Topping Off & 2nd Round Degassing

[wowatracy]

I have the selection estate pinot noir kit going right now. Last night I tried degassing by hand (shaking carboy around with airlock on) for nearly an hour and added my fining agents. Even the third and final sample I took gave a small puff after shaking it in the hydrometer tube. Just noticed today that I can use a Vacu Vin pump which I have to help degass it further.

Will it be too late to degass further if the wine has the fining agents in it and has been topped off with commercial wine for 24 hours?

Also, after adding 1.75 bottles of commercial wine to top off I still have a bit of airspace left over. I thought I was using a 6g carboy but apparently I was using my 6.5g carboy. Is it too late to transfer it to my 6g, should I add marbles to the 6.5g, or should I just leave it and not worry about it?

I was planning on racking in 8 days anyways so I could just rack into the 6g then.

Thanks,
Allen

 

[TonyP]

You ask several questions and I'll try going through them. First, I can't tell from your comments whether you have CO2 left or not. Some small "puff" is normal and not likely to go away. As long as you didn't have activity remaining during degassing and have none with the Vacu Vin you should be OK. Once fining agents have been added, I'd leave it alone and let them work before trying to degas further.

The airspace issue could be significant, but again you don't provide much information. When you say "a bit of space", how much are you talking about? The wine should be into the neck of the carboy and there should be under 2", preferably 1 1/2" or so of space between the wine and the bung. If you have more something should be done; don't just leave it that way.

You've already added a lot of wine, so I certainly wouldn't add more. (By the way, even with a 6.5 carboy, that sounds like a lot of commercial wine.) If you need marbles to get to under 2", that's fine, or transfer to the 6 gallon. Either way, I wouldn't expose the wine to significant air without CO2 protection.

Tony P.

 

[wowatracy]

Thanks, I'll leave the degassing alone. The wine is just above the shoulder of the carboy, there is probably about a half gallon missing, maybe about 5" from bottom of bung to top of wine.

If you think that may be an issue I can flush my 6g carboy with CO2, then rack into it and seal it up.

 

[TonyP]

Definitely do something about the space. It's probably easiest to rack to the 5 gallon.

Tony P.

 

[wowatracy]

Ok, will do, thanks again for the advice.