De-Gassing

[Dead Squirrel Running]

Yes you are quite right if you leave them a year they will degass themselves

One of the strangest things that I was confronted with when I first went on a wine website a couple of years ago was the term de-gassing. After wrestling with the meaning and need for a time, I finally had a knowledgeable monitor confirm my suspicions, that if you were aging a wine properly and racking several times, there would be no need for de-gassing or to use my definition: de-gassing is a symptom caused by impatience, the worst fault a winemaker can have, prevalent in all of us as beginning winemakers, but at some point even with fruit wines, most find - that aging helps, even the worst of our wines. It takes a minimum of a year in some and several in others to mature, bottle and become drinkable. I never shake a carboy and I never would use a vacuum device. Racking, aging and patience is easier and cheaper.

That leads to another subject with vacuvin, of protecting open bottles of wine. There have been several articles written about the best ways, from vacuum, to inert gases, to refrigeration and storing in small bottles. Strange that I’ve read different reports championing just about any method a person would choose. The link below had better results for the vacuum devices over inert gases which is hard for me to believe, but I want to add a differing view. The Consumer Report magazine, chose refrigeration, which is my choice. Another story in one of the wine magazines a year ago picked Private Reserve(N2, CO2 & Ar) which is what I use for my carboy storage, and claimed that vacuum devices also remove many of those bouquets minuscule items that we try to develop in the wine, that give us those great aromas that make drinking wine a pleasure.

The experts can’t agree or have a $ agenda, so I doubt beyond drinking the bottle in one sitting which is the best answer, nothing will be solved here, but I do encourage waiting for the wine instead of dragging it kicking into the parlor - defrocked.

http://www.alexhealy.net/papers/experiment/index.htm

[lockwood1956]

One of the strangest things that I was confronted with when I first went on a wine website a couple of years ago was the term de-gassing. After wrestling with the meaning and need for a time, I finally had a knowledgeable monitor confirm my suspicions, that if you were aging a wine properly and racking several times, there would be no need for de-gassing or to use my definition: de-gassing is a symptom caused by impatience, the worst fault a winemaker can have, prevalent in all of us as beginning winemakers, but at some point even with fruit wines, most find - that aging helps, even the worst of our wines. It takes a minimum of a year in some and several in others to mature, bottle and become drinkable. I never shake a carboy and I never would use a vacuum device. Racking, aging and patience is easier and cheaper.

Well a little while ago I would have agreed, but then I have a batch of Sangiovese made from Imported Italian grapes that has been bulk aging since 2005, tested it recently and it's still gassy, several rackings down the line.

Also a Kenridge Amarone that has been bulk aging over a year,........still gassy.

maybe there is a flaw in my technique earlier in the process?

[Dead Squirrel Running]

........still gassy.

maybe there is a flaw in my technique earlier in the process?

Bob I believe what you’re suffering from is too much cabbage and broccoli.

There is a possibility, because of the island condition, that there is an anti ethereal effect, caused by the concentration of a denser gravity hovering over England. If that doesn’t make any sense to you, have a couple of glasses of your plum wine. Gad I wish I was there - holding a glass full - as it looks drinkable, ha ha.

[Hippie]

I find the Mini-Jet filter will finish stripping the clear and sediment free wine of any left over gas after a good racking and bulk aging schedule.

[Duffbeer]

Cheers mate I'll keep me eyes peeled edit: doh wrong answer to wrong thread must be the drink

[Duffbeer]

Goog point Duffbeer,

These can vary from retailer to retailer so be careful. I have seen them in some shops for over a tenner and only for a couple of £ in others, no guessing which end of the scale i got mine at..................

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=wine+saver

£6 including postage

[Kodiak]

De gassing

I have numerous grape wines over a year still have alot of gas.Still waiting for it to degas itself.

Kodiak

[lockwood1956]

so not just me then?

lol

Just wonder if my technique earlier in the process, is holding the CO2 when it should be escaping?

Bob

[Duffbeer]

Recieved mine this morning from ebay, couldn't wait to test it and well it sure works, I have a Butlers Hock kit that Iv'e just filtered today, de-gassed in my usual way, shake rattle and roll! but the vacuvin did pull more gas out after bottleing, could see the bubbles extracted from deep within. I don't have the physical area to bulk age at the moment, so to me if this helps to de-gas correctly then thumbs up from me

[Dead Squirrel Running]

so not just me then?

lol

Just wonder if my technique earlier in the process, is holding the CO2 when it should be escaping?

Bob

Well this does seem to be an epidemic. I still have to go with too much cabbage. Possibly everyone has the same dna? Ah, I know - it’s those little aquarium aerators. Yes - just kidding. I know it’s the biggest problem in the commercial wine industry. When I introduce myself to the wine maker or the owners of the many wineries I visit, in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California - that are producing thousands or tens of thousands, maybe millions of cases of wine a year, they invariable say, “jimmy, how in the heck do we get all of these CO2 bubbles out of our wine, like the home wine makers do?” Ha ha ha ha , I tell them to use a vacuum cleaner, ha ha ha……… you guys are just pulling the winter gray right out of my soul, thank you thank you.

[lockwood1956]

Many a true word spoken in jest


I've lost count of the gassy commercial wines I have had


on a more serious note though, I'd not thought about the vacuum pulling esters and phenols from the wine.......you think it could at 25 inches of vacuum?

[Dead Squirrel Running]

Many a true word spoken in jest


I've lost count of the gassy commercial wines I have had


on a more serious note though, I'd not thought about the vacuum pulling esters and phenols from the wine.......you think it could at 25 inches of vacuum?

I don't know Bob. I just remember an article put up on WP, maybe a year or more ago where some wine expert had tested all of the ways to protect a partly full bottle of wine, and came up with that thought. As I indicated in another post - I've read sources, championing results for almost all of the tools. It seems though that everyone believed in these different taste tests, that putting the bottle in the frig is the biggest help.

Personally I’m for leaving the wine alone except at racking, where a brief, light stirring would be OK. My weak attempt at satire which are usually weak, is that I’ve just never had a pro from a winery discuss that problem with me or the merits of sucking CO2 out of the wine.

Back to the small carboy, after two years and maybe 4 or 6 rackings why would CO2 still be suspended in the liquid? Since I’ve never had the problem, I’ve not tried to do a research in some of the technical wine books or on line at Davis, VT, Cornell or WSU. It seems like and interesting problem, which I do not doubt exists in all wines to some extent, but long term - could it be the lack of cold storage and I mean cold 25 to 30F, the softness or hardness or chemical ions in the water? Possibly residual sugar? It just seems that there must be some viscosity or chemical bond that doesn’t let the bubbles do what’s natural - go up. Possibly a solid rubber plug would tell us if there is an on going problem in the wine

[Hippie]

I agree the solid bung idea might be a good one for determining if a very slow fermentation exists, whether bacterial (MLF) or yeast.

Also, if the wine is cold or cool, it will hold more CO2 and be harder to get degassed fully.

[medpretzel]

Revisited

Here we are on degassing.

€uroJuniper was full of gas.

Just a pic to prove it.

M.

[lockwood1956]

WOW!


are there boiling stones in there?

or just the power of the enolmatic?