Please help the new girl : Degassing

I am about to bottle my first wine kit. I woke up yesterday to find the bung on the kitchen floor I thought that It may have been that way for 12 hours. I washed the bun g and put it back into the carboy. As I was working in my kitchen a few hours later the bung just flew off of the carboy and landed on the floor. Thinking gas? But I bought this gadget from the wine store called a wine whip and it fits into your drill. You put the whip into the wine and turn on the drill . For four minutes. Then I stabilized the wine and put a bung on it. Waited ten days and tasted it . I was sure I put the bung back on and it looks like I may well have done that. So my question is
:first did I ruin my wine by leaving it exposed to the air for anywhere between one and twelve hours? Can I fix it?
: secondly, what do you think about degassing?

This is my very first batch.

I don't know much about wine (or beer either), but when making beer you should have a bung with a hole in it that you put an airlock on it that lets the pressure out, but won't let bacteria in. Maybe you need one of those?

Hi, I've moved this to the wine making forum - more folks will see it there.

When you say bung, do you mean a solid stopper, without a hole drilled through it? As 1997 said, you need one of those, not a solid stopper, with an airlock, to release the CO2 that the yeast are producing as they eat the fruit sugars. Yeast take fruit sugars and convert it alcohol and CO2 (among other things).

None of the above refers to what winemakers call de-gassing, though. Degassing is done when fermentation is completely done, to release any CO2 that is dissolved in the wine. This helps with the wine clarify and assures that the wine is truly still, not carbonated. I put my wine whip on the end of an electric drill and whip away inside the carboy. Then let it sit for several days and clarify (with the stopper and airlock on, as described above). This is the very last step before bottling, for me.

Hope this helps, look around here, check out the sticky threads at the top, and don't hesitate to ask questions. I'm a neophyte wine maker (got three batches under my belt) compared to the experts that hang around here.

And welcome!

Thanks Pappers. I understand about the wine whip because I did that. I think my mistake was the solid bung. I will try the other one. I racked this wine again today and just the racking created a whole lot of CO2 bubbles. It has an air lock on it now and my question is: Do I degass again? and also do I top it up with water every time I rack?

When you rack, make sure the end of the tube that the wine is coming out of is at the very bottom of the carboy/bucket, so that it is quickly under wine and doesn't take in any O2 or create any bubbles.

I don't know about the topping with water question. I make wine from kits and I just follow the instructions regarding that. If you've got the right volume you are shooting for, I think I probably wouldn't.

Do you think your wine is done fermenting? If you see lots of activity in your lock, leave it be for a while and let the fermentation finish. When you're confident fermentation has stopped, then I would probably degass again, then wait for a couple of weeks for the wine to clarify and settle before bottling.

you didn't ruin ur wine
degassing is important
some wines are harder to degass
when i degass, i do it in the primary when its be racked
old school, i use the spoon, stirring it vigorisly
2 min's, 15 min's rest, at least 4 times, or until foam bubbles decrease, there will always be some, just less
by then most of the foam [bubbles} have seased
then rack back to carboy, with airlock,
always airlock from start to finish
if you were to do this, you would be fine
the biggest thing is to stop the gas
you stabblized it so it should of stopped
and you can get rid of existing gas with ur whip in the carboy
just be patient, whip and rest, whip and rest
it can take awhile, but you can do it
nothing's quite like, tastey that ur own hands made
good luck

The first question is what is the SG of your wine? You CANNOT degas a fermenting wine, yeast + sugar = alcohol + CO2.

I use the whip too...when my sg is at .990 I usually spend 1-3 days using whe whip no more than 20mins each day. Never had a gassy wine issue. If your unsure...put a sample in your hydrometer jar..shake it up and listen for a hiss. Or even taste a sample and feel for tingels on your tounge. Usually a good sign of CO2

You do need to top off but instead of water I would try and use another wine that is the same or similar. If you keep topping off with water you will dilute the flavor too much.

Thank you all for your suggestions! My sg is .990 and I did try adding a little Cabernet Sauvignon to top it off. It did not quite do the job. I have also got some white Sauvignon should I add that? What do you think, Oreoman? What about topping it off with grape juice?

OH yes I should mention that this is a wine mist kit called, Raspberry dragonfruit and it is a Zenfendal