Natural Degassing

[dcteague]

Is it possible to simply bulk age and let the wine degas without any effort? How long would one need to let the wine sit for this to occur?

 

[saramc]

Definitely! I typically age for 12 months and the wine is naturally degassed. Have not come across one yet that was not. Most often many are no longer gassy by 6-8 months. Hope that puts some perspective on it.

 

[Turock]

Yep--agree with Sara. We never degas wines manually. Degassing vigorously can add oxygen into the wine which is not desireable.

 

[dcteague]

That's what I assumed but figured I'd ask. Do you think it would be safe to bottle at 6 months? Its a port-style wine, so no chance of refermentation, but I'd like to make sure its fully degassed first. It already seems to be degassed, but its only about 2 months old.

 

[jimmyjames23]

Do a little manual degassing, maybe 2-5 days and then just let Mother Nature do the rest. In a few months it will flatten out on its own. Just needs a little encouragement.

 

[Turock]

Usually, in 6 months time, a wine will be naturally degassed. We don't like bottling at that time tho---like to give it a total of 9 months and then we're sure all the CO2 is gone and the wine has had a little time to age. This is on a white, not reds.

You could take some of the wine, put it in a test tube and shake it up. If you have no fiz, then the wine is degassed.

 

[garymc]

I've never had gas in a wine after it was finished fermenting. I've never bottled earlier than. 4 months.

 

[Turock]

There's always CO2 remaining because it is the by-product of yeast.

 

[dcteague]

Sounds like if I degass, it'll need to be done via vacuum, as I don't want to introduce any unwanted oxygen.

 

[robie]

I have no reason to question any of you guys/gals experience, if you say it degassed on its own, then it obviously did. So, I am not doubting you.

Fresh/frozen grape wines, which get post-fermentation pressed usually do degas on their own. The act of pressing removes most of the CO2.

However, in my own experience, talking only about kit wins, I have never found that to be true. I have let wines bulk age under an air lock for 18 months and if I didn't manually degas, I still found it to be gassy. Maybe the difference is my bulk age area is consistently at or below about 64F. During the winter it is in the high 50's.

Or, maybe it is the altitude here in Colorado Springs (6800 feet). Regardless, they just won't degas on their own for me.

 

[jimmyjames23]

I can see altitude greatly affecting that.

 

[botigol]

Being at altitude allows CO2, and other gases, to escape more easily from solution since there is less pressure for it to move against. I am still new at this, but the only wines that I have had naturally degas were tea wines; the rest needed varying amounts of manual intervention. I'm also at altitude...not quite the level of CS, but over 5,900 which is significantly different than most.

 

[dcteague]

I'm only at about 250ft over sea level.

 

[ThePlantGuy978]

I let my last batch of wine age naturally, so I thought. After a year of aging in a 5 gal. Carboy in my basement in North Ga. I bottled the batch. A few days later, pop, pop, fizz, fizz. 3 or 4 corks blow out. I moved all of wine into 1 gal. Jugs with air locks and moved them upstairs to my bedroom closet. I think that the cool basement temps stopped my degassing. Hopefully the higher temps upstairs will do the trick. Before I bottle this batch again I will vacuum degas, just to make sure.

 

[FTC Wines]

I used to live in No. Ga. elev. 1540 ft. My basement was 62-68* and my wines did not de-gas well naturally. Finally I got a vacuum pump & brew belt to warm up the wine prior to de-gassing, that worked very well. Older wines 8-12 mos. let off a lot of gas doing this. Roy

 

[GreginND]

I let my last batch of wine age naturally, so I thought. After a year of aging in a 5 gal. Carboy in my basement in North Ga. I bottled the batch. A few days later, pop, pop, fizz, fizz. 3 or 4 corks blow out. I moved all of wine into 1 gal. Jugs with air locks and moved them upstairs to my bedroom closet. I think that the cool basement temps stopped my degassing. Hopefully the higher temps upstairs will do the trick. Before I bottle this batch again I will vacuum degas, just to make sure.

I doubt that dissolved gas can blow your corks out of the bottle. Fermentation must have started back up or it's undergoing MLF.

 

[DaveL]

I would think altitude would work against degassing as there is less pressure on the wine to force the gas out. Just a guess though. Temp would play a larger role I would imagine.
Champagne needs special corks due to gas correct? So I guess at some level gas can blow out corks.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I doubt that dissolved gas can blow your corks out of the bottle. Fermentation must have started back up or it's undergoing MLF.

I agree ^ with this ,

 

[seth8530]

I would think altitude would work against degassing as there is less pressure on the wine to force the gas out. Just a guess though. Temp would play a larger role I would imagine.
Champagne needs special corks due to gas correct? So I guess at some level gas can blow out corks.

Pressure decreases with increasing altitude as can be seen in the attached image. Also, atmospheric pressure exerts forces in a manner as can be seen in my dirty sketch Where B is the item with the pressure exerted on it.


---- > B <----

Ie pressure squeezes. The greater the pressure the harder it is for things to escape because they have to overcome this pressure. This explains why lowering the pressure with a vacuum makes it really easy for all the gas to come out of solution.

Personally, I bulk age all my wines for at least 8 months before I bottle and I dont really have a need to vacuum or force degas my wine.

 

[DaveL]

Ok I agree with you. It also explains why to keep thind carbonated, ie. beer, soda, you keep them under pressure.