Degassing
 

A buddy and I have been making wine for quite a while, and while the results
have been acceptable, better would be fine. One place where we may fall down
is the degassing. We bought a wand that fits in a drill and the ends flare
out when the drill is turned on. Initially we did this at slow speed but
perhaps lately got a little carried away. The last couple have foamed rather
violently. Should we discontinue its use, use it only at slow speed, or just
give up on it and use the spoon. Is just hard to tell when the wine has been
completely degassed. We have noticed a tingle on the tongue in some bottles,
but not all. Is that incomplete degassing?

Thanks in advance

RB

Degassing
 

Robin & Dianne wrote:
> A buddy and I have been making wine for quite a while, and while the results
> have been acceptable, better would be fine. One place where we may fall down
> is the degassing. We bought a wand that fits in a drill and the ends flare
> out when the drill is turned on. Initially we did this at slow speed but
> perhaps lately got a little carried away. The last couple have foamed rather
> violently. Should we discontinue its use, use it only at slow speed, or just
> give up on it and use the spoon. Is just hard to tell when the wine has been
> completely degassed. We have noticed a tingle on the tongue in some bottles,
> but not all. Is that incomplete degassing?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> RB

Just to point out, you only need to degas wines that have very short
secondary times. Wines that bulk age for months to years really do not
need degassing.

That tingle can very well be excess co2 in the wine.

Degassing
 

I'll have to disagree with droopy. Even though I wait almost a year before
bottling, from carboys with several rackings, I invariably got too much
CO2 in the bottled wines before I started degassing. I use a bottle-brush
in a variable speed drill once the weather warms up in May and yes, sometimes
it foams too violently, which just means lower the speed for a while.

Once in the bottle, it can take years for the CO2 to dissipate. My
'02s are just now losing their tingle.

Droopy wrote:
> Robin & Dianne wrote:
>
>>A buddy and I have been making wine for quite a while, and while the results
>>have been acceptable, better would be fine. One place where we may fall down
>>is the degassing. We bought a wand that fits in a drill and the ends flare
>>out when the drill is turned on. Initially we did this at slow speed but
>>perhaps lately got a little carried away. The last couple have foamed rather
>>violently. Should we discontinue its use, use it only at slow speed, or just
>>give up on it and use the spoon. Is just hard to tell when the wine has been
>>completely degassed. We have noticed a tingle on the tongue in some bottles,
>>but not all. Is that incomplete degassing?
>>
>>Thanks in advance
>>
>>RB
>
>
> Just to point out, you only need to degas wines that have very short
> secondary times. Wines that bulk age for months to years really do not
> need degassing.
>
> That tingle can very well be excess co2 in the wine.
>


--
ernie San Francisco Bay AVA
California, USA
to reply, rack off the lees.

Degassing
 

ernie wrote:
> I'll have to disagree with droopy. Even though I wait almost a year before
> bottling, from carboys with several rackings, I invariably got too much
> CO2 in the bottled wines before I started degassing. I use a bottle-brush
> in a variable speed drill once the weather warms up in May and yes, sometimes
> it foams too violently, which just means lower the speed for a while.
>


huh, what temp do you keep your carboys at?

I have never detected any co2 in wine over 6 months old at home.

Degassing
 

Droopy wrote:
> ernie wrote:
> > I'll have to disagree with droopy. Even though I wait almost a year before
> > bottling, from carboys with several rackings, I invariably got too much
> > CO2 in the bottled wines before I started degassing. I use a bottle-brush
> > in a variable speed drill once the weather warms up in May and yes, sometimes
> > it foams too violently, which just means lower the speed for a while.
> >
>
>
> huh, what temp do you keep your carboys at?
>
> I have never detected any co2 in wine over 6 months old at home.

We had this discussion before and it appears experiences vary (as
always). I've got noticeable CO2 on most cold fermented whites even
after 9 months of aging. The bulk aging is done at room temperature
because I don't have a colder storage room, and at that time the wine
would have been racked at least 2-3 times after the ferment.

On a tangent - I have a red/black currant mixed that got stuck at about
1.000 last year but got going again 3-4 months ago. It's under airlock
at steady 72F or so, and it's bone dry now. The weird thing is that
all/most of the CO2 is still in the wine, it's complately saturated
with it. Shouldn't most of it be driven off during the restarted
ferment?

P

Degassing
 

The carboys are at a steady 55-60 degrees, under airlocks. I was surprised
myself that the CO2 lingered so long.

Droopy wrote:
> ernie wrote:
>
>>I'll have to disagree with droopy. Even though I wait almost a year before
>>bottling, from carboys with several rackings, I invariably got too much
>>CO2 in the bottled wines before I started degassing. I use a bottle-brush
>>in a variable speed drill once the weather warms up in May and yes, sometimes
>>it foams too violently, which just means lower the speed for a while.
>>
>
>
>
> huh, what temp do you keep your carboys at?
>
> I have never detected any co2 in wine over 6 months old at home.
>


--
ernie San Francisco Bay AVA
California, USA
to reply, rack off the lees.

Degassing
 

I'm not surprised at ernie's scenario... The CO2 has to dissipate by
diffusion through the airlock. This is a very slow process; petulance
in my wine takes about 1-1/2 to 2 years to dissipate under similar
conditions in a glass carboy. If this process wasn't so slow, you'd
also enjoy detectable oxidation of the wine during this time. The
process will occur more quickly in an oak barrel because of the higher
gas permeability of the wood compared to through glass.

(For you science nuts, both the CO2 leaving and the O2 entering the wine
through the airlock occur by equimolar counterdiffusion. Plus there's a
small boost in dissipation rate by expulsion during thermal expansion of
the wine.)

Gene

ernie wrote:

> The carboys are at a steady 55-60 degrees, under airlocks. I was surprised
> myself that the CO2 lingered so long.
>
> Droopy wrote:
>
>> ernie wrote:
>>
>>> I'll have to disagree with droopy. Even though I wait almost a year
>>> before
>>> bottling, from carboys with several rackings, I invariably got too much
>>> CO2 in the bottled wines before I started degassing. I use a
>>> bottle-brush
>>> in a variable speed drill once the weather warms up in May and yes,
>>> sometimes
>>> it foams too violently, which just means lower the speed for a while.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> huh, what temp do you keep your carboys at?
>>
>> I have never detected any co2 in wine over 6 months old at home.
>>
>
>