First wine, kit, degassing...

[truvr]

Making my first wine ever, from a kit. Everything was going according to plan until I got to step 3 - stabilizing, clarifying, and degassing. Instructions say to add stabilizers and stir, then add clarifier and stir, and keep stirring until a sample passes the puff test.

First fiasco happened when stirring after adding the stabilizers. The wine foamed out all over the kitchen. My concern now is that the stabilizers foamed out too and I now have an oxidized mess.

My second concern is the degassing. Using a drill mounted wine whip, I stirred for a couple of hours - still gassy. I tried a mityvac - but the wine is in a 6 gallon better bottle, so that didn't work. I've since warmed the wine from high 60's to around 80 and I'm going to try the whip again.

Any suggestions regarding the stabilizers and degassing for this n00b? I know this is only a problem with fast to bottle kits - but that's what I've got...

 

[Yooper]

It still should be ok. The reason it foamed up like that was because the wine was so gassy. When you have a really gassy wine, the nucleation points make it foam like that.

Just keep at the degassing, until it's not gassy anymore. Wine kits at this time of year are tougher, since the colder wine holds onto that co2.

 

[truvr]

Thanks Yooper. Going at it again...

 

[petercltnc]

Hey, all.

This is just an addition to the conversation, not a response. I'm a newbie to winemaking, and I'm to the degassing stage. This link shows degassing with a wine saver. It looks easy and relatively quick, however since I'm new to this I'd love some veteran input. Does this work? Or should I just go with the traditional wine whip?

 

[BamaProud]

Has anyone tried the vacuum degassing method using a plastic carboy? (better bottle)

 

[truvr]

Yes. I tried it with a mityvac. It doesn't work - the better bottle just collapses.

My batch never fully degassed (going on about 8 weeks, whipping every few days)...