Degassing

[billybuntus]

A couple of questions.

Is there any obvious reason why some wines clear and some don't when they are still full of c02?

How come the winepress lot seem to mainly rely on age to degass? Surely it can't degass fully unless you don't touch it for 2-3 years? Do some people just not really taste the gas (I always can even if it only has a smidge of co2, the wine tastes sharp I find).

I have grown to find degassing an essential part of the process and its always helped my wines to clear.

[lockwood1956]

Wines aged in glass never degas themselves...

I have a black cherry wine that was made in 2006, and it has sat under airlock ...it is still full of CO2...

I must rack and properly degas it soon.




keep up the good work Billy

some people dont seem to pick up on CO2 as much as others, I dont mind as bit of it in whites for a fruit lift, but i think it ruins reds

regards
Bob

[billybuntus]

Wines aged in glass never degas themselves...

I have a black cherry wine that was made in 2006, and it has sat under airlock ...it is still full of CO2...

I must rack and properly degas it soon.

How odd that they think theres do, I thought as much. I wonder if the us climate has anything to do with it?

[fatbloke]

How odd that they think theres do, I thought as much. I wonder if the us climate has anything to do with it?

Well if you think about it, wood i.e. barrels, are porous aren't they, but with glass, which isn't, you have to have enough CO2 coming out of solution to create enough pressure to lift whatever liquid you have in an airlock.

Hence, I'd guess that after a while the levels of CO2 in a wine and the amount in the airspace above would reach equilibrium and then stop the CO2 coming out of solution.

Don't forget, de-gassing is relying on something to shift the CO2 from the wine, whether it's a stirring motion (which I don't believe is as good or successful) or vacuum - which after all, is reducing the ambient pressure in the airspace and pulling the gas out of solution etc etc etc.

To me, it seems straight forward (with a little thought put it), to work out what is likely to be the best way of reducing the CO2 in a product to get it to a level where you can't taste it etc....

Just my 2 pence worth

regards

jtfb

[lockwood1956]

Degassing under vacuum with boiling stones is the way to go....works wonders.

Steve (crackedcork) posted a video in the degassing tutorial demonstrating it

regards
Bob

[lockwood1956]

here it is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehbaBiLUCD0

[fatbloke]

Degassing under vacuum with boiling stones is the way to go....works wonders.

Steve (crackedcork) posted a video in the degassing tutorial demonstrating it

regards
Bob

Damn! now there's an idea Bob. I'd only ever thought to use a vacuum plugged straight into the container. The "boiling stones" would certainly give a nicely increased surface area to liberate the gas from solution wouldn't they........

regards

jtfb

[lockwood1956]

it increases your efficiency by about 500%

[mrdexter]

And where would one buy boiling stones from?

[lockwood1956]

A quick internet search brings up lots of suppliers

http://www.bing.com/search?q=uk+boil...lt=all&qs=n&sk=

the problem is finding one who supplies in small amounts

I got mine from an ebay seller in the States, but then the shipping is a killer, but still worth it.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/250-g-ALUMINA-BOILING-STONES-GRANULES-CHIPS-/330357743694?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ceadb204e

perhaps club together with others and split the batch?
(you dont need many)
regards
Bob

[koomber]

I'll have a check on Monday to see if the supplier my work uses can turn these up. You could try asking at a local uni if they have a chemistry department.

I have many a fond memory of people forgetting to put these into a reflux condensor and watching as it hit boiling at went:

....blurt.....blurt....blurt.............WHOOOOOSH

as the whole lot flash boiled because as spec of dust in the cooling tube had got washed into the round bottomed flask giving the liquid a nucleation site

[mrdexter]

A quick internet search brings up lots of suppliers

the problem is finding one who supplies in small amounts

That's more what I meant...

I got mine from an ebay seller in the States, but then the shipping is a killer, but still worth it.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/250-g-ALUMINA-BOILING-STONES-GRANULES-CHIPS-/330357743694?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ceadb204e

perhaps club together with others and split the batch?
(you dont need many)
regards
Bob

Ta :-)

[Rich]

In Tim Vandergrift's latest blog he used a sterilised bottle brush to provide lots of nucleation points..

Link

http://www.timswineblog.com/2012/01/winemaker-conference-bottling-it-all-up

if that works..

[tribalfather]

From many years past advice given to me included a couple of rought recanting between demi to aid degassing, did have severals successes with that method.

[TStarr]

From many years past advice given to me included a couple of rought recanting between demi to aid degassing, did have severals successes with that method.

eh?