Just a word of warning, it's best to remove some wine before doing the brush
thing or it will foam up as it degasses and you'll have a big mess on your
hands! (Hmmm, I wonder how I know this?)
Louise)
"Tom S" > wrote in message
. com...
>
> "Adam Johnson" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Hey,
> >
> > First timer making a kit wine (Merlot) and struggling to comprehend the
> > minimalist instructions.
> >
> > Currently at the degassing stage (Day 21, SG 0.996). From doing a
> > little research I have read that this is really only applicable for kit
> > wines to make them ready faster, and that the wine would degas on its
> > own given the time. Being newbies, we don't have the patience to wait a
> > couple of months and so we are proceeding to degas.
> >
> > My questions a
> > * what amount of degassing is appropriate?
> > * what are the signs that enough CO2 has been removed?
> >
> > We don't have any fancy stirring doowhackeys (vacuum pumps and the like)
> > and are just stirring it using a long spoon. The plan was to stir the
> > wine about 5 times over 2 days for about 2-3 minutes at a time.
>
> You need to stir it more vigorously than that to have much impact on the
> dissolved CO2. Go buy a long bottle brush (~18"x3" diameter), cut off the
> loop handle and chuck it in a drill. Stick the brush into the carboy and
> spin the drill. That'll be much more effective than stirring with a
spoon.
>
> If you're serious about winemaking, you need to invest in some equipment.
> It doesn't need to be fancy or expensive, but there are a few things you
> simply need to have.
>
> Tom S
>
>