A question about degassing

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Monty Knapp

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When you degas a wine, are you doing this to remove ALL CO2 gas? Or just some of it/most of it?
I've assumed all along that it was to remove ALL of it, but I ran a degassing paddle on a drill today intermittently for an hour and was still getting gas! And NO, I wasn't mixing air into it!
I kept the paddle in the bottom 2/3's of the carboy and stopped running the paddle when the surface started to churn up and before a vortex travelled down to the paddles. Then I'd wait 1 or 2 minutes then do it again.
This was an Island Mist Strawberry kit.
I remember a Green Apple Island Mist kit having a lot of gas. Stopped degassing with a it drill after ~6 minutes. That wine didn't clear for several months.
 
* to the question about ALL? I have seen lots of contest wine and small commercial which has bubble formation, approx 25%. I have never seen this on a big producer which has to pump such as Gallo. The conclusion on my part has been that the producer didn’t feel it was a serious defect. ,,, NO you do not need to remove all CO2
* from a technical point CO2 is a reduced compound and having the wine still degas as it is bottled will slightly flush air and be protective
* if I wanted to improve my degassing as a home wine maker I would raise the temperature of the wine. Pulling gas out lowers temperature (entropy) so the stir > wait process is inefficient. A pumping process which exposes all the wine to added energy will work better and for a home wine maker ,,, many of us do vacuum transfers.
At best you will naturally remove the amount of CO2 which balances the pressure of CO2 in the atmosphere. ie you will never get 100% of the gas out. Practically speaking if you know the wine is chilled when served no one will ever see gas bubbles since it is more soluble when cold but if the wine is warm when served the consumer will see it.
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,,, and a wine judge will dock a point if it is obvious like a refermentation defect.
* I agree with @sour_grapes that CO2 can add freshness. There are some commercial producers who buy tankers of wine, carbonate it and market it. ,,, what is the expectation of the customer?
* conclusion if it is obvious it should be labeled as sparkling wine ,,,, also if you have over one atmosphere of pressure at serving temperature you should use heavy gauge glass bottles
 
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