WineXpert Extremely gassy degassing.....and still not done?

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Slyder73

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Have a WE, Vinters Reserve Sauvignon Blanc that I spiked with simple syrop to starting SG of 1.088 with temp of 78 degrees.
Just clarifying and degassing before the final 2 weeks'ish wait before bottling. At SG of 0.993.
I'm using a drill mounted whip to degas.

Here is my problem (question?). I have a pretty crappy drill that I clearly need to replace, so the battery lasts 5 to 7 minutes then I need to recharge for 10 to 15. I start the whipping, being careful not to stir much oxygen into the wine (which has been racked into the primary bucket for ease and to avoid volcanos). I've been at it for almost 2 hours now, up to number 9 session of 5 mins or so of degassing before a recharge and still the gas is coming out with a thick thick head of both large bubbles on the surface and small foamy bubbles floating on top of those. It shows no sign of being finished degassing. I've tested in a tall shotglass, shaking and covering and there is still a LOT of gas in the wine.

Has anyone else experienced this? Should I just rack back into the carboy and leave it? Should I continue? I'm a bit worried at this point about it being exposed to oxygen for so long and the continued whipping. It just seems to keep going and going.

Suggestions? (I know by the time anyone responds I'll likely have done another degassing cycle of the battery and racked back to carboy, so what should I do in the coming days? Besides buy a new drill.)
 
I have heard similar stories of others who seemed to degas for ever. I really don't have an answer. I was. however, trying to picture you typing with one hand, and operating your drill with the other. LOL

All kidding aside there was a thread not to long ago where the member said the same thing, seemed to take forever, and I belive the response was to keep degassing. Iam sure one of the more experienced members will chime in. I'm curious to hear the answer myself, seems like some wines take quite an effort to degas and others go right away. I'd like to know what factors contribute to the amount of gas present in a wine.
 
I had a simialiar issue with a Winexpert French Cab. I was degassing FOREVER. I also used a drill mounted degasser (not the whip like looking one, but a different one). I degassed once before adding the stabilizers, once afer adding the stabelizers and about 9 times after adding the chitosan. It jsut seemed like it was always foaming up. In the end, I let it sit for about an hour and went back and the degassed one more time and all was good.
I have a feeling that it was all the chemicals that I added to it gave me a problem with the degassing. Who knows? I'm a newbie and probably did something wrong somwehere else that gave me these problems...
 
It will degass quicker if the temp is higher - 75 or so.

I've done only WE kits so far and they are difficult to degass but I've never had to do it as long as you. I would suggest degassing for like 10 minutes then letting it sit and try a taste to see if the CO2 is gone. It might be that you are really whipping up a froth and not degassing. I would suggest short bursts of the drill and reverse periodically. Whipping up a tornado is not a good idea because you actually pull lots of oxygen into the wine.

I filtered all my kits and that also takes the gas out.
 
It is definately CO2, and not just frothed air going into the wine. It's been a few days now and while much sediment has settled out the wine is still quite cloudy.
Last night I tried a little experiment, putting an old vetrinary syringe into the drilled hole on a stopper and used it to pull a small vacuum in the headspace. That slight vacuum, and I mean very slight in the 50cc glass tube drew a lot of very tiny bubbles. I applied it for a few minutes and noticed that lots of very tiny bubbles had formed in the wine but seemed to be "stuck" in the cloudy mix, not rising but just sitting there.

Conclusion, the wine is not degassed. I dont' want to rack out and stir it again so I'm thinking of picking up something like a hand squeeze vacuum pump (for breaks) from Canadian tire. Has anyone else used something like this to finish degassing in situations like this? Is it fairly simple to rig the hoses/compatible with the stoppers etc?
 
After your next degassing session, let it sit about an hour or so under airlock. The wine is disturbed enough for sure. Now it needs a little time to let the co2 bubbles rise up and form an invisible cap over the wine.
Let you drill charge for about an hour and then check on it. You should notice less gas because you're not remixing the co2 into your wine.
 
I fear you may be whipping in Oxygen and it appears to need degassing but you are rerally just whipping the wine. This would not be good. Here is a test : use a drilled bung plug and shake bottle with thumb over hole. Listen for esaping gas. If you here gas then it still has CO2 if not you have just been whipping wine. I gave up on whip for that reason. Whipped wine id bad. to much oxygen isnt fixable. I just use above method to get enough gas off to clarify now and let time do the rest by keeping in 70 degree room under air lock till its done. It can take awhile but you are also bulk aging at same time. Do add about a 1/4 teaspoon of sulfate(K-Met) when bulk aging kits.
 
i didnt read all the answers..so if i am repeating then forgive me...get a brake bleeder for degassing a carboy...run the hose end into a bung...cut the hole to size...get some liquid tape or other product to make a good seal....degass...watch out for foam coming into the resevior.....watch out for collapsing the carboy...i usually get mine up to the low to mid 20's...but some say i am risking breaking the glass and i think they recommend 15-17 on teh guage....do this until it holds a vacuum
 
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I just received my new Mity Vac from Northern Tool, paid just over $40 for it. The kit came with all sorts of different adapters that will fit the holes in the bung. I tried it out on a couple of wines I had in secondaries and was amazed at the amount of CO2 it pulled out. And this was at temperatures of about 66 degrees. Very impressed with this little gadget.
 
Is there any hope for degassing while it's in my cellar (~58 degrees)? I really don't want to keep warming up my wine to degas if I don't have to. It's been ok so far, but all this talk of needing to degas at 75 degrees is making me nervous.
 
i have degassed wine at that temp using a brake bleeder....its just much easier and more naturally occurring at higher temps
 
Thanks for all the responses everyone. I've just ordered a brake bleeder/hand vacuum pump. I just hope the additional degassing when it arrived can clear up the cloudiness still in the wine.
 
Degassing at those temps Tooth is a waste of time and most likely youll never get enough out and bottle a gassy wine which will not be good once you finally open 1 up, decanting wont even get much out. Slyder, 22" of vacuum is fine with glass carboys as long as they are filled or topped up to normal, I wouldnt do that high on a 1/2 empty carboy though as the flat part of the carboy is the weakest and it would impede on degassing also trying to create such a vacuum with so much dead space. I used to use the brake bleeder and its a good toll but now I use a electric vacuum pump in which I can rack, bottle and filter my wines with, all without ever lifting another full carboy since it will rack wines horizontally or vertically off the floor up as it doesnt require gravity and is very easy on the wine unlike some other pumps where the wine has to travel through an impellar!
 
Thanks for the reply, Wade. I'll try to get it warmer next time. So far I've been pretty lucky, I guess, as I haven't really had much fizzy wine. If nothing else, I end up with volcano-madness when I degas. That said, I'm always looking for a better way of making my wine.
 
I used to always get the volcano also until I started using the vacuum method as you can start off with less vacuum and slowly bump it up. Even when i tried to be gentle with the drill I still usually just gave it that quick busrt that ended up in this!
Volcano.jpg
 
That's the dreaded volcano, alright. I get them far too often so far. I'd like to use a vacuum method, but I opted to use Better Bottles... so I'm out of luck there.
 
Will one of those little tools my wife uses for freezing vegetables work? For a test I tried it on an empty carboy with bung, it sealed up right away and started making a vacuum. Is there any chance you could implode your carboy like that?
 
if u are talking about a Foodsaver® vacuum sealer, yes, they'll work alright.. if you have a hose attachment on it and some way to either adapt it to a drilled bung or use a foodsaver mason jar attachment or something like that. it wont draw a strong enough vac to implode a full carboy.. just be aware that they are not continuous-duty devices, dont run it for too long without letting it cool off or youll be explaining to the wife how you broke her foodsaver.
 
So my vacuum pump arrived and I've been pulling a vacuum of 25 to 26 (headspace is only 5 cm so I'm not worried about imploding) and keeping that up as it reduces since yesterday afternoon. This is in my cloudy Sauvignon Blanc from the original post in this thread. Lots of bubbles and gas continue to be pulled out steadily.
As this is going on of course some of the sediment is being stirred up and pulled back up into the wine. It will need more time to clear again and clearly this weekend having been scheduled for bottling weekened is off!

What I'm wondering about is the very very fine cloudiness that was there. I can only describe it as if someone blew cigarette smoke into the wine, just a smoky haze. Should this degassing help that fine fine sediment settle? Or was that something else? I followed the instructions regarding the bentonite and additives and boosted the wine at the beginning with about 2 cups of sugar.

When should I see that haze coming down after the improved degassing? If not, what could I do to get it cleared up?

Thanks for the help
By the way, I love this vacuum pump!
 
i have been using a drill mounted whip everyday 3 times a day for 2 weeks now and it still foams and bubbles up and when i check its still gives off gas, i'm lost on what else i could do, it just wont degass, what can i do my wine is 73 degrees... thanks
 

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