degassing issue?

[derunner]

My first kit is in the bottles. it is a pomagranate Zinfandel WE Mist kit. I thought I had degassed sufficently having done 10-15 mins with a drill/paddle degasser. However, when i drink the wine, it tastes sweet initially, but then it changes and seems a bit sour or perhaps fizzy. I'm not 100% it is fiz. Is it possible, it just needs to set a few weeks? I understood these mist kits don't need much or any aging time before you can drink them.

If it is just a bit of fiz left, what is best way to handle? Can i pull out fiz with the vacu vin before drinking, or would decanting take it out?

Thanks

 

[keena]

Shake one up, see if it is gassy. Next bottle you open cover the to with your thumb and shake away, see if it wants to blow. Then you will know its not degassed all the way.
Also a note for future reference, I know the kit says to Degas for 15 min, but it actually takes longer in most cases, I degassed for 3 half hour spurts in my mist kit before it was degassed.

 

[derunner]

I openned a bottle, put my thumb over the top, and shook it up. There was a small puff. I repeated this a couple times each with a small puff. So what is th best way to deal with this co2 in the bottle? Just shake up the bottle after opening, or maybe pour into a pitcher and stir?

 

[Arne]

Decanting should do it, but sounds to me like it probably just has to sit for a while. Arne.

 

[wyntheef]

if you shook it and only got 'a little puff', i don't thing gas is your problem.
if it was gas, it would be more like the result of shaking a can of beer or soda.

 

[keena]

Hmmm. Did you try the wine after you shook it up? Did it taste more like you wanted it to?

 

[derunner]

Hmmm. Did you try the wine after you shook it up? Did it taste more like you wanted it to?

Yes it was better, it did not have that taste change at the end of a sip.

i also pumped up a small vaccum with the vacu vin an there was a small ring of bubbles. Not tons of bubbles, so I probably had most of the co2 gone. But i have not noticed any nomal wines bubbling from the vacu vin so there must be some co2 in the wine.

Thanks all for your answers.

 

[DoctorCAD]

15 minutes...sometimes I degas for 45 minutes, and then again 45 more the next day.

 

[rob]

Okay, I think we might be either forgetting or ignoring the fact that it might be refermenting. It seems we always want to take the easy way out.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Okay, I think we might be either forgetting or ignoring the fact that it might be refermenting. It seems we always want to take the easy way out.

Doubtfu[, as it was a kit. The sorbate and campden the kit adds would stop a referment (assuming the OP followed directions).

Gas in kits is a HUGE issue.

 

[rob]

I am guessing this kit has a f pack, which by all means could of refermented. I have had it happened. The sorbate could of been out dated

 

[derunner]

I added the f-pack, sorbate and k-meta from the kit in at the appropriate time. the wine had been dry for 2 weeks as it had gotten to the dry state in the frementor. It only started at 1.048, so 7 days in the fermentor got it down to .994. But I followed the instructions and allowed 2 weeks in secondary. then added sorbate and k-meta and degassed. Then 2 more weeks before bottling.

It is a very dark red colored wine, but it looked clear to me with a flashlight test in a dark room, it still had a beam come through the carboy, instead of lighting up the carboy with dispersed light.

I am thinking i did not degass enough.

I have another kit, a pinot gregio 1 week after degassing and adding sorbate/k-meta. It is not clear yet. I was planning to rack at 2 weeks and bulk age a couple months. I am going to add 1/4 teaspoon of k-meta for storage at the racking. Would it be a good idea to degass a second time? If i do any degassing now it will churn everthing back up that has settled out so i was thinking of degassing after racking?

 

[wvbrewer]

Make sure your wine is warm when you degass, it will degass easier.

 

[ShepherdQ]

Derunner, and all, don't forget about the risk of oxidation when degassing. Even when you're using a vacuum pump, the longer you degas, the more dissolved O2 you're going to add to the wine. I would posit that 15 minutes is plenty, although vacuum pumps work more slowly than rods.

 

[MonkeyK]

Even when you're using a vacuum pump, the longer you degas, the more dissolved O2 you're going to add to the wine.

Can you explain this better? If I vacuum pump my wine, I remove air from the top of the carboy and pull C02 from the wine. That C02 is sitting on top of the wine when I finish degassing and the only thing that disturbs it is when I remove the vacuum stopper and put the airlock back on. This last step probably introduces the same amount of O2 no matter how much I vacuum degas.

 

[ShepherdQ]

You know what, chemically, I can't! I'm basing this on the findings of Pambianchi in an experiment he did comparing degassing tools, which I've posted on the main Beginner Wine Making page. His results show that even a vacuum pump adds dissolved O2

 

[DoctorCAD]

You know what, chemically, I can't! I'm basing this on the findings of Pambianchi in an experiment he did comparing degassing tools, which I've posted on the main Beginner Wine Making page. His results show that even a vacuum pump adds dissolved O2

I read that report. Wouldn't even give him a C as a lab paper in high school.

No backing, no calibration reports, no final conclusions except a lot of conjecture and his wine of choice was too cold for proper degassing.

Kind of like he just picked some random stuff and experimented, not really the way it works in the real winemaking world.

 

[Stressbaby]

You know what, chemically, I can't! I'm basing this on the findings of Pambianchi in an experiment he did comparing degassing tools, which I've posted on the main Beginner Wine Making page. His results show that even a vacuum pump adds dissolved O2

I don't know if I read it that way.
If you look at the O2 graph, the vacuum pump O2 curve increases for 30 min then drops off from 30-60 minutes.

 

[ShepherdQ]

I know, which would drive me up the wall. Here you have a vacuum pump, which is supposed to be superior to a rod, but it isn't getting CO2 out as quickly and you have to use it for at least 45 mins to be O2 neutral! I like this hobby, but that sounds really tedious.

 

[MonkeyK]

I don't know if I read it that way.
If you look at the O2 graph, the vacuum pump O2 curve increases for 30 min then drops off from 30-60 minutes.

Vacuum degassing introducing 02 makes little to no sense until you consider that "samples were retrieved at regular intervals and measured". Is it possible that the retrieval and measurement process affected 02 levels? What would happen if the time per interval had increased? Or if he had tested at consecutively longer periods of continuous degassing by each method?