Jason,

Degassing when fermentation is over is a different matter, and many
people (including myself) view it as somewhat unnecessary if one is
patient enough. With your first batch, that's not likely, is it?
Given enough time in bulk aging & at room-ish temps, most wines degas
naturally pretty well. The reason kits recommend vigorous degassing is
to speed up the process so the maker gets quicker gratification. Again,
patience is enormously helpful in making a good wine, but it _can_ be
drunk at the end of 28 days or whatever. But it's much better after 6 or
12 months.

As to the process of degassing with a stirrer, If you're using a
drill-mounted type, be careful to keep it well submerged in the wine and
run it at high speed, but don't let the vortex draw air down & create
air bubbles. As you surmise, this does add unnecessary oxygen. The
spinning arm types seem to work best when they "cavitate" through the
wine and liberate the CO2 by low pressure. When you do degas, do it at
room temp, as the gas is less soluble at higher temperature.

Hope it turns out well Mike MTM

John wrote:
>
> One last question...In the directions there is a lot of "degassing".
> Using a degasser a few times a day as its settling. Does this not
> introduce a great deal of oxygen or is it not signifigant at that
> point. I'll follow the directions exactly but I'm always curious on
> why.