Degassing

[winesilly]

How do I know when I am degassing my wine that I have stirred it enough to get the gas all out. I will be starting this process in 10 days. I will be using a wine whip for this process. I am making this white wine from a kit and the instructions only say to stir to get rid of the gas. Any help for this newbe would help very much.

 

[DoctorCAD]

When there is none left!

Take a small amount and put it in a small jar. Cover it with your palm and shake. Take your hand off an listen for a "pop" like a coke would make. When you don't hear any more pop, its degassed. Warming the wine will help alot.

Oh, and you need to quit thinking in days, think in weeks or months. "I need to degas in 2 or 3 weeks" and "I need to bottle in 6 months" are what you should be thinking.

 

[cmason1957]

First, you want the wine to be at about 72-75. Remove some wine from your carboy to start. Run your drill thing forward on as high a speed as you can. As soon as you see a vortex form Stop. Reverse your drill. Repeat for about 5 minutes. Now take a sample of and put it in a tall beaker, about half way. Put your hand over that sample and shake. When you take your hand off, if you hear something that sounds like a soda opening, you are not done. Repeat twice more. Stop. Try again next day.

If you do this much more than for a day or two you may consider getting the three pronged wine whip. It is recommended by The Godfather of kits (Tim Vandergrift). It is what I use and I never take more than once to degas a wine. Well that and I use my allinonewinepump to move the wine around. Vacuum racking takes out a bunch of the gas.

 

[Tenbears]

I know we live in an instant society these days. What ever happened to just letting the wine off gas. I have visited several wineries in the last few months. not one had a degassing department where elves ran drills with wine whips. and there were some delicious wines. I am positive I have never done it to mead. And they come out fine.

 

[DoctorCAD]

I know we live in an instant society these days. What ever happened to just letting the wine off gas. I have visited several wineries in the last few months. not one had a degassing department where elves ran drills with wine whips. and there were some delicious wines. I am positive I have never done it to mead. And they come out fine.

You are confusing wine made from grapes with wine made from kits. Kits tend to rush to bottle and for some reason hold CO2 like an innmate with a bar of soap.

Letting the wine off-gas on its own is a great way as it also lets the wine sit for extended periods, but not everyone can wait a year to bottle.

 

[winesilly]

When there is none left!

Take a small amount and put it in a small jar. Cover it with your palm and shake. Take your hand off an listen for a "pop" like a coke would make. When you don't hear any more pop, its degassed. Warming the wine will help alot.

Oh, and you need to quit thinking in days, think in weeks or months. "I need to degas in 2 or 3 weeks" and "I need to bottle in 6 months" are what you should be thinking.

It says in the instructions to do it in 10 days if the CG is below .0995 I think it said.

 

[cmason1957]

It says in the instructions to do it in 10 days if the CG is below .0995 I think it said.

It probably really says below 0.995, but for this that isn't the important thing. Follow your directions, I am guessing this is your first or so wine kit to make. Follow those instructions. It is important to let it sit those days.

On about your third or fourth wine kit, you may decide to age it longer, what others have said about time removing the gas is absolutely correct. Time will remove all CO2, doesn't matter if it is a kit or not. And letting all wine age is a good thing, but you can make drinkable and tasty wine following the kit instructions.

You are doing fine, don't worry, you will get the gas out.

 

[heatherd]

When degassing a kit, I typically double the amount of stirring in the directions. I test, as described by the other posts. Also I can tell a wine is not degassed if it gets cloudy when I move the carboy.

You will do fine - feel free to post questions as you have them. Best thing to do is not rush, as wine making takes considerably more time and patience than you might expect.

Heather

 

[winesilly]

Thanks everyone for your help. Yes this is my first kit and I just don't want to screw this up. I am making a World Vineyards German Müller-Thurgau and a California Moscato. We really like the Moscato but not sure about the German Müller-Thurgau. What will I expect from the German Müller-Thurgau.

 

[winesilly]

So no one knows about the World Vineyards German Müller-Thurgau. I'll just have to wait to see how it is.

 

[oldwino54]

After stirring with the 3-pronged whip, I splash-rack into my secondary carboy. There's LOTS of great info on this site. Just search it

 

[bkisel]

Stir degassing (using a drill driven wand) just doesn't get it for me though I continue to do it as part one of my degassing. Part two is using a vacuum hand pump to pull out the CO2. Hand pumping is generally a 2-3 day effort. Lots and lots of running into the basement to do lots and lots of pumping.

 

[seth8530]

I am not sure if I am a minority or not, but every time I see one of these threads, I feel compelled to put out my two cents on why I think degassing wine does not really get the winemaker anything other than the wine out of the carboy.. usually, by the time the wine is ready to drink in a carboy, it has already degassed on its own. Plus bulkaging gives the winemaker the ability to adjust or blend the wine as it ages.

 

[mangojack]

You are confusing wine made from grapes with wine made from kits. Kits tend to rush to bottle and for some reason hold CO2 like an innmate with a bar of soap.

Letting the wine off-gas on its own is a great way as it also lets the wine sit for extended periods, but not everyone can wait a year to bottle.

I have 6gallons of Raspberry(Red) that I have been trying to degas for about two months now off and on,I have hand stirred,ele. Drill with the whip,vacuum pump,but still has gas . The wine is just over two years old.The temp. is between 70-78 degrees.I have even siphoned the wine to a 6.5 gal bucket ,thinking the wide area would let the gas out quicker when using the ele. drill with the whip.so I put the lid back on the bucket ,sealed it put air lock back on and will let it sit 1 or 2 years more .

 

[DoctorCAD]

I have 6gallons of Raspberry(Red) that I have been trying to degas for about two months now off and on,I have hand stirred,ele. Drill with the whip,vacuum pump,but still has gas . The wine is just over two years old.The temp. is between 70-78 degrees.I have even siphoned the wine to a 6.5 gal bucket ,thinking the wide area would let the gas out quicker when using the ele. drill with the whip.so I put the lid back on the bucket ,sealed it put air lock back on and will let it sit 1 or 2 years more .

2 YEARS!!!!

I hardly think you have CO2. Are you sure you aren't just seeing the foam from whipping the wine and not from CO2? Any liquid is going to bubble when whipped, you are adding air to it by whipping.

Have you done the "pop" test?
Does the wine "fizz" on your tongue?
Does it taste tart? (not dry, but tart)

 

[kevinlfifer]

I used to be in a big hurry to degas and get that stuff into the bottle. My first kit, a WE Cab Sauv, I stirred and stirred. I could still hear a poof when I covered my graduated cylinder and shook it, so I stirred some more. I got it cleared, bottled it and IT SUCKS. I over stirred it, whipping in air. It is oxidized in the bottle (only suitable for cooking). Ssoooo! the moral of the story is WAIT. I stir no longer than 3 minutes (if at all) using the technique described earlier in the post, reversing the drill every time a vortex starts to form. By avoiding the formation of vortex you limit the amount of air you stir in.

If you keep it under air lock, take your time, there is no rush to bottle. It won't taste good for Christmas anyhow, noway!

 

[richmke]

I don't wait to see the vortex form. As soon as the top starts moving in one direction, I reverse the drill.

 

[mangojack]

2 YEARS!!!!

I hardly think you have CO2. Are you sure you aren't just seeing the foam from whipping the wine and not from CO2? Any liquid is going to bubble when whipped, you are adding air to it by whipping.

Have you done the "pop" test?
Does the wine "fizz" on your tongue?
Does it taste tart? (not dry, but tart)

I thought the same thing about adding air when whipped,but it burns the throat and tingles the mouth ( tongue).I have done the shake in the bottle and there is a little pressure , not a lot but some.I have never had trouble degassing my other wines,maybe its just the red raspberry.Thanks for your reply.I think i'll let it sit longer.

 

[Tenbears]

I am not sure if I am a minority or not, but every time I see one of these threads, I feel compelled to put out my two cents on why I think degassing wine does not really get the winemaker anything other than the wine out of the carboy.. usually, by the time the wine is ready to drink in a carboy, it has already degassed on its own. Plus bulkaging gives the winemaker the ability to adjust or blend the wine as it ages.

Seth I think it comes from an affinity for mead. I too cannot bring myself to beat an innocent beverage mercilessly. I tried making dragon blood once, the degassing process made me feel like a criminal, Although I enjoy dragon blood I still take the slow road and degas naturally. I rarely use sparkloid either.

 

[seth8530]

It could be, I think mead making is a good exercise in patience ( or lazyness) but I prefer to call it patience. Even when I made dragons blood I never had a need to force degass, but then again I was not really trying to get a turnout in under 2 weeks. BTW, you going to be entering the mazers cup this year?