Degassing in carboy with whip

[QuiQuog]

If you're not sure whether your wine needs de-gassing, just drop a pinch of sugar or acid into the carboy. If there's gas in the wine, it will fizz.
Just a small pinch, mind you, or you may have a volcano.

I can vouch for the volcano. I created one once when chapitalizing.

 

[winemaker81]

I can vouch for the volcano. I created one once when chapitalizing.

It's an amazing sight. Not fun to clean up, yet still amazing to see.

 

[Brant]

* degassing increases the risk of infection and let’s one pack a high oxygen headspace which means acetaldehyde.
* degassing is temperature related, it happens naturally as the wine warms up. If you have the highest temp the wine will see two months will work. In cool season degassing is minimal and nine months might be good.
* degassing is a function of the partial pressure of the gas in the head space. One can pull a vacuum and cause gas to boil out. This is time related and never seems to finish without some mixing time. Vacuum works in winter too.
*. I look at CO2 as protective and intentionally let it there till I bottle

Interesting...

Whether good or bad, I have not degassed the last 5 wines kits I've made. They are all bulk aging in carboys at this time with 3 of them (that are approx. 6 months old) going into a barrel this month. I intend to rack once more before barreling before I move to the barrel. I'm curious if I'll notice any carbonation when I taste. I might whip them after racking or pull a vacuum to see how much gas I get out.

 

[cmason1957]

I am of the opinion that if you go to a commercial winery and ask them about degassing you will be scorned, laughed at, or labeled as something.

I don't do any specific degassing step ever. Now, I do stir every must twice or thrice daily and there will be 6 months minimum, up to 18 months before they get bottled. Along with every racking being done using my All in one wine pump (vacuum, slight splash racking). By the time I am ready to bottle there is no carbonation left.

Actually, to be honest, I did bottle a Peach Apricot Wine kit within the last year that was only about 3 months old (due to family almost demanding some) and it didn't have any carbonation effects either. It had only been racked twice, maybe three times.

 

[winemaker81]

I am of the opinion that if you go to a commercial winery and ask them about degassing you will be scorned, laughed at, or labeled as something.

This is a "maybe". Wineries making higher end wines that are barrel aged over a year probably don't degas.

Wineries that sell their wine within the first year probably are degassing. Wineries that degas don't do anything manually. Sometime in the past I saw a video of a huge tank with a built-in stirring mechanism. They may also use vacuum pumping, sparging stones, and/or nitrogen gas. An article on WineMakerMag mentions some of this:

https://winemakermag.com/wine-wizard/degassing-wine
Consider caveats to the degassing process:

1. The kit wine process plans for bottling in 4 to 8 weeks, so degassing is a requirement, not an option. Unless one wants 2+ cases of mini-volcanoes.

2. Wines bulk aged 12+ months rarely need degassing.

3. As @wineview pointed out, degassing when the wine is warm is more likely to be effective than when it's cold. This is physics, as warmer objects have more energy so the excess CO2 is more likely to eject from the wine.

4. Total degassing is not a goal, as CO2 is part of the flavor profile -- we want excess CO2 that is likely to come out of suspension gone. [I'm fairly certain @Rice_Guy stated this a while back.]

 

[Shurt1073]

This has been one of my favorite recent group discussions. I've done the vacuum degassing, the three prong degasser/aerator, and multiple rackings using my AIO wine pump, but not really sure which is the best or if I'm even degassing right or enough. I've never had an issue so I keep doing what I'm doing! Its cool to see everyones view or thoughts on this.

 

[Raptor99]

I don't do any specific degassing step ever. Now, I do stir every must twice or thrice daily and there will be 6 months minimum, up to 18 months before they get bottled. Along with every racking being done using my All in one wine pump (vacuum, slight splash racking). By the time I am ready to bottle there is no carbonation left.

This describes my procedure as well.

 

[Bmd2k1]

The Northern Brewer video where the guy said to degas for an hour is possibly the worst winemaking advice I've seen, and that's saying a lot.

My general process is at the first racking post-fermentation, when I'm eliminating gross lees (fruit solids), after racking I add K-meta and stir for 1 minute with a drill-mounted stirring rod, changing direction after 30 seconds. I stir vigorously to generate a small vortex. Then I rack into a secondary container.

This does not eliminate all CO2, and it's not intended to. What is does is expel a lot of CO2 and jump-start the degassing process. The wine will degas over the following weeks and possibly months. By the 3 month mark it's highly likely the wine will be degassed sufficiently for bottling, if making a quicker drinking wine.

Never count on activity in the airlock as an indicator. Temperature and barometric changes can have an effect.

Also, if the wine is whipped sufficiently hard, it will produce bubbles regardless if there is CO2 in it or not.

As I'm always trying to improve my wine making....I'm curious why you immediately rack again after brief drill mounted degassing?

Cheers!

 

[winemaker81]

As I'm always trying to improve my wine making....I'm curious why you immediately rack again after brief drill mounted degassing?

The receiving container depends upon the size of the batch and what I'm doing to the wine.

23 liter kits:

If I know the final volume is 23 liters or less, I may rack into another 23 liter carboy. I'll add K-meta into the receiving carboy prior to racking and will stir half way through, and stir gently when done, before topping up. If adding a fining agent, same thing.

For other actions I rack into a bucket.

If I'm degassing? I DO NOT degas in a full or nearly full carboy. The likelihood of a volcano is too great. Yeah, I learned that the hard way.

Buckets allow for that temporary expansion. The wine has to be racked into a carboy + other containers afterward.

If I'm bottling with backsweetening? It's too much of a PITA to try to add sugar into a carboy, which is typically full and has no room for stirring. So it goes into a bucket, where I add the sorbate + K-meta early and stir to ensure it's homogenous. When backsweetening I need room to stir.

Other Wines:

However, in recent years a large percentage of my wines are batches larger than 23 liters. Post-pressing I may have the wine in numerous containers to drop the gross lees. When racking off the gross lees I homogenize into a single container. This ensures I have no surprises at bottling where one container may be markedly different from another, sometimes due to free run vs. light pressing vs. heavy pressing.

At bottling time I homogenize a wine again, as the barrel wine will be different from any remaining topup in other containers.