Degassing Help Needed NOW!!

[HeavyMetal]

I bought a super heavy duty vacuum pump on ebay, but I dont have the time to figure out how to wire it up properly right now(actually I did try and made a small electrical explosion), so I bought the hand vacuum pump that someone suggested on here from harborfreight. I racked the 5 gallon carboy into a 6 gallon so there would be ample head space to allow for the 'foam'. I hooked up the vacuum and pumped and pumped. I got it up to 22in of hg, but the wine never really started bubbling heavily, just a few small streams of bubbles were coming out. I then removed the bung and used a stirrer, and got tons of foam. So I then put the vacuum back on it and got it back up to 22inhg. So I guess my question is why is the vacuum pump not working, or seeming not to work. And if I were to shake the carboy while it is under vacuum would the released gas cause the vacuum to drop, or how would that play into the equation? It has been under vacuum for at least an hour, but when I agitate the carboy and get foam, it does cause the vacuum gauge to drop by a few pounds. Is this because there is still co2 being released, or I just maikng foam and not releasing co2? How long do I have to leave this under vacuum to degas the wine? I see many folks are able to fully degas their wine in minutes with an electric pump, should it take hours/days with a manual vac? I am concerned about spoiling my wine if I leave it in the 6 gallon carboy too long because of all the head space. Of course that space should hypothetically be filled with co2, but I do not know?

 

[Wade E]

When degassing any wine you need to have a temp of around 75* or the C02 will not release itself. When using a drill mounted stirrer you are not wanting to make foam! By doing that you are oxidizing your wine! You want quick bursts forward and then reverse to agitate it but not form a vortex. If your wine is at around 75* and you can hold a vacuum on your carboy of about 16-18" for about 10 minutes then your wine is degassed, if it drops down below that then you should do a little more degassing. If you give up on that heavy duty vacuum unit and want one that comes ready to use let me know!

 

[JordanPond]

I read an article a recent winemaker magazine by Tim Vandergrift (WinExpert Product Development guy I think) talking about using a vacuum pump to degas. Explained that the gas does not like to come out but adding something with a fine texture allows the gas to nucleate on (I may be making up words here). The article demonstrated adding a CLEAN & SANITIZED bottle brush to the carboy. Tie something to so you can retrieve it. And then apply a vacuum to the carboy.

I tried it on my last of Cabernet and it made a huge difference. I was looking for the article on line but could not find it. If I do I'll post.

And as Wade said, proper temperature is a big help.

 

[JordanPond]

Here's the link...

http://www.winemakermag.com/blogs/chasing-the-fizz.html

and a link to an article written in 2007 on vacuum degassing...

http://winemakermag.com/stories/article/indices/25-kit-winemaking/537-operating-in-a-vacuum-wine-kits

 

[Wade E]

Those links are here also, probably both in tyhe "Vacuum Pump" threads.

 

[Minnesotamaker]

Most of your assumptions are correct. Gas will come out of suspension easier when there are nucleation points for it to work off of. I use chunks of vitrious china, but other things will work. When I have toasted oak chunks in the wine, that works too.

Agitation and vacuum works well together. Pump the guage up to around 20" and agitate. Be a bit careful, because your carboy will be under vacuum stress. You should get bubbles and the vacuum should drop as CO2 comes out. Just pump it back up to 20" and keep agitating. When you get to the point that you don't get any more bubbles rising with agitation, you're done. It seems to help to let it rest a while between agitation sessions.

 

[HeavyMetal]

Thank you all for the suggestions. This is how it turned out. I found that while under vacuum, if I agitated the carboy by sort of getting the wine to splash around, it would make several inches of foam. In the end I think I may have been just making foam and not seeing escaping co2. I had to go to a party so I left the carboy under 22" of hg for about 4-5 hours. When I returned the vacuum was holding, but again when I shook the carboy I would get foam. I am a bit worried that I left it with too much head space for too long, but I didnt have a choice. I went ahead and bottled it, and of course poured myslef a glass, and it does not seem to have any fizz. The strange thing is I never really saw much gas escape when I applied the vacuum. From what I was expecting it was going to violently boil and make a big show, but I got next to nothing. I started the wine 4 only months ago. The wine was at 67 degrees, and I know Wade said it should have been at 75, but I am in the frozen Northeast, so 75 is not easy to achieve. 67 was as hot as my house has been in 4 months!

I have heard of putting something into the wine to get the co2 to collect on to facilitate the removal, but I am always paranoid that this will introduce contamination. I was told an air stone for an aquarium works well.

 

[Wade E]

Get a Brew belt for stuff like this. I use one to keep the temp up while fermenting and until Ive both degassed and cleared the wine then I let the temp go to where ever my basement is. They really do work and they require very little electricity and even you if had it on for a month straight you wont see it in your E-bill.