Degassing

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Mollie

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Hi there! I'm making my frist batch of wine and I read that degassing is very important. Is there a way to tell when you have degassed the wine enough?
 
Welcome to the forum!

I've read about shaking a sample of wine in a closed jar and then opening and listening for gas escaping.

Many folks can tell by just tasting the wine.
 
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It usually has to degas at least some before it clears. Being clear can give you a bit of an indicatition that you have degassed some. Arne.
 
To me the most important part is degassing. After years of bull works me messing around I got a vacuum pump and my wine improved dramatically.
 
AZMDTed said it best on this thread - http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53177&highlight=poof+test

Degassing is the area that gives me the biggest pain. Following kit instructions has always failed me, my wine remained gassy. The two main tests I always heard were:

1. The poof test. fill a test tube or your hydrometer beaker half full of wine. Put your palm over the top to seal it, shake it, and then put it up to your ear when you open your palm. If you hear a 'poof' it still has gas. I've never been able to do that as I always hear a poof, even with clear water.

2. take a small sip of the wine and see if you can feel the fizz on the tip of your tongue. The fizz would be the CO2, that too takes a delicate and practiced tongue, more than mine offers.

If you're going to age the wine in a carboy for six months then getting the gas out completely now is not that big of a deal. If there's too much gas you might run into issues with the Chitosan clumping together, but that can be dealt with. With aging, as mentioned before the wine will degas.

But if you're going to bottling as early as possible then the wine will not degas more once corked.

it sounds like you have a wine whip. If so, beat the heck out of the wine for a minute or two, making sure that you go in one direction for about 15 seconds, then reverse direction for 15, so on. When you've done that for a few minutes look at the side of your carboy. If it's still gassy you will see bubbles rising up the side. If you see a lot rising and forming a fast stream of bubbles then keep going because you still have too much gas. If it's down to just some then you're okay.
 
For my tanks I will use a clear 375ml bottle, fill and place cork half way in. Leave for a few weeks or months then pull out cork and at same time listen for any "fizzy fizzy". This also tells me by looking at the bottom of the bottle if any lees remaining.
 

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