got the gas..................again

[Trubador]

I am so frustrated with degassing. My latest example is a Caberlot all juice. The wine is at 0.994 and 75 degrees. The ambient room temp is 72 degrees and I have had a brew belt on it for a few days.

I mixed it with the drill stirrer off and on for about an hour or so. I drilled it slow, sometime I drilled fast, sometimes I switched directions of the drill.

I noticed that the closer to the wine surface I had the mix stir, the more bubbles would be created. Anyway, I put on the brake bleeder and pumped lots of bubbles away. I currently can hold 20 inches for an hour; however, if I give the carboy a hard and quick shake, tons of bubbles come rising up and the vacuum drops.

So basically, my wine is not degassed and neither the mix stir or the brake bleeder is working. So I must be doing something wrong, but i dont' know what it is. The level in the carboy is above it's "shoulder", but not at topping off level. There is about a 750 wine bottle worth of room left I am guessing.

Any suggestions how I can get this wine degassed?

 

[grapeman]

It sounds to me like the wine is pretty well degassed now. Yes if you shake it hard you will get some bubbles. Holding vacuum for an hour at 20 in tells you it should be gas free. You could leave it in the carboy for a few weeks and that will let any trapped gasses escape, but I don't think you have a real problem.

 

[Trubador]

It sounds to me like the wine is pretty well degassed now. Yes if you shake it hard you will get some bubbles. Holding vacuum for an hour at 20 in tells you it should be gas free. You could leave it in the carboy for a few weeks and that will let any trapped gasses escape, but I don't think you have a real problem.

this is the state that virtually all my wines are in at this time and all my reds end up with gas in them (I bulk age the reds at least 6 months, some of them 9 months). I can hold over 20 inches of vacuum actually for hours, but then when I bottle it, there is still gas that takes about an hour of decanting to get rid of.

Interesting though, I do the same procedure for the whites and they never have any gas in them. I can hold over 20 inches of vacuum on them as well and no gas, but the reds holding 20 inches have gas????????

any thoughts? I am positive I can remedy things, but just haven't figured it out yet.

 

[Tom]

Yea, I agree with Appleman.
You dont have any gas in the wine.
You said it, as you created gas/air. You want to releive the gas. When you bring the drill up higher you are suckung air into the wine. When you see the bubbles you think its gas when it's just air. If you set the drill to slow you will stir the wine. If there was any gas in the wine it will rise to the top.
Your good to go..

 

[Trubador]

Yea, I agree with Appleman.</font>
You dont have any gas in the wine.</font>
You said it, as you created gas/air. You want to releive the gas. When you bring the drill up higher you are suckung air into the wine. When you see the bubbles you think its gas when it's just air. If you set the drill to slow you will stir the wine. If there was any gas in the wine it will rise to the top.</font>
Your good to go..</font>

I want to believe that as well. But why then do my reds have gas in them when I pour a glass of wine? My whites don't. What I describe above is identical to the process that I have been doing for a bunch of wines and they still have visible gas bubbles in the wine glass that takes about an hour to dissipate.

 

[Tom]

How long from starting the wine do you bottle? How many times do you rack?

 

[Wade E]

Some people sense C02 more then others as some people taste kit taste more then others. This will take more time but you could also degas each bottle after filling it and that should get rid of any gas that could possibly be there.

 

[Trubador]

How long from starting the wine do you bottle? How many times do you rack?</font>

I generally bottle about 9 months from starting the wine. I rack primary to secondary, then to tertiary for degassing, leave it in that one for about 3 months, then rack again for the remainder of bulk aging. And then I rack to a bottling bucket at bottling time.

 

[Trubador]

Some people sense C02 more then others as some people taste kit taste more then others. This will take more time but you could also degas each bottle after filling it and that should get rid of any gas that could possibly be there.

It's not the "sense" of CO2. I see visible bubbles in the wine. I can see them on the side of the wine glass, it's not that it's carbonated like a beer, but there are bubbles that last for about an hour, then the wine is flat like a commercial wine is in the glass. Very frustrating after waiting a year for a wine only to have gas in it.

 

[Goodfella]

I am a newby, So it might be stupid to suggest.... But, would it help to filter the wines? I heard that running them through a mini jet will help degass.

 

[scotty]

i just hate de gassing period lol

 

[gaudet]

You could also try using a vino vac before serving your wine. Open your bottle and vacuum degas it on the spot for 5 minutes or so. That might be your saving grace in lieu of any other answer.

I use my vacuum machine to degas when i stabilize. When I rack it the 3rd time I degas again just to make sure, but usually the only time I have bubbles at that point is if I accidentally crank it up above -22 (which isn't recommended)

I have tried mix stir, vino vac, brake bleeder, and vacuum machine. The vacuum machine has been the best/easiest working solution for me.

 

[Trubador]

so just curious..........when you all pour a glass of wine that you made from a kit. Is it as flat as a commercial wine?

 

[vcasey]

so just curious..........when you all pour a glass of wine that you made from a kit. Is it as flat as a commercial wine?

Yes. And I just use the stainless steel drill stirrer and time.
VC

 

[Dean]

Yep, mine is always flat like any commercial wine. However, I bulk age with an airlock to allow it to outgas over the course of 12 to 18+ months. I'm just now starting to drink my 2007s, but mostly am still into the '05s and '06s.

 

[Trubador]

I have to be doing something wrong then. I think it may stem from my addition of k-meta right at bottling. I usually mix 1/4 teaspoon of k-meta with about 2 oz of water and pour in my bottling bucket. Then I rack the wine from the carboy to the bottling bucket which essentially mixes the k-meta and sorbate into the wine. usually there is at least a glass worth of leftover wine as well which I taste test. Interesting that this never has any gas either.

But then, when I open a test bottle 2 months later, oila, gas. except in the whites. They never, ever, have gas. And I follow the same procedure for both types of wine!!!! Any thoughts as to why this is?

 

[vcasey]

How long to you stabilize prior to bottling?
VC

 

[Wade E]

Adding S02 always seems to bring more C02 into solution and the reason I always end up with the dreaded volcano when I add it right before degassing instead of degassing and then adding and degassing again so that just may be the reason, try giving it a little time after adding the S02 next time.

 

[PeterZ]

I think your gas may be SO2, not CO2. When you add the k-meta to the wine it reacts with the water as it dissolves to form sulfitic acid (H2SO3). Over time part of it breaks down to SO2 and H2O. Try adding your sulfite a few days before bottling in the carboy under an air lock to allow time for the reaction to take place and the excess SO2 gas to escape.

 

[Trubador]

I'm going to give that a try from now on. I also had been using k-meta to sanitize my bottles. I used the vinator and then a bottle tree to drain.Although I would not let the bottles completely dry, they would only be on the tree for 1/2 hour or so. Does the k-meta inside the bottle cause gas in the wine as well????