Degassing equipment

[harryjpowell]

I saw a video of that one that you hook to the air compressor, let us know how well it works!

 

[Wade E]

In addition to degassing you should also set it up for racking over your wines and even bottling with the Boun Vino auto filler but only if there is a way of adjusting the vacuum as you only want a little vacuum for racking and bottling like about 5".

 

[KSGuardsman]

I am seriously looking into that (perhaps my father's day gift???). I have all the major toys now, except for a filtering system. I do not have a Boun Vino auto filler, but I do use the Ferrari.

The equipment does not specify the inches of mercury, however, so I do not know that detail. The recommended psi setting on the venturi (vacuum injector) is 65 psi. I am thinking through what I would need to use this to vacuum rack (what additional pieces I will need) and then once that is settled, decide what kind of inline filter I would want to purchase.

Keep everyone posted.

 

[KSGuardsman]

For those interested in the Gas Getter, I am becoming more and more convinced as I use it.

Today at lunch, I came home and hooked it up to a three gallon carboy of POM/Cherry I am making as my first non-kit wine. Operating off of a 1 HP air compressor, I let the GG run all afternoon. When I got home, small bubbles were still rising steadily from the bottom of the carboy, so I let it go until approximately 10:00 p.m.

I brought the carboy back in to clarify, and in adding the SuperKleer, I could not raise a single bubble, much less a head of foam off of the carboy when hand stirring after the addition of the clarifying agents.

It is nice to be able to degas my wine and not have to stand over it for several minutes every hour with a whip and a hand drill!

 

[Wade E]

I really dont think running it like that is a good idea at all, there will always be bubbles as you are pulling a vacuum through your wine. You can pull aroma esters out doing so and pulling too much gas out can actually make your wine very flat not to mention pulling that much vacuum through your wine cab reduce your sulfite levels.

 

[hannabarn]

With my limited knowledge, I agree with Wade 100 percent. You can always get small bubbles when using a vacuum pump and degassing too long will result in a loss of flavor!

 

[ASAI]

Shucks! Now you tell me. I have always been concerned about what is in them tiny bubbles that keep coming up when I have degassed with Brake Bleeder for several weeks during clearing.

 

[Runningwolf]

The tiny bubbles you pull in the beginning are what you do want out. Its once they start getting larger you know you are close to done.

 

[drgags]

they claim if you filter your wine it reduces the amout of CO2 greatly, is that true..so i what i have done is hit my wine with the drill, and the vacu vin....then was planning on getting the rest with the mini jet...let me know what yall think

 

[gaudet]

With at most 20 minutes of degassing with my aspirator it gets almost all the gas out. I let time take care of the rest. I degas when I stabilize and / or add fining agents. I try to let it set for at least 3 months before doing any more work, but by that time the gas is gone.

Not an expert, but I would think that filtering would help degas somewhat, passing through that filter medium has to do something.

 

[Runningwolf]

they claim if you filter your wine it reduces the amout of CO2 greatly, is that true..so i what i have done is hit my wine with the drill, and the vacu vin....then was planning on getting the rest with the mini jet...let me know what yall think

Yes it will help Degas any that might be left. I only filter my whites though.


When its time to stabilize I rack back to the primary use the drill to Degas and stabilize then I splash rack back to the carboy and add the clarifying agent.

 

[Chef]

Does all wine need to be degased or just kit wine??

 

[robie]

Wine fermentation creates CO2, which needs to be removed. Of course the CO2 left in sparking wines is what makes them "sparkle", so it is not removed.

Degassing commercial wines is typically accomplished more naturally in wine barrels while the wine is aging. A wine barrel creates a negative pressure inside, which tends to draw the CO2 out of the wine. If a commercial wine is not barrel aged, some sort of degassing has to take place.

Leaving a kit or commercial wine in a bulk aging container under an air lock will eventually degas the wine, if left long enough.

Kit wines are typically not barrel aged and are not left to bulk age for long periods of time. I wrote "typically", because that is not always the case. I know several home wine makers who use barrels and lots of us bulk age, though not always long enough to degas naturally.

As a home wine maker, you should always degas your wine.

 

[Chef]

Thanks Dancerman!! I only make fruit wine...this may be the problem I am having with the flavors....I will start degasing my wines and will report back.

 

[Wade E]

The pressing of the grapes also disperses 90% of gas from fermentation while we with kits just gently rack over our wines which doesnt do much in the way of ridding this gas so most kit or juice wines need degassing.

 

[grapeman]

The pressing of the grapes also disperses 90% of gas from fermentation while we with kits just gently rack over our wines which doesnt do much in the way of ridding this gas so most kit or juice wines need degassing.

That is true of reds, but whites are pressed before fermenting so makes no difference in that aspect.

 

[sipourit]

Brushwood,
If you are not necessarily in a hurry to bottle, time works wonders for degassing. I have stopped using a drill of any kind and found that wines were degassed even after sitting for about a month with no discernable levels of CO2 in when swirled in a glass or felt on the tongue.


Also note that the CO2 bubbles are really small and tend to run up the sides when using a VacuVin - if you're pulling out bubbles larger than effective pinpoints, it's like not CO2.


- Jim

Very true. You can't really hurry the degassing of your wine. Leave it for a month or so. It will degassed its self.

 

[robie]

In my experience, a month or so has never shown to be enough time to degas a kit wine, which of course doesn't get pressed after fermentation.

Maybe in six months to a year... maybe. Possibly my experience is because I live at 6,800 above sea level.

Another issue with leaving wine under air lock for extended time is the longer the wine bulk ages this way, the more of its aromas can become lost.