Rack and vacuume degas at once.

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Arkansan07

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I saw a video on youtube where a guy was racking using vacuume and degasing at the same time. It looks like he was just turning up the pressure as he racked. He didnt explain too much. Im wanting to set up my whole process with a vacuume. Whats yalls thoughts on this?

http://youtu.be/4iUK68_S1u8
 
It is a lot easier than using a hand vacuum pump like I do for degassing. Takes me many hundreds of pumps over the course of 2-3 days to degas a 23L batch of wine. If I just had an electric vacuum pump for degassing, never mind transferring, it would be a very big labor saver.
 
This set up shown is certainly a good way to go. He is no degassing enough though if he is not splash racking as he transfers. However he can degas just the carboy. With his set up I would add a canister filter then this would assist in degassing, filtering and racking all in one step and it would be powerful enough to do so.
 
vacuum degassing is the ONLY way to go. It's amazing how much gas it can pull out of a wine. Another benefit is how fast a de gassed wine clears. Roy ps I degass each time I rack, as long as everything is setup, I just change the 2 hole stopper to a one & put the vacuum hose to it. Probably overkill.
 
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If you use a vacuum pump to rack, you are in a sense degassing as you rack. Especially if you splash rack. You can splash rack in a vacuum and not worry about oxidation. Not to mention the convenience when bottling.
 
It would take several vacuum rackings with the splash effect, to degas most wines. So while in a sense you are degassing, you're not degassing as a step in the wine making process. More of a side effect or added benefit, of the racking
 
It would take several vacuum rackings with the splash effect, to degas most wines. So while in a sense you are degassing, you're not degassing as a step in the wine making process. More of a side effect or added benefit, of the racking

Yes Dezzil you are correct -
Typically you rack from the primary to secondary (approx 5 days) then transfer off of any dead yeast - 10 days from adding yeast - and at approx 30 days to help clearing process -and the every 3 months at this moment on.

So you will be removing CO2 at a gradual rate - at the 3rd or 4th racking you should be Co2 free. The CO2 at till this point actually helps preserve the wine from oxidation.
 
It would take several vacuum rackings with the splash effect, to degas most wines. So while in a sense you are degassing, you're not degassing as a step in the wine making process. More of a side effect or added benefit, of the racking

That would be why I wrote "In a Sense"
 
If you use a vacuum pump to rack, you are in a sense degassing as you rack. Especially if you splash rack. You can splash rack in a vacuum and not worry about oxidation. Not to mention the convenience when bottling.

First couple of batches, I was degassing with a hand pump. I bought an All-in-One mainly for racking and bottling; I didn't really think it would be all that useful for degassing. First wine I racked with the All-in-One, I had spent days hand-pumping to degas. I was flabbergasted at all the foam I got when racking (using the splash rack tube). Like, a third of a carboy ... with a wine that I thought I had degassed already.

It seems likely that it does take two or three rackings to really degas most wines, that makes sense to me (based on my limited use so far). I have a half-dozen wines in carboys now that I have racked at least three times, and I get no foam at all with these now. I think running the wine through a filter with the AIO also takes out gas.

The vacuum pump is an incredibly useful tool - that and the floor corker are the best investments I've made so far.

JAG
 

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