ready to bottle but didn't degas enough.

[D_Nyholm]

My first wine is at the stage where it should be bottled according to the instructions. I let it bulk age an additional month and racked it to a new carboy last week to get it off of the little bit of lees that dropped. I noticed that it still had some CO2 in suspension so it looks like I didn't degas enough. Is it safe to use the wine whip on it at this stage? I don't want to risk ruining anything which is why I am asking. I would assume it would be ok to use it, but you all know what assuming makes...

Sorry for torturing you with the no0b question. Thanks in advance

 

[kiwibrew]

yes, you can and should still degas it, try warming it up a lttle before you degass, the CO2 is less soluble in the liquid at warmer temps

 

[ScottSingleton]

can't resist---

whip it... whip it real good!

Seriously though -- You should always do some sort of degass on your wine unless you plan on bulk aging it until flat. Either use the whip or vacuum method. since you're going to whip it up anyway if your kit came with any clarifying agent add that in as well.

+1 to Kiwi's suggestion. I typically get the carboy out of the basement and move it upstairs and let it warm up for a day or two before degassing.

 

[D_Nyholm]

Great! That is what I thought.

Finings were already added a month and a half ago.

Just turned the heat on in the basement, going to give it a day or two at 70 and then degas. Hopefully I can bottle by April and free up that carboy for batch #2!

 

[D_Nyholm]

Just an update. I've been degassing the wine for about 15 minutes each day since the original post. I even moved the carboy into a tub, added a fish tank heater and increased the temperature to 78*. It's been at that temperature for 3 days now and I've been degassing it each day for about 15 minutes...

It still has gas! How long should I have to do this for? It is starting to get extremely annoying and has me rethinking the whole wine making thing. While the initial steps are much easier compared to beer, the degassing step is tedious and no fun.

If I were to make a vacuum degasser, I have a feeling that would be a big no no with a better bottle?

 

[ScottSingleton]

how do you know it still has gas in it then? You shouldn't need to be degassing that much.

 

[paraordnance]

I never degas. Time will do it for you. Like 6 month before botling and you golden

 

[rawlus]

Make sure our so2 levels ae good with all that whipping.
Degass on a rainy or cloudy day, lower barometric pressure helps.
Bulk aging is easier, just let it sit for half a year, topped up and so2'd

 

[D_Nyholm]

Well, it has been sitting for about 4 months now. When I whip it, i get a bunch of bubbles rising to the surface. It looks just like when I did it the first time, but not as aggressive.

How can i be sure my S02 levels are good? I didn't know there was a way to check them?

 

[ScottSingleton]

most every liquid has soluble gas in it; even water has O2 and CO2 in it all the time. You never get ALL the gas out; you are simply equalizing it with the ambient air pressure.

Even if you whip water you'll get bubbles.

I still don't see how, if you are using a degassing whip to whip it 15 minutes per day, that it hasn't equalized yet. At this point you would be putting more O2 back into the wine then extracting CO2.

Take a beer bottle; rack the wine into the beer bottle like a beer fill (up to neck).

put your thumb over the top of the bottle and shake the bottle.

when you pull your thumb away if you hear a hiss of escaping gas then you have more gas in the liquid then the ambient air pressure.

if you don't get this little "pfft" or hiss then you're probably good.

You definitely need to check those SO2 levels though

 

[Yooper]

I normally would +1 every thing that ScottSingleton just said. BUT............. I have an Endless Gas ChokeCherry 2011 that has been gassy, and it's not a kit wine.

I've degassed, more than once. I've warmed it up and degassed. I've let it sit (again) and it's still gassy! It's not infected (which was my first thought) and tastes great when the gas is shaken out of it.

With kit wines, you usually get most of the gas with a couple of 15 minute sessions. But I had one kit that took a couple of days last fall. But this chokecherry is killing me! It's not bubbling out of the airlock, so it's not under a lot of pressure. But it is gassy.

I don't have an S02 meter, so I'm guestimating the S02 levels based on additions and the degassing.

I'm going to add some more campden and degas AGAIN this week and hopefully get it to bottle. This wine has been in the carboy over a year, and is not undergoing MLF. This is the first time this has happened to me, after many years of making wine and specifically THIS wine.

The good news is that even though it's a pain, the good wine that will come out of it is worth it- and this sort of thing is incredibly rare. Most of my "homemade" wines never need degassing at all, just the kits, and even the kits are usually pretty routine and easy. So don't give up!

 

[ScottSingleton]

I'm ususally the one that's gassy!!

I rarely ever have issues with a gassy homemade wine -- it's probably because I let them bulk age so long. The kits are the ones that I always find are gassy -- but man degassing 15 minutes for two weeks straight? That's just plain crazy-talk right there. I'd think there would have to be something else going on.

I've been doing wine for 7 years or so and never had one be that difficult, though there's always a first.

 

[Yooper]

I've been doing wine for 7 years or so and never had one be that difficult, though there's always a first.

That's why I'm trying to be encouraging to the OP. In all the years of winemaking, I've NEVER had a wine that needed degassing, unless it was particularly cold and even then a little degassing would fix it right up.

This wine has been done a long time. No MLF, completely dry at .990, and my usual recipe. It has great taste, but it's so flippin' gassy. The "litter mates", all of my other wines in the same area, are fine. This wine is over a year old and still gassy. I've never seen anything like it, and have no idea why it would be doing this. Without any infection, or even signs of infection, and being done for a year, you'd think it would release the gas easily while sitting.

Anyway, the wine is in a carboy in my living room (warmest place in the house) and every once in a while I walk by and consider kicking it.

 

[D_Nyholm]

Well, i went back down to check on the wine today. I racked a little into a beer bottle, shook it with my thumb over the top, and when i removed it, 'Pop!'. There was a lot more gas in there than I thought I would hear.

I also took a picture while I was degassing. This was at the end of about 15 minutes. Of course, I can't spin the drill at full speed or it will overflow the carboy with the rotation, but I usually spin at 1/3 throttle, then when it gets toward the top, i switch to the other direction and give it a couple of full throttle bursts to get the liquid to stop spinning that direction.

 

[Yooper]

Oh, yeah, that's a gassy SOB alright.

Keep at it. If you don't have an S02 meter (I don't), you could guestimate your ppm and add more campden if it's been a while since you added some.

 

[ScottSingleton]

Wowzers man... I would say gassy is an understatement. That would almost make me want to go buy a vacuum pump! Keep at it man!

 

[D_Nyholm]

Wowzers man... I would say gassy is an understatement. That would almost make me want to go buy a vacuum pump! Keep at it man!

Can I use a vacuum pump with a better bottle if I don't go crazy or is it just an implosion waiting to happen? If so, I would consider buying one to make this part easier. I need to have this wine ready for the end of July and would like to bottle it soon so that it can age in the bottles as well and get rid of any bottle shock. I'd like to have it bottled for at least 3 months which means I really need to get this bottled by the end of this month at the latest.

 

[rawlus]

cant use vacuum with better bottle, about the only thing they are not good for. you'd need a glass carboy to do vacuum degassing.

 

[D_Nyholm]

cant use vacuum with better bottle, about the only thing they are not good for. you'd need a glass carboy to do vacuum degassing.

Yeah, figured as much. I might consider getting a glass carboy just for bulk aging wine and degassing. Might be better in the long run anyway.

 

[D_Nyholm]

Just an update on this one. I degassed a little more after my last post then let it sit for about a month and have been degassing once a week or so since then. Still just as gassy as the pics above. Do you think it would pop a cork if I just bottled it? What about if I bottle and just make sure I decant each bottle when I open it? I have another kit I want to make but this one is holding it up. I wanted this one bottled by may!

 

[roadymi]

I also tired of being a whipping boy. I bought one of these http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ohmeda-Medi...ltDomain_0&hash=item56496f4898#ht_2075wt_1029

Made an offer of 75$ including shipping and they accepted. Works great, has a vacuum gauge and adjustable regulator built in.

 

[shelly_belly]

You can use a vacuum on a better bottle - I do it it with a hand held vacuum pump that I bought to bleed my brake lines. Just be sure to get a carboy bung stopper with the lip, as the plain gum stoppers will suck right into the better bottle.

As a bonus, I use the vacuum pump to seal the mason jars my hops are stored in.

 

[roadymi]

You can use a vacuum on a better bottle - I do it it with a hand held vacuum pump that I bought to bleed my brake lines. Just be sure to get a carboy bung stopper with the lip, as the plain gum stoppers will suck right into the better bottle.

As a bonus, I use the vacuum pump to seal the mason jars my hops are stored in.

I was thinking this should work if the bottle is nearly full. Would be quite difficult to collapse a full bottle.

 

[shelly_belly]

It works no matter the liquid level in the bottle. You only need a little negative pressure. And time. Actually, it's harder if the bottle is really full - you can't apply as much vacuum as the wine makes it to the top as the sides squeeze in.

 

[Stu9000]

Great price.
I hunted for ages but found nothing as good.
Had to build my own


Works well. Full degas in half hour at 22 dc and -25"hg.
U can't degas effectively if its not fairly warm and I found I needed at least -22"hg or it took all day.

I was obsessed with degassing my reds for some time. Has made a big difference and was well worth the investment.