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Trubador

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Well, I tasted my first wine last night and tonight, Merlot. Pretty darn good if I do say so myself
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A bit of carbonation from my poor degassing technique, but I
took George's advice and decanted it and let it sit for about an hour
prior to drinking and that made a HUGE difference. There was
virtually no carbonation at all doing as George suggested, thanks!



Still needs some time to age, it's only been in bottle about 3 weeks,
but couldnt' help myself. Too bad about the bit of carbonation,
but it's a learning experience.



My chardonnay is now in the secondary and will be degassed about the middle of next week.



Any tips? I was going to use the mix-stir I have and make sure
the temp was in the low 70s or even mid 70s depending on weather.
I mixed too long last time and made a cyclone or two here and there, I
am going to try to avoid that this time.



it's about 30 seconds each direction with the mix stir, right?
Also, I am assuming that I run the mix stir up and down the carboy
throughout that 30 seconds and do this for a couple of minutes?
Or for 15 minutes?
 
I just spin it until it begins to have no resistance and then reverse
it and I do go up and down but no where near the top of the wine.
 
wade said:
I just spin it until it begins to have no resistance and then reverse
it and I do go up and down but no where near the top of the wine.



I think that was one of my mistakes, I definitely went up and down the
carboy, but I also included the top of the wine. Now I know.
 
I stir in one direction then reverse my drill to create the Turbulence


needed to release the gas..I do this for several minutes...
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Please tell me how many I need to make before the first 3weeks doesn't feel like 3 years. Time flies, except for when you're waiting to uncork that first bottle.


GrapeApe
 
GrapeApe said:
Please tell me how many I need to make before the first
3weeks doesn't feel like 3 years. Time flies,
except for when you're waiting to uncork that first bottle.

GrapeApe

Ill tell you when I get there!
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How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop!
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Works pretty much like a giant Vacuvin (which also works quite well but with quite a bit more pulls)
 
sorry if this is a dumb question but how do you degass with the hand pump? Do you use a bung and just create a vacuum in the carboy?

Yes, I use a drilled bung on my 6 gallon glass secondaries and simply pull a vacuum. You can watch as the gas bubbles rise up and create a foam layer. I also find that in secondary with oak cubes, the vacuum causes the oak infusion to accelerate. I've had batches in secondary for as little as 2 weeks before bottling and been perfectly happy with the outcome.

One other property that I didn't expect was that the vacuum degassing is so gentle that it deionizes the wine causing it to clear very quickly. I've stopped using clarifiers all together. 3 weeks in secondary has given me sparkling clear and perfectly flat wines with no danger of O2 damage. Pulling the vacuum leaves you with a CO2 blanket over the wine in secondary so it's safe as can be.
 
Pulling the CO2 doesn't "deionize" the wine. CO2 will keep the those solids (grape proteins, etc) in suspension until it (the CO2) comes out one way or another. Once you have degassed the CO2 is gone (it will not hang around in the headspace for long) so you need to make sure your carboy is topped up or you risk ruining the wine in a short amount of time through oxidation.
 
Looks like I'm retiring the coat hanger. You guys just use a brake bleeding setup? Any recommendations on one?

EDIT: nvm, the link you have posted is good enough for me. I'll order it tonight!
 
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keena said:
Looks like I'm retiring the coat hanger. You guys just use a brake bleeding setup? Any recommendations on one?

EDIT: nvm, the link you have posted is good enough for me. I'll order it tonight!

You can find them at auto part stores to, maybe even wally world but I never looked.
 
LOL..................Very tough 3 weeks


You can taste your wines at any time. After a while, you can kind of tell how they are going to come out even when they are young. Doesn't have to be a large glass, but a couple of tastes kinda help you along. (especially when you are startin out and want to know if you have wine or not.) LOL, Arne.
 

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