How long does it take most, to degass wine

[jamesngalveston]

Exploded a few plastic carboys today...just water, no wine was in them.
Took a while to get my vacuum pressure correct for degassing.
Question is....
How long does it take for most to degass a six gallon batch , on average.


it took me almost 20 minutes...

thanks for info.

 

[dangerdave]

Depends on the batch. Some of my wines come out of the primary with little gas in them at all. However, I made an apple-raspberry from concentrate once that took days of mulitple degassings to go flat.

 

[jamesngalveston]

Hey Dave, thanks....days, dang it..this is a dragon blood, I cant wait days...
come one mannnnnnnn.

 

[BernardSmith]

I have only been making wine regularly in the last couple of years and so I don't have the same experience as many folk in this forum but my experience is that the amount of CO2 in the wine to be degassed varies. If your wine is standing in warmer temperatures then there will be less dissolved gas in it. If you have racked using a vacuum then there will be less dissolved gas in it. If when you first fermented your must you really whipped air into it you will have less gas dissolved in the wine. If there was a great deal of particulate matter in the wine during early fermentation there will be less dissolved gas in the wine, if when you rack you allow the wine to run down the inside walls of the carboy you will have less dissolved CO2 in it if you allow the wine to quietly age you will have less dissolved gas in it and last but not least, the greater the ABV, the more gas will be dissolved in the wine. Half the sugar is fermented to alcohol and the other half is transformed into CO2. In six gallons of wine with an ABV of 12 percent that is a large amount of CO2.

 

[jamesngalveston]

Very informative, Mr Smith, thanks.

 

[Dianna]

Aha! this is the post I needed. I have been wondering about the sugar to CO2 ratio and you just confirmed what I have been experiencing. My higher ABV wines take longer to degass.
thanks for this.

 

[BernardSmith]

Aha! this is the post I needed. I have been wondering about the sugar to CO2 ratio and you just confirmed what I have been experiencing. My higher ABV wines take longer to degass.
thanks for this.

Never tested this idea but I suspect that if your primary fermenter is a wide mouthed bucket that you cover with a cloth and not a plastic lid and airlock the less gas will be trapped in the liquid and the less you will need to worry about degassing. Of course, if you allow the wine to age and if you rack the wine every two or three months almost all the CO2 will dissipate without any effort on your part.

 

[bkisel]

Using a Vacu-Vin hand pump it usually takes me 2-3 days to degas a 6 gallon batch. This is with a lot of pumping over the course of the 2-3 days. It appears that the more head space I have in the carboy and the higher the temp the faster the degassing progresses. My stirring efforts just doesn't seem to get the job done which is why I've taken to adding a 2-3 day Vacu-Vin degassing phase to my wine making.

 

[Just-a-Guy]

I'm new at this wine thing, but a quick observation. In several 5 gallon batches (a DB, a pear and a grape juice), I was de-gassing with the Vacu-Vin. What a PITA. I had my son work it a lot, but even he (who has infinite patience) got annoyed and tired.

So I bought a brake bleeder.

Before I even got the brake bleeder set up, I racked the batches with my All-In-One wine pump. I had read that this would have the side-effect of de-gassing, but I was seriously skeptical of that. I bought the thing to make it easier to rack and bottle, without considering the de-gassing.

I thought I had these wines pretty much de-gassed. When I racked them over with the AIO, wow... a ton of foam. On one, about a third of a carboy of foam worked up as it racked in. Obviously, the Vacu-Vin didn't complete the job, or even get close? In subsequent and additional rackings, I have seen this even more. The AIO de-gasses your wines. In pretty much one fell swoop. While doing something else that you have to do anyway. Just like Steve says. Amazing!

Mark

 

[DoctorCAD]

All-In-One wine pump...

Best tool ever for home winemakers.

Degas with every rack, filter and bottle all with no effort on your part.

 

[winesilly]

Thanks DoctorCAD I will look into one of those pumps.

 

[knockabout]

Using a Vacu-Vin hand pump it usually takes me 2-3 days to degas a 6 gallon batch. This is with a lot of pumping over the course of the 2-3 days. It appears that the more head space I have in the carboy and the higher the temp the faster the degassing progresses. My stirring efforts just doesn't seem to get the job done which is why I've taken to adding a 2-3 day Vacu-Vin degassing phase to my wine making.

Bill,
Try using your vacu-Von one each bottle before corking instead. Rey effective and much faster than using vacu vin on a carboy for me anyways!

 

[bkisel]

Bill,
Try using your vacu-Von one each bottle before corking instead. Rey effective and much faster than using vacu vin on a carboy for me anyways!

Thanks. I hadn't thought of that.

One concern I have is that I've read that not degassing can be an issue for a wine not clearing. If truly not an issue then I really like your idea.

 

[knockabout]

I have jury rigged a stand for my drill degasser. I do degase for 30 minutes or an hour with that, have had no issues with clearing. I still have gas I can taste in the wine though until I vacu-u-vin each bottle.

I will tell you My rotator cuff is shot and this is a physical workout for me. My all in one pump came yesterday so I'm about to abandon this to method. But it was very effective especially if you have the biceps to do it!