Re: Degassing......interesting observation/question

[pete1325]

I racked a 6 gallon carboy of Merlot (from grapes) yesterday that has been bulk ageing since November. It was on oak chips and due to the temps warming it started to overflow, and was actually bubbleing too. I desided to rack (off the oak and degass) into a 5 gallon carboy using the whip device with a power drill. I did it in stages so not to create a huge mess with overflow.....that seemed to work out okay I guess. I put the balance of the wine in a one gallon jug (not degassed) and had a glass (or two) last night. It diffinently had some fizz to it. So today I desided to put the wine in seperate 7.5 litter bottles. Now I read here somewhere that shaking the wine in a bottle will help degass the wine. Well let me tell ya.....I filled a bottle half way and shook the snot out of it and it was like soda......lots of carbonation. I did it a few time, per bottle, until all the fizz went away........did this for all the bottles. My question is......was this an exceptional way to degass or will this wine be trash?

Also, when using the whip device in a carboy won't the vortex suck air into the wine? I sort of splashed the top then went down and then the top again so that wouldn't happen. Is there a good method to degassing with this whip?

Thanks, and sorry for the long thread..........

 

[M1wino]

I don't know to much about the shaking bottle method but IMHO the more you agitate your wine the longer you should age it again before drinking to let it calm down. Also, I have found one of the best ways for me to degas time, that is if you can spare equip that long.

 

[rjb222]

I racked a 6 gallon carboy of Merlot (from grapes) yesterday that has been bulk ageing since November. It was on oak chips and due to the temps warming it started to overflow, and was actually bubbleing too. I desided to rack (off the oak and degass) into a 5 gallon carboy using the whip device with a power drill. I did it in stages so not to create a huge mess with overflow.....that seemed to work out okay I guess. I put the balance of the wine in a one gallon jug (not degassed) and had a glass (or two) last night. It diffinently had some fizz to it. So today I desided to put the wine in seperate 7.5 litter bottles. Now I read here somewhere that shaking the wine in a bottle will help degass the wine. Well let me tell ya.....I filled a bottle half way and shook the snot out of it and it was like soda......lots of carbonation. I did it a few time, per bottle, until all the fizz went away........did this for all the bottles. My question is......was this an exceptional way to degass or will this wine be trash?

Also, when using the whip device in a carboy won't the vortex suck air into the wine? I sort of splashed the top then went down and then the top again so that wouldn't happen. Is there a good method to degassing with this whip?

Thanks, and sorry for the long thread..........

I assume you know to add extra k-metta before degassing a wine. The theory to degasing is removing CO2 will speed the drop out of material and shorten the time needed to be in a fermentation vessel. Most people that make wine from grapes do not use a whip on their wines and prefer to allow the wine to degas naturally. When using a whip or stir stick you need to counter the drills rotation by turning the drill around the carboy in the opposite direction to the clock wise spin of the whip or stick. The best way to describe what happens is you beat the CO2 off the wine it is not the spin of the liquid that degases the wine.

 

[pete1325]

Nope, didn't know to add k-metta before degassing. As mentioned I have 4-6 gallons carboys now bulk ageing.....the other 3 carboys I'll let degas naturally. It was just this one carboy, the one with oak chips, that was bubbleing away, the others were fine. Maybe all I had to do is rack the wine off the chips and let it degas on it's own too. Time will tell I guess. Thanks.