Degassing

[spar35]

I rigged up a vacuum contraption to degas my wines. Works like a charm and costed me just a few bucks. Whipping with a drill took too much time and always has the possibility of oxidizing the wine if not done properly.

ZHI10B vacuum ejector I bought off eBay with the tubes for under $10.

Coiled pipe with trigger valve - came with my compressor.

The end of the coiled pipe goes to the compressor. When the trigger valve is opened, air flows through the ejector and creates vacuum in the tube that is connected to the bung. The pressure in the carboy drops and Gas trapped in the wine is released. I use the trigger valve to control the vacuum and prevent the bubbles from entering the bung/tube.

I was able to degassing 6g in about 15 minutes

I observed two things:
Initially I get small bubbles and then after some time I get big bubbles. I wonder if it is trapped SO2 and CO2 respectively.

My real concern is: would the vacuum in the carboy boil off the alcohol in the wine?

 

[vacuumpumpman]

All depending on your air pressure and volume - you should get down to 29 in hg. I would recommend using a regulator so you know exactly how much vacuum you are creating.

Yes you can boil alcohol at those vacuum readings -

I would stop - once you start seeing the larger bubbles

 

[bkisel]

I understand the small bubbles to be CO2. They're the same size bubbles I see while fermenting in a carboy during "secondary". I use a hand vacuum pump and stop when I see the bigger bubbles. I've yet to learn definitively what gas(es) is/are the in big bubbles.

I have seen it demonstrated how you can boil water at room temperature by vacuum pumping.

 

[spar35]

Thank you

Thank you for your replies. This is very helpful.

I also checked the specs on the ejector. It can produce a maximum of -88kPa (kilo Pascal) of vacuum which is approx 26 inches of Mercury. This is a little less than the max vacuumpumpman indicated above..... so should be safe.

I will remember to stop when large bubbles appear.

Thank you again.