I recently learned that you can remove gas from a carboy by fitting a
VacuVin vacum pump to it. So I did just that. Mind you, this is a wine
to which I previously added potassium bicarbonate to reduce the
acidity, so it had A LOT of CO2 in it. So anyway, I started pumping a
lot of gas started coming out. The thing is, it never seems to end! No
matter how much I pump, there is always more gas. Has anybody tried
this? How do you know when to stop?

Yeah, I figured this out, but I've now gone to doing it at the time of
bottling, since the VacuVins are really bottle-friendly.

I pump until the mad rush of bubbles stops, and I just get an
occasional, lazy, larger bubble. One other reason to do it in the
bottle is that when you do a carboy, that's 30 bottles worth of
degassing! It can take me 5-7 pumps to clear a bottle, so you're going
to be pumping for quite a while!

Rob


Franco wrote:
> I recently learned that you can remove gas from a carboy by fitting a
> VacuVin vacum pump to it. So I did just that. Mind you, this is a wine
> to which I previously added potassium bicarbonate to reduce the
> acidity, so it had A LOT of CO2 in it. So anyway, I started pumping a
> lot of gas started coming out. The thing is, it never seems to end! No
> matter how much I pump, there is always more gas. Has anybody tried
> this? How do you know when to stop?

So, what kind of a stopper do you use that fits in a carboy and fits
the vacuvin?

And does this really remove gas from the liquid itself, even in a
bottle? I didn't think the vacuum would be strong enough to remove
anything but the gas in the airspace.

Yes it will work but it will take time. Be aware that it may also remove
some of the volitiles in the wine.

Also be sure that it is really finished fermenting and there is no MLC
going on or iw will never end.

Ray

"Franco" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>I recently learned that you can remove gas from a carboy by fitting a
> VacuVin vacum pump to it. So I did just that. Mind you, this is a wine
> to which I previously added potassium bicarbonate to reduce the
> acidity, so it had A LOT of CO2 in it. So anyway, I started pumping a
> lot of gas started coming out. The thing is, it never seems to end! No
> matter how much I pump, there is always more gas. Has anybody tried
> this? How do you know when to stop?
>

miker:

Yes, it gets a lot of gas out of the wine. Start with a regular rubber
stopper (the ones with a hole). Put one of those racking canes in the
hole. Some people cut a few straight inches off of a racking cane and
just use that. On the other end of the plastic tube, insert a short
piece of 3/8" (inside diameter) hose. Finally, fit the VacuVin ruber
thingy around the 3/8" hose.


miker wrote:
> So, what kind of a stopper do you use that fits in a carboy and fits
> the vacuvin?
>
> And does this really remove gas from the liquid itself, even in a
> bottle? I didn't think the vacuum would be strong enough to remove
> anything but the gas in the airspace.