De-gassing after bottlening

[ViNesv]

I have a follow up question - how to de-gass wine in carboy.
I bought myself electric vacuum and all necessary fittings. I must say it is much easier than break bleeder - you just turn it on and watch bubbles going up (you can see in attached picture how much bubbles). So my question is - how long should I keep my carboy in vacuum for complete de-gassing? How do you know when your de-gassing is done?
I had 23l carboy with about 22l of wine. I already de-gassed that wine with break bleeder and then with special whipping tool. When I attached my electric vacuum - within 10sec in reach 28 (of something pressure) and my wine started to bubble a lot. It went down slightly after few minutes, but it never stopped bubbling - it kept going even I tried for 2 days, about 10 min each day. Online in one place I read that bubbling should stop after about 30sec or so.
So what is your experience with electric vacuums? How long do you run vacuum for complete de-gassing? Also, do you add any overflow container, or just vacuum directly attached to carboy?

By the way, pump I bought: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00J7V0VCA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[AZMDTed]

There are several experienced vacuum pumpers on here so I will defer to them. One thing I will ask is what type of bubbles are you seeing? In my experience with the AllinOne, I will see very small bubbles maybe 1mm and smaller, creating foam, when I'm pumping out CO2. After a few cycles of that (lasting just a couple minutes each) I will start seeing bubbles that are about an 1/8th of an inch or larger and don't form a foamy layer. I believe that those bubbles are no longer CO2 and that's the point where you can stop pulling a vacuum. It looks like you're at the big bubbles level, did you notice a difference in the bubbles and foam as you progressed?

I'd like to hear from others about my bubble theory too.

Ted

 

[sour_grapes]

One important point that is easily overlooked is how much gas is actually *in* those bubbles. You report that you have pulled a vacuum of 28 inHg (gauge pressure) and still see bubbles. Atmospheric pressure at sea level is 29.92 inHg, but I don't know what your altitude is. In any event, the absolute pressure in your vessel is fairly small, say about 1 inHg (or about 0.5 psi). So, the bubbles that you see contain only about 1/30th of the amount of gas that they would contain if they were at atmospheric pressure.

Personally, I pull a vacuum on a half-filled carboy, which I then shake (agitate) to encourage the gas to release. I also monitor the amount of gas being exhausted from the pump. I use a diaphragm pump, rather than your oil-sealed pump, so I can actually stick the exhaust tube in my mouth and "taste" the gas coming off. I am reasonably certain it is largely CO2, even after a long time, BUT IT IS ONLY VERY SMALL AMOUNTS due to the information above. In doing so, I can degas a carboy in about 15 minutes of pumping and sloshing.

 

[Floandgary]

And then you can let it sit in that carboy under airlock for at least 6 months (preferably a year) and the last of the CO2 will be gone and some aging will have occurred and it will taste absolutely like there is not nearly enough!!!

 

[Johnd]

I have been degassing with an electric vacuum pump for some time. When I mix in my KMS, I agitate the wine vigorously while stirring it in, then start the vacuum pump. The wine is always above 72 F. The fine little CO2 bubbles come out quickly and easily, I'm careful not to suck the foam out with the pump and turn it on and off as needed. My pump is capable of pulling 30 inHg. When I can pull and hold a vacuum of 25 on my gauge for a few minutes with no decline and no bubbles, it's done.

If you continue to vacuum after that, you'll see big bubbles like you would in boiling water, I stop soon after I see that. Using this sequence, I've bottled hundreds of bottles with nary a single CO2 issue. Although I bulk age all of my nice reds and whites, all of my quick drinkers, Island Mist, and cheapies / giveaway wine get bottled as soon as they clear. Zero CO2 problems.

Time in a carboy does the same thing, and as sour_grapes said, altitude may make your mileage vary, I'm in Louisiana, basically at sea level, if that helps.

 

[cmason1957]

I have an all in one pump and after racking my wine the normal three or four times needed to ferment and then age about six months to a year I never have any CO2 issues at all. I do everything down in my basement at whatever temp it happens to be down there, maybe 63 - 65 right now.