to have removed much or all of the gas. The second batch was almost champagne. I've been shaking it now for a week and it is quite gassy. According to my notes I did not add potassium sorbate, because I did not do any sweetening. I'm now adding the PS. Hopefully this is the solution.