Degassing in the secondary or after bottling

[dmulligan]

My first few kits had a LOT of flaws. Fermentation temperature was the worst of those problems. When the kit instructions give you a range, the top end of that range is the target. For WE they say 18-24*C so aim for 24*C. The second problem was that I don't stir enough to degass. I was dissuaded from getting a drill whip because of the danger of introducing O2.

It seems that altitude makes most parts of wine making take longer. This includes how much degassing effort is required.

The method my LHBS recommended to degass detailed in this article. The adapter is a bung with a little nipple inside it for the vapour lock like the one in the image below. The vacuvin stopper fits around the little nipple. Hot water helped me to get it to slide on easier.

This same method also works on bottled wine with trapped gas! I took a bottle from a kit that I did not degass well enough and immediately used the vacuvin on it. Immediately the wine produced a foam that went all the way up to the vacuvin stopper. I released the vacuum by bending the little cone on top of the stopper and the foam disappeared. I tried again but this time few to no bubbles let alone foam. I tasted the wine and wow! What a difference.

D

 

[djrockinsteve]

I've done that. In fact I drilled out a bung and fit the adapter from the rabbit so I had a greater access to the vapor in the wine carboy.

Helping a lot would be to degass by stirring frequently during fermentation. This will also allow your yeast to ferment easier.