Degassing troubles?

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hawkeyes

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I have been degassing my wine for about 2 weeks now. I have tried the stir mix w/ drill (probably 3 hours), manual vacuum for a couple days, and a mityvac. It's to the point where no bubbles will come out of it using the mityvac. I took a sample and shook the tube covered by my hand. When I release my hand it still makes the "puff" sound. Is this degassed or am I doing something wrong?
 
It sounds like you've done more than needed! Is the wine finished fermenting? Could it possibly be too cold and retaining gas due to that fact?
 
It sounds like you've done more than needed! Is the wine finished fermenting? Could it possibly be too cold and retaining gas due to that fact?

It's about 68 degrees upstairs so it might be too cold. I currently have a space heater on it and going to give it a try again later.
 
No, 68 is fine. No need to get it warmer. I keep mine @ about 70 for several weeks at a time.

Try racking to a new carboy. Sometimes that does the trick. If not, i'd say time will draw it out. Good luck!
 
I just spend the last couple of hours degassing a kit wine. The problem for me is that it's cold in my house- the wine was 59 degrees. I used my drill and wine whip, and worked and worked and worked. It seemed to take forever, and it's still perhaps a little gassy but not nearly like it was. I'm done! I'm going to move it to a warmer place but I know I can't get it above 65 degrees at this point. I'm not in a hurry to bottle it, though, so I'm sure it will degas with some time (and warmer weather!).

In the summer, the kit wines degas lickety split in warm temperatures.
 
Try putting it under vacuum. I use a harbor freight brake line bleeder if I need to make sure its degassed. So long as your carboy is filled to the shoulder, you can pull a relative vacuum of about 25 psi with one of those things. It gives your hand a workout, but it will remove any gas. I notice that a gassy wine gives me lots of bubbles at about 10 psi, and a wine is fully degassed when it can hold a pressure of about 25 psi for more than a few minutes with a minimum of bubbles.
 
Try putting it under vacuum. I use a harbor freight brake line bleeder if I need to make sure its degassed. So long as your carboy is filled to the shoulder, you can pull a relative vacuum of about 25 psi with one of those things. It gives your hand a workout, but it will remove any gas. I notice that a gassy wine gives me lots of bubbles at about 10 psi, and a wine is fully degassed when it can hold a pressure of about 25 psi for more than a few minutes with a minimum of bubbles.

Thanks for the tip. I got my mityvac at harbor freight too. I'm working on it right now, I didn't know I could get to 25 psi.
 
I only get bubbles when I get to 25. The bubbles are big, is this c02? I thought the tiny bubbles were C02.
 
I use an electric vacum pump, the first few minutes below 20, lots of small furios bubbles, when that subsides start turning it up, when we hit 25 and the little bubbles stop and we just get fewer but bigger bubbles like you describe I stop, havent had a problem with wine being gassy after it hit that level, dont taste any carbonation due to CO2 etc. Sounds to me like you did a very good job. WVMJ
 
I'm starting to get small bubbles now. I've had a space heater on it to warm it up, seems to be doing the trick. How long does it usually take to vacuum?
 
It depends on how much gas was dissolved, or basically, how long its been setting at a cartain temperature. I've had a few that were already degasses by the time I got around to it, and one little demon I had to degas for about 10 minutes, three times a day for two days.
 
I spent quite a bit of time trying to degas using a mityvac. I took a sample and shook it with my hand covering the opening of the tube. It fizzed up and still made the puff sound. Would it help if I got a brew belt to heat the wine up and try again? I`m running out of ideas.
 
I spent quite a bit of time trying to degas using a mityvac. I took a sample and shook it with my hand covering the opening of the tube. It fizzed up and still made the puff sound. Would it help if I got a brew belt to heat the wine up and try again? I running out of ideas.

If the wine is usually at 75F it will degas easily. You could try racking it, and put a crimp in the racking tube, like a bend. This works for many people.
 
I spent quite a bit of time trying to degas using a mityvac. I took a sample and shook it with my hand covering the opening of the tube. It fizzed up and still made the puff sound. Would it help if I got a brew belt to heat the wine up and try again? I`m running out of ideas.

Just keep pumping that mityvac! :) It only removes 1 cubic inch of volume (not directly proportional to the amount of gas) per stroke. It takes a long time to remove a lot of gas with it. Keep going. I find that the double handed "one on the handle" and "thumb and index finger" approach works well.
 
Ended up breaking the mityvac handle off. I don't think I even had it for 30 days. Hopefully Harbor Freight will replace it. I also got a brew belt and warmed up the wine. Spent another 40 minutes with drill mix stir. Tested for Co2 and still making the 'puff' sound. I will try to rack with a bend in the tube to see if that will do it. I didn't think this part would be so difficult.
 
Did you have the plastic version of the mightyvac? Mine is made of aluminium, it will break me well before I break it. I need to rebuild mine though, the innards don't last forever.
 
Can you completely degass a wine using a Mityvac? No whipping needed whatsoever? I might just get one of those instead of the drill mounted one I was looking at.
 
Is there any thread or something on how exactly that process is done. Like how to connect it and everything?
 
It's a very simple setup, use the mityvac with the nipple that will fit tightly inside your bung, insert nipple into bung, pump mityvac till exhausted. A fresh wine will begin to release trapped gas within a few squeezes of the handle, and continue for a while. I consider a wine to be degassed when I can get a relative vacuum of 25 PSI on the guage for a little while. It takes some time, but it will get there.
 
The Mityvac comes with the nipple piece I would need? And how much do these things sell around for. Thanks that sounds awesome.
 
Oo I was just thinking I probably couldn't do that with a plastic better bottle. It'll probably cave in before it gets to 25psi
 
I just got a mityvac and love it. The one I got was $31. I didn't get the elite version since this is the only thing I use it on. Out of all the little end things that came with it, there was one that fit perfectly in the bung hole (insert Beavis laugh here). I have my carboy in my office where it is warm and I am usually parked so I kept the pressure between 15 & 20 for a couple hours. I was amazed the next day I could see a flashlight through a cab. I whipped the $%!& out of it with a drill and couldn't see anything through the murk. They got me believing. I just checked eBay and there are some there for even less. Not sure the quality or reliability though.
 
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