degassing....

[Phador]

After spending a large part of my day bent over wine trying to degas with a wine whip, my back is killing me. I'm wondering....generally speaking because I realize there are a lot of variables, how long does a 5 or 6 gallon carboy need to age to naturally degas/clear?

Also, degassing takes a bit of harshness out of young wine due to carbonic acid, no?

 

[djrockinsteve]

When you degass wine there are several options. When you rack wine to be cleared you could splash rack. This will remove a good bit and doing this once will not hurt your wine.

Another option is to use a vacuum pump while transferring the wine.

Use a vacuum pump on the Carboy to decrease atmospheric pressure and CO2 will naturally escape.

You can use a long plastic spoon and stir the wine in the Carboy then reverse direction quickly and back stir. This will remove CO2 but care must be taken as to not add air while doing so.

Use of a whip attached to a drill will work the same as above but again its easy to introduce excess air and oxidize the wine.

Small vacuum pumps used to seal food in bags will work when placed on a bung in the Carboy atop the bung hole. If its battery powered be prepared to replace the batteries of face your wife's disapproval.

Over time wine will degas somewhat but you can't count on it all being removed. Always add sulfite afterwards to prevent oxidation.

When large bubbles turn to small bubbles your wine is close to being degassed.

 

[dralarms]

You can also use a vacuum brake bleeder. Works great.

 

[BernardSmith]

If you are degassing in order to bottle very soon you might consider adding oak chips to your carboy. Their rough surface will help in the degassing process as the CO2 will nucleate and form bubbles on contact with the rough material. This will mean that you won't have to exert as much energy to remove as much gas or to put this another way: with the addition of rough surfaces in your carboy you should be able to degas more easily.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

That is the main reason I developed the Allinone , I personally have a bad back !

I don't have to pickup full carboys ,lean over to to degass, and I can even stand while bottling.