Degasing of wine

["james D.]

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From: "James D. Kusko" <James...@DOL.net>
Subject: Re: Degasing of wine
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Be careful with the vacuum. I don't believe a glass carboy is designed for
vacuum.

I have not had a problem with CO2 in wine so I have not had to remove it.
I generally let my wines sit in the carboy for a year (or more) before I
bottle.

[Jack]

Eric wrote:
> On a TV program, I saw a crawfish, at the bottom of the sea, agitate one
> set of legs to bring oxigen to her eggs (water contains oxigen). Based on
> this info, agitating wine, wether there is air or a vacuum in the carboy,
> does oxigenate the wine.
>
Even crawdads can't generate oxygen just by waving their legs about, she
was fanning her eggs to produce a flow of water that already contained
oxygen (at low levels), she was not making oxygen. Oxygen is a gas and
when water is put under a vacum the oxygen is removed so stirring under
a vacum is not going to generate any oxygen. Just stirring the wine is
not going to split the chemical bond holding oxygen and hydrogen
together.

Blackberry Jack

[Sean Daly]

What would be ideal to degas wine without using a vacuum would be to
sonicate it. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, in
a chemistry lab we use a sonication bath to degas solvents and dissolve
compounds which have low soluabilities. It uses ultrasonic sound to
agitate the liquid in a unique way. Unfortunately, I have never seen a
sonicator that could hold a 5 gallon carboy. Otherwise, it would be
great! L8R...Sean

[Eric]

Michael Daigle wrote: "as long as the fermentation lock is affixed, no
oxigen is going to get in."

On a TV program, I saw a crawfish, at the bottom of the sea, agitate one
set of legs to bring oxigen to her eggs (water contains oxigen). Based on
this info, agitating wine, wether there is air or a vacuum in the carboy,
does oxigenate the wine.

I now heat the wine to 30-40 °C and pump the CO2 out with a vacuum pump
named Mityvar, used by car repairmen. It is by far superior to the
Vacu-vin-type pump. But I am thinking of using, instead, the electrical
pump used for filtering the wine. Has anybody tried it? Would it work as
well as the hand-pump?

Thanks, Eric

[Steven Slaby]

"Eric" (cli...@total.net) writes:
> Michael Daigle wrote: "as long as the fermentation lock is affixed, no
> oxigen is going to get in."
>
> On a TV program, I saw a crawfish, at the bottom of the sea, agitate one
> set of legs to bring oxigen to her eggs (water contains oxigen). Based on
> this info, agitating wine, wether there is air or a vacuum in the carboy,
> does oxigenate the wine.
>

Question for you; Where is the oxygen going to come from ?? If its a
sealed container, oxygen cannot just magically appear ? If its in the
wine, then it is already there, otherwise agitating a sealed container
will not oxygenate the wine...

Steve.

--
"...The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.." | 67 Firebird Convert.
| 82 Seca 650 Turbo
| 76 XL250, 77 XL175
Steve Slaby, Ottawa, Canada DOD #1312 | 88 Ford F150 HD

[Dan Parker]

I don't know about "oxigen", but there is generally some "oxygen"
present in water.

[Don Buchan]

>Be careful with the vacuum. I don't believe a glass carboy is designed for
>vacuum.

Don't tell that to my glass carboy. It was sold to me on the premise that it
would withstand vacuum for filtering my wine, and I've been using it for
years to filter under vacuum. I don't want it to believe you and decide to
crack!

Conclusion: Glass carboys can withstand a vacuum for removal of CO2 and
filtration -- but it may be wise to ask if the carboy is rated for it just in
case there are different grades of glass carboys.

cheers!

----------
Don Buchan ma...@pobox.com http://www.pobox.com/~malak/ From there:
Winemaking linx & FTP, rec.crafts.winemaking FAQ, Missing Link Rovers
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[Christopher Jones]

In article <01bc034a$0fca2320$7656eccd@climber>, cli...@total.net says...

>I now heat the wine to 30-40 °C and pump the CO2 out with a vacuum pump
>named Mityvar, used by car repairmen. It is by far superior to the
>Vacu-vin-type pump. But I am thinking of using, instead, the electrical
>pump used for filtering the wine. Has anybody tried it? Would it work as
>well as the hand-pump?

This will work well and you can also use a electric vacuum pump to degas your
wine. Use only a glass carbouy and don't use too much vaccuum or the glass will
break. A plastic carbouy will implode and your wine will go everywhere. Not a
pretty site.

The purpose of degassing your wine is not to remove oxygen from the wine but to
remove CO2. Adding a little oxygen at the end of fermentation is good for the
wine and also allows the wine to be comsumed sooner, by remove some of the
early raw tannins...

I use a wine whip which I invented several years ago. It is now in production.
These is a device that you attach to a drill ( cordless works best ) and
rapidly stir your wine. Depending on the amount of of CO2 in the wine you can
get a volcanic action. I do this before the wine is stabilized and during the
time when I add finings. you get a well mixed, degassed product that will
clear in less than a day.

The wine whip is made from a few pieces of food grade poly but my first one and
one that you could have made is a Food Whip or Whisk. one that cooks use to
beat eggs with. I welded a 3/8" stainless steel solid rod on the handle that is
about 13" long. I then cut the ends of all the wires. This will fit down the
throat of a glass carbouy.

Happy Vinting

The Winer