C02

[homer]

Does it hurt to de-gas more than once? Should you de-gas before you bottle? If the wine had excess gas would it dissipate in time after bottling? bk

 

[loumik]

Degass

You should degass several times until you are reasonably sure that you have eliminated as much gas as possible. You absolutely do not want to bottle wine that has not been degassed, gas will not dissipate in a bottle unless it pops the corks. Heck of a mess if that happens.
I suggest that you degas either with a drill mounted rod or with a vacuum pump before you bottle.
Hope this helps answer your questions.

 

[JordanPond]

I rushed to bottle my first batch and ended up with some gassy wine. More degassing is good.

 

[Wade E]

I would say that depends on how you degassed it.

 

[winemaker_3352]

I would say that depends on how you degassed it.

Exactly - you can vacuum degass too much. Remove some of the flavor.

 

[Tom]

Also don't whip your wine that can intruduce O2 in your wine.
I usually degas at least twice just to make sure.

 

[xoltri]

Exactly - you can vacuum degass too much. Remove some of the flavor.

I wondered about this too but it turns out not to be true.

The article 'Follow-up on Vacuum Degassing' on the winemaker magazine has some info about this very topic.

From the article:

...it doesn't hurt the wine in any way, neither reducing sulphite or inducing flavour or aromatic deficiencies

I commented to Tim Vandergrift (the author of the article) on another forum that I thought it interesting he brought up that point, and he provided additional information:

The original research on this was done by my old friend (since passed) J E 'Ted' Underhill, at the University of Victoria, and I replicated his results in-house in the 90's. Unless you do something superbly weird or transgressive (leave it hooked up to a hard vacuum for a month, maybe) you can't budge the numbers, nor can double-blind triangle tastes find them.

So I think that should settle the argument about vacuum degassing removing anything perceptible (except for C02) from wine.

 

[sly22guy]

I had heard that u can over degas with a vacuum pump, but that never made sense to me. I could never see how u could lose flavor! So I'm glad u posted that, puts my mind at ease.

 

[EngineJoe]

Also don't whip your wine that can intruduce O2 in your wine.
I usually degas at least twice just to make sure.

I'm sorry, can you clarify what you mean by "whip"?

Because I've heard the "drill mounted rod" version of degassing referred to as whip degassing. Are you saying not to do that -- and if so, are you also implying that the only way to properly degas is either time or vacuum? Because that's a very common method of degassing.

 

[Luc]

Everytime you rack your wine will be degassed.

So patience and racking will do all de degassing you need.

Luc

 

[Lurker]

What xoltri said. No harm in vacuum. Luc is right about auto degassing while racking, but I still think my vacuum pump does a better job.

 

[Flem]

Also don't whip your wine that can intruduce O2 in your wine.
I usually degas at least twice just to make sure.

Tom,
You say that you usually degas twice. How long do you usually wait between degassing "sessions"?
Mike

 

[Tom]

I put the deagsser on my drill
put drill on slow and do that for 1 min
stop. Ck bubbles repeat, repeat
age
if more sediment drops in 1-2 months rack and degas
I age reds for 12 months and whites and fruit 6 months min...

 

[ibglowin]

This is a wine whip. I don't have one but it is said that they add lots of O2 to the wine while freeing the wine of CO2. I use a Mix Stir which is just a drill bit mounted stirring rod (straight) so it just "spins" the wine but doesn't add any O2 in the process as its not really "whipping it up".

I'm sorry, can you clarify what you mean by "whip"?

Because I've heard the "drill mounted rod" version of degassing referred to as whip degassing. Are you saying not to do that -- and if so, are you also implying that the only way to properly degas is either time or vacuum? Because that's a very common method of degassing.

 

[Tom]

I do not suggest the "whip". I feel the wine wil be beat up and to much air forced ion your wine.
I do have the steel degasser like the 2nd pic.

 

[dmulligan]

Altitude makes degassing more difficult

Here in Calgary where we are 3000 feet above sea level it takes a lot more effort to degass wine. Those of you down at sea level, or below like Luc, are luck in that time or just a little stirring will do it. Not up here! I have to stir so much that I am afraid that I am oxygenating the wine which made me very happy to switch to a wine saver style pump.

 

[ibglowin]

Hehehehe.....

Try degassing a kit at almost 7000 ft............ :<

 

[Lurker]

Exactly - you can vacuum degass too much. Remove some of the flavor.

I have not seen nor heard of any losses due to vacuuming. I do not believe that anything is lost. Is there any evidence that can be presented to prove it?

 

[ibglowin]

I think the Tim Vandergrift Article in post #7 pretty much sums it all up......

 

[Lurker]

I think the Tim Vandergrift Article in post #7 pretty much sums it all up......

Yes, I posted before I read the article. I'm not a kit guy, but I respect Tim.