degassing wine

In an hour or so I will be degassing 5 gallons of solomn grundy cabernet sauvignon.
What is the best thing to do I have added the stabaliser and finnings a and stirred for 2 mins.
next step degassing then leave for 1 hour before adding b letting stand for an another hour then adding finings b.
When degassing what is the best method and how long should I do it? ty

The easiest way especially with a 5 gallon batch is to use a cordless drill and a degassing wand, you can buy them or make one yourself, more here http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=48971

If you have an old coat hanger try making your own, mine is the yellow one below and the blue one is another members.

thanks chippy tea how long do u recommend I use the drill for ?
also would u transfer the wine from the fv into another vessel before I degass?

I am not familiar with the kit but if it doesn't tell you to rack then no, as for time 5 seconds in one direction then 5 in the opposite and keep switching for a minute should do the trick, you can also use the degassing wand on wines made in DJ's if you get the shape right.

mancer62 said:

In an hour or so I will be degassing 5 gallons of solomn grundy cabernet sauvignon.
What is the best thing to do I have added the stabaliser and finnings a and stirred for 2 mins.
next step degassing then leave for 1 hour before adding b letting stand for an another hour then adding finings b.
When degassing what is the best method and how long should I do it? ty

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Er ....

I think you will find that you would have been better de-gassing the wine before adding anything.

However, the only way to quickly degas any brew is by vigorous agitation.

A few hardy souls use a paddle and a lot of muscle but most of use use an electric drill fitted with a bent wire clothes hanger. On a wide mouthed FV (to degas a cider) I used a ScrewFix Paint Stirrer fitted to the same drill.

With regard to "How long should I do it?" the answer "Until it is degassed." isn't really helpful; but it is true!

For me, it's when a vigorous stir (with paddle, clothes hanger or paint mixer) doesn't result in a lot of surface bubbles ... :thumb: :thumb:

... but I am very much from the "Near enough is good enough." school of brewing! :whistle:

in past experiences what would u say an average approx. time would be around? how many minutes?

I have never degassed a 5 gallon wine with a spoon but i would say a minute would be enough just get as much of the CO2 out as you can, it doesn't matter if you don't get it all out the wine will be fine.

Really good point made above and although it sounds simple it is not. Well not for me. I have used both methods and have two different wands which are good but, the more I whizz the more the bubbles and the longer they take to disperse. So are these bubbles then the CO2 gas we want rid of or is it foam or are we putting unwanted air into the soup? This is the area that baffles me and which I am unsure about.

With 5l dj I have more recently used the shake by hand method. You hear the gas release when removing hand from top. Do this several times and then no noise of gas BUT come back to it in a few minutes and try again and you get more gas. It is as if you coild do this all day so, for me, just as confusing!

Vinotinto said:

......... So are these bubbles then the CO2 gas we want rid of or is it foam or are we putting unwanted air into the soup? .......

With 5l dj I have more recently used the shake by hand method. You hear the gas release when removing hand from top. Do this swveral times and then no noise of gas BUT come back to it in a few minutes and try again and you get more gas. It is as if you coild do this all day so, for me, just as confusing!

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A good point. :thumb:

The last thing you need to do at this stage is to introduce oxygen to the brew ... :nono: :nono:

... but if you keep getting CO2 out then maybe the wine/cider etc is still fermenting. :whistle:

I reckon the answer is to make very sure that the brew has fermented out completely (leave it for that much longer) and then keep the degassing operation to an absolute minimum. :thumb:

Sorry to open old wounds guys but ............. this is the one area that continues to puzzle me.

I have today racked a 30 bottle Beaverdale Pinot Noir into a 33 litre bin for degassing prior to fining etc. Stabiliser added as instructed.

I have had a drill powered whip on it 3 times now today for in excess of 2 minutes each and each time I do it I get as many bubbles and foam as before. I thought the wand job was meant to give it a good degassing and negate the need to " stir 3/4 times a day for the next 4 days etc etc ". Reading up on vacuum options at the moment but not convinced I want to go down that road either.

So, how on earth do we know when the wine is actually degassed because at this rate I may as well pick the bugger up and shake it ( if I could ). Believe me, I have searched and the best I come up with is " when you stir it you get no bubbles". Have not got to that stage with any of the wines I have done despite vigorous whipping / wanding / stirring.

Are you fully immersing the wand into the wine or are you agitating the surface of it? I put it on full speed and move it up and down inside the wine but not breaking the surface until a vortex (provided you have space in the bucket) is created, then reverse it with the same motion and again reverse when vortex is created, this usually is enough to degas it, if you are breaking the surface with the wand then it will continually bubble.

Vinotinto if you follow chewies instructions and do it far about a minute (FV or DJ) you wont go far wrong, there is no right or wrong way or exact time, all i can say is when i used to shake the DJ or stir the FV it took ages to clear as i was obviously not getting enough CO2 out, once i started experimenting with my degassing wand i found using the forward/reverse method the best and quickest way to do it.

.

I use this after trying other ones and having the same issue.

Make absolutely sure a vortex going from the surface down to the green part is NOT created and it will degas perfectly. Do this by either drilling at full whack for say 10 secs max (then reverse direction and repeat), or drill at a slightly slower speed where no vortex is created (dead boring though!). If you DO create a vortex going all the way down to the green part then you are gassing the wine not degassing it.

If you look at my american aipa thread in beer brewdays you can see what happens when you want to gas something - 23L of brew with a 6 inch head !

Okay thanks, will perservere paying particular attention to not breaking the surface I am not creating a vortex and going Forward and back through all levels but HAVE been surface breaking.

I am using the same wand as Dublin

I am not creating a vortex and going Forward and back through all levels but HAVE been surface breaking.

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Don't worry about breaking the surface or creating a vortex if its only for a few seconds, i am not that careful when doing it and have never ruined a batch, i did see a video of a guy with his drill fixed to a peice of wood accross the top of his FV and the drill switch on full smack in forwards, IIRC he said he left it running in one direction for several minutes :shock:

I will try to find it and post it later.

I cannot find the one i mentioned but have seen this one before, if i could find a degassing wand like that i would retire mine.

He discusses the forward/reverse method.


[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjKpEuL3i2k[/ame]

Vinotinto said:

Sorry to open old wounds guys but ............. this is the one area that continues to puzzle me.

I have today racked a 30 bottle Beaverdale Pinot Noir into a 33 litre bin for degassing prior to fining etc. Stabiliser added as instructed.

I have had a drill powered whip on it 3 times now today for in excess of 2 minutes each and each time I do it I get as many bubbles and foam as before. I thought the wand job was meant to give it a good degassing and negate the need to " stir 3/4 times a day for the next 4 days etc etc ". Reading up on vacuum options at the moment but not convinced I want to go down that road either.

So, how on earth do we know when the wine is actually degassed because at this rate I may as well pick the bugger up and shake it ( if I could ). Believe me, I have searched and the best I come up with is " when you stir it you get no bubbles". Have not got to that stage with any of the wines I have done despite vigorous whipping / wanding / stirring.

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taste it, it's the only way (for me anyways)

I've messed up (and posted about) several brews, with degassing failures and fizzy bottles of red, so you aren't alone.
My latest disaster was the other night, all set up to syphon, clean DJ sterilised and ready - tested the drill battery with the wand attached and SNAP - bits of coat hanger went flying, it mustn't have been in straight.
I lost my rag, and syphoned half the DJ into a 5 litre PET water bottle, put the lid on tight, and shook the hell out of it. I could feel the bottle expand to bursting point, carefully let the pressure out, tightened and repeated. After about 5 times, the bottle stopped expanding. On each shake, it does appear that you are just re-fizzing it, and that you could repeat this for hours/days, but you aren't actually putting gas back INTO the wine as I've tasted it. You might be oxidizing it, that I'm not clear on, or dont understand enough, however you are removing the C02 and can't physically be putting it 'back into' the wine. In my very limited experience anyway, it isn't chemically possible to shake carbon dioxide into a liquid ?

I repeated with the other half of the DJ in the PET bottle, and then combined both half gallons into the originally planned DJ and have left to clear naturally. Taste test, and it's flat as a witches tit.

I read a post from someone on here much much more knowledgeable than me (may have been Tony H, I could be wrong, apologies if I am but it was someone who knows their stuff) about people obsessing over degassing so carefully, but I can't find the thread. It said he simply syphons into a sterilised fermentation bucket, and then pours vigorously from one bucket, into another, and then back again several times. If I've read this correctly, then this goes against everything you'll read on here about not introducing oxygen into wine.

So unless you are making wine for a competition, or to store for 3 years in a vaulted cellar, perhaps we are over obsessing about head space in DJ's, and degassing without breaking the surface.. Just my thoughts, and I am possibly completely wrong.

I prefer to just leave a wine to degass by itself by leaving a few weeks or more. A quick kit in a degassing in a rush to bottle when you still have to leave it for 3 or more months in the bottle what's the point, when it will clear naturally and then add finings.

In line with the Post from Tau, it occurred to me that the problem of "persistent bubbles" may be down to the possibility that the wine hasn't finished fermenting! :whistle:

If that's the case then de-gassing the wine will be a Sisyphus type of job. :thumb:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus

Dutto said:

In line with the Post from Tau, it occurred to me that the problem of "persistent bubbles" may be down to the possibility that the wine hasn't finished fermenting! :whistle:

If that's the case then de-gassing the wine will be a Sisyphus type of job. :thumb:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus

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It's a sad day when you have to give a link to who Sisyphus was, bloody education these days huh.