Trying to degas your wine at 66 degrees is much harder than if it was warmer ~70-75 degrees. This isbecause a liquid (in this case wine) can absorb and hold more dissolved gas at lower temperature that at a warmer one. Warming your wine up will help since there will be less dissolved gas to start off with before stirring.
Here is a technical explanation:
The reason for this gas solubility relationship with temperature is very similar to the reason that vapor pressure increases with temperature. Increased temperature causes an increase in kinetic energy. The higher kinetic energy causes more motion in molecules which break intermolecular bonds and escape from solution.
The action of stirring your wine also creates more kinetic energy which is what helps force the gas out of solution.
I do not understand why you are having problems with the Fizz-X. What type of drill are you using and what speed?
The Fizz-X also seems to work better when spinning in a clockwise rotation or forward on your drill. I think the directions might say not to reverse the direction but I do the help get a better stirring. When you get a deep vortex you lose the action youwant because the liquid is spinning in all the same direction in one mass. This is why many of us have had the foam volcano when starting to stir with the Fizz-X because you are getting a great mixing and agitation of the liquid from being still to being stirred.
Sorry this was so long winded but I hope it helps you understand the process better. Below is more info from an old post that addressed this awhile back.
Just a quick redux of the stirring issue for my (Winexpert) kits:
<UL>
<LI>If you've fermented at the right starting volume, the right temperature, and you've achieved the recommended specific gravity levels, then you'll be able to stir the wine to de-gas within the time-frames specified in the instructions.
<LI>If the wine was started at anything other than the full 6 US-gallons (23 litres) or it was fermented cooler than 68 F, or if your gravity readings were not at or below the recommended levels when you did the process, you will not experience consistent success.
<LI>You only need to stir a Winexpert kit four times.
<UL>
<LI>On day one, you have to beat the snot out of the must to mix it properly. A good, arm-cracking one minute stir to froth it up and mix the juice and water will get you off to a good start and a thorough fermentation
<LI>On fining/stabilising day, after you've double-checked the SG, then you can first stir the kit without adding anything--and without racking it off the sediment! (Unless it's a Crushendo kit, but that's covered in the instructions--no racking for any other kit. If you choose to rack it, you will not experience consistent results. This first stirring will be to greatly de-gas the wine, prior to adding any of the fining agents or stablisers. Beat the hell out of it, for one full minute. Use a watch or clock--one minute is a lot longer than most people think. If you can scractch your head with your stirring hand after that one minute, you haven't stirred hard enough. It should be an all-out blizzard of effort that costs you all of your strength, and you should see spots in front of your eyes (see why I tell people to buy a drill-mounted stirring whip?)
<LI>Add the sorbate and the sulphite, and stir again, for one full minute. This time you may break one or two small bones in your stirring arm, but don't slow down--if anything, stir harder.
<LI>Add the fining agent and the F-Pack (if the kit has one) and stir for one more full minute. Have the paramedics standing by with a bag of ice to carry your stirring arm to the hospital where it can be re-attached. Top up with water and call it a day.
</LI>[/list]</LI>[/list]
Now, if you have fizzy wine after this regimen, you don't have a stirring issue. You have eiither got an incomplete or ongoing fermentation, or you're mistaking foam for fizz, or you may have an inicipient lactic acid bacterial infection that is making a bit of CO2 in the wine.
The amount of stirring described will reduce SO2 slightly in the kit: however, the amount it is reduced by is minimal, because rather than uptaking oxygen during this process, the wine out-gasses CO2, which actually scrubs some of the oxygen out of the wine.
If you stir at a time when the wine is not saturated with CO2, you may experience reduced SO2 and potentially expose the wine to oxidation. But then, why are you stirring wine if it's not fizzy?
Hope this helps outl
Tim Vandergrift
Technical Services Manager, Winexpert Limited.
