A question about degassing using a drill whip

[BernardSmith]

This question might seem a bit like how long is a piece of string, but if I am degassing 6 gallons of fruit wine with a drill and plastic whip am I likely to adequately de-gas if I agitate the wine for say, ten minutes three times a day over, say, three days (90 minutes) or is that unlikely to to be enough or is that schedule likely to be far more than I need to consider?

 

[robie]

You can get all the gas out in one try, if you stay with it.

Make sure the wine is at least something like 74F. CO2 comes out more easily if the wine is not super cold (Think of opening a can of coke that's gotten warm, .vs. opening a cold can of coke).

Stir the wine but don't create a vortex, which can pull oxygen down into the wine. Stir in one direction until a vortex starts trying to form; then change directions and repeat.

Every few minutes taste the wine to see if you get a slight fizz on the end of your tongue. If the fizz is there, repeat degassing until it is gone.

You should be able to get all the gas out in less than 15 minutes total.

 

[BernardSmith]

Robie, You say "You should be able to get all the gas out in less than 15 minutes total."- so if I still see rows of tiny bubbles traveling up near the neck of the carboy after say, an hour of intermittent agitation, I can more or less ignore them and treat the wine as sufficiently degassed? (The problem may be that I have been degassing in my basement and that is around 65 degrees this time of year)

 

[ohbeary]

Bernard, degassing takes time, I would just agitate the FV 2-3 times a day by shaking/moving to and fro not giving it cocktail moves! getting rid of the gas is not going to speed up maturation, only time will mature a wine, you could just leave it alone, you could stir it up every day if still on secondary fermentation lees (method battonage) to produce a more buttery flavour.
The more you thrash a wine the more oxidisation will occur, leave it the f*ck alone to finish properly.

 

[derunner]

I have had very little luck with degassing with the stir rods. It seems to have no affect for me. I wonder what RPM's peoples drill are who has this work for them.

 

[Arne]

Degassing is one thing I have never paid much attention to. When I first got on this board there were many threads about it and it was kinda huh?? Seems like if you leave the wine sit a while, rack it a time or two and the gas disappears. I believe racking takes most of it out. If splashed racked more disappears, but racking without splashing still takes some of it out. Pretty much if your wine has really cleared, the co2 is gone. Just my observations over several years. Arne.

 

[robie]

Robie, You say "You should be able to get all the gas out in less than 15 minutes total."- so if I still see rows of tiny bubbles traveling up near the neck of the carboy after say, an hour of intermittent agitation, I can more or less ignore them and treat the wine as sufficiently degassed? (The problem may be that I have been degassing in my basement and that is around 65 degrees this time of year)

Intermittent stirring for an hour may or may not be the same as stirring for 15 minutes straight. You would have to add up the stirs to compare, I guess. However, 15 minutes is nothing more than an estimate, really.

The only real way to determine if the wine is degassed is by tasting it. If you taste and get a fizz on your tongue, it is not degassed. Bubbles? You can put plain water in a wine bottle and shake it, and get bubbles. So, bubbles is not the very best way to guage.

Yes, 65 is too low a temperature to get all the gas out easily. Again, consider what happens when you open a can of coke that is at room temperature, versus opening one that is at 35F.

The best way to degas is with a vacuum pump. Just racking, alone, with a vacuum pump will remove much of the CO2. Hooking the pump's input hose straight to the filled carboy and setting the gauge to 18 to 22 (20 to 22 is better), will really pull the CO2 out.

As a wine maker, one should strive to get to a place where one can purchase a good vacuum pump setup like the allinonepump. I, too, had to wait several years before I felt I could justify a vacuum pump. Now that I have one, I can't imagine working without one; especially for bottling.

 

[saddlebronze]

Not wanting to jump in front of a degassing train (but I will) it all depends on when you are going to bottle. Before the advent of kits, the gas would come out over a year or so of rackings. Since a lot of kits are made to be consumable quickly, you have to de-gas. If you are able to wait and rack, it will come out. The solubility of CO2 at room temperature is minimal, so it will come out.

 

[robie]

Not wanting to jump in front of a degassing train (but I will) it all depends on when you are going to bottle. Before the advent of kits, the gas would come out over a year or so of rackings. Since a lot of kits are made to be consumable quickly, you have to de-gas. If you are able to wait and rack, it will come out. The solubility of CO2 at room temperature is minimal, so it will come out.

Your experience is shared by many others. We have all had differing experiences. Me, I have left an air lock on a carboy of non-degassed wine for over a year and the CO2 never all came out. I do think one of my issues is that I store my wine at or below 65F, which DOES make a difference. Temperature does make a difference.

Before red kits, the (red) must had to be pressed at or near the end of alcohol fermentation. This pressing removes most of the CO2; it gets pressed out as well as aerated out.

With kits, you don't do any such pressing, so the CO2 is left in the wine and has to be removed another way. If you leave the CO2 in and make no attempt to degas before clearing starts, the wine will not clear as easily or as quickly.