How open to infection is my wine at the degassing stage?

[Brendan O'Donohue]

Hi everyone,

I find the degassing to be the most tiresome stage, but I also worry about infecting a batch while whipping it around.
My question is how vulnerable to infection is the wine at this stage having fully finished fermentation and stabilization?
I have had the lid off several times over the past few days to whip it with the degasser on the end of my drill and there's still a huge amount of CO2 coming out but it makes me wonder about this constant interfering with the lid off.. how likely is it that contamination would enter through falling particles and things like that?
Cheers
Bren

 

[Scooter68]

When you speak of having the lid off - What sort of container are you using? I would not expect anything of consequence to fall into your wine container if you are using a typical carboy with a narrow mouth. After fermentation is completed the most common container, a carboy, should not present much chance of that happening.
If you are really concerned you could use a vacuum pump or the popular AIO to degass your wine. If you are aging the wine to at least 9-12 months there shouldn't be much or any CO2 left by that time. That's one of the benefits to aging in bulk (Ina carboy or wine Cask/Barrel) along with the mellowing of flavor.

 

[Brendan O'Donohue]

I'm using 25L food grade plastic containers with an airlock coming through a small oring on the lid with taps at the base.
When I rack it at around 1.010, I rack it from the same type of plastic container, so the lid I'm removing is a large lid the entire diameter of the container which is about 12-15 inches.

 

[Scooter68]

If fermentation is completed it should be moved into a carboy or more appropriate container for aging. Snap-on Plastic lids are NOT good seals. I've had solid fermentation on going but ZERO airlock activity because all the CO2 was leaking out the lid seal.

Do you have a photo of the containers or a name brand of the container? Was it advertised for use as an aging container?
If the lid is not sealing properly you have a greater issue with oxidation potential than you do of debris falling into the container when de-gassing.