How do I go about degassing a 1 gallon batch? I don't want to shake it and risk oxidizing. Should I rack to a bucket and buy a mix-stir?
Why would it oxidise ? It's mead, not wine or beer.....
Just stopper it tight, then shake the hell out of it......
The disturbance of any sediment, creates the nucleation points for any carbonic acid/dissolved CO2 to attach too, which comes out as gaseous CO2.
Once it's shaken (if it's in a carboy type jug), carefully remove the stopper to release the pressure - you don't want it foaming out.
Or if you can get a latte milk foaming whisk, you just hold that down below the surface and spin it, so that it creates the disturbance and nucleation points etc.
Don't forget, gaseous CO2 is a heavier than air gas, so that as long as you aren't doing this in a breeze, there should be enough CO2 remaining to blanket the surface of the liquid.
This is routinely done with a "lees stirrer" which is just like a rod that has 2 folding paddle pieces bolted through it, so that when it's spun in a drill it stirs the lees but doesn't create much of a vortex at the top of the liquid so that there's not gaseous exchange.
It's also done with vacuum pumps on glass fermenters (or stainless). Not with plastic as you will suck the sides in. A cheaper option than a powered pump like that is a mityvac. Used for bleeding car brake systems. You just get a new one, a piece of tube and a holed bung. Assemble pump to tube, tube through bung and stopper the jug/carboy, then pump. The vacuum will "pull" some of the CO2 out of solution and then the vacuum starts to drop a bit as the CO2 comes out, you pump the trigger a bit more, etc etc until you can't get any more dissolved CO2 out the mix.
As you can see, there's a number of ways of de-gassing. It just takes a google search and some reading to decide which method suits you the best.
Meads don't oxidise readily, like beers and wines (to a lesser extent than beers) can.......
