degassing wine

[SiSandrine]

You may wish to consider vacuum degassing. I think there is a tutorial somewhere on the site using a vacuuvin adaption. See also some in-line responses below.

If carrying Carboys is a problem, there is a good thread on cheap in-line pumps - Brian (Cellar_Rat) will know to help you shift wine around. This also has the benefit of some degassing I believe but I haven't tried this so Brian may shed some light.

We have just started drinking a 'Simple Red' that was our first brew sourced from a cook book and was the first wine that started us on the trail.

It is obvious that we did not degass sufficiently and we were thinking about purchasing the whizzstick as we are not confident of handling the Better Bottle sizes when we get round to doing the big brew.(imminent!)

1) SiSandrine - would the diy version not work if you had used the hook as the beater instead of a plastic paddle fashioned from a milk jug?
Yes but probably not as well. Also with some 1 gal DJs I doubt the hook end would get through the neck.

2) Is the whizz stick a worthy investment when someone is unable to handle the weight of glass or plastic dj ?
We tried the plastic spoon method but the show of bubbles did not impress.
Yes but bear in mind if you have very little headspace it will make a mess. Rack into separate DJs first (particularly if the wine is quite young and gaseous).

3) Is the Whizz stick long enough for the carboy/better bottles?
Again yes, it doesn't need to go to the bottom but does need to be submerged.


Thanks

[Cellar_Rat]

I use my enolmatic vacuum bottler

Do you degas your grape wine in 54 with this?

[lockwood1956]

Do you degas your grape wine in 54 with this?

Yes, I also rack under vacuum, so the wine is degassed then too

regards

Bob

[Cellar_Rat]

bizarre!

[billybuntus]

... and it doesn't work. Well, it didn't for me

I tried it, then took 1/2 gallon into a DJ and shook - it gave up LOTS of gas.

I would guess you'd be doing the tennis ball method for a week before it let out as much c02 as a half hour better bottle workout