Degassing help please

[smoothlager]

Hi All,

Ive recently made a plum and a blackberry wine, both fermented out and have been racked about 3-4 weeks ago. However, being new to this brewing malarky I did not de-gass them.

Two questions.

1. What would be the normal procedure for de-gassing, when?, how?, is it the same for both country wines and those from fruit juices etc?
2. What can i do with my plum and blackberry regarding degassing?

Any information on this topic will help: Ive read a bit on the internet but would value info from people who are actually making wine now.

Thanks.

 

[Marrsy86]

By racked im guessing they are still in a DJ and not bottled ? If so this thread by Moley has a good step by step guide and you will be happy to see that de-gassing is listed after Racking so your on track :)

Cheers

Marrsy

 

[smoothlager]

By racked im guessing they are still in a DJ and not bottled ? If so this thread by Moley has a good step by step guide and you will be happy to see that de-gassing is listed after Racking so your on track :)

Cheers

Marrsy

Yes its in a DJ, I will check that link thanks

 

[Moley]

De-gassing is meant to accelerate the clearing process.

To be honest, I have never done side-by-side tests to see what difference this actually makes.

With quicker juice wines I always rack, de-gas and add finings.

Using finings, I would expect most wines to be mostly cleared within 2-3 days and properly cleared within 1-2 weeks.

If you intend to filter a wine, de-gassing is necessary, otherwise the syphon tube or filter body quicky fill up with gas, flow rate slows right down and you've got to remove the gas from the system to get things running again. This is easlily done with the Vinbrite, which has a vent tap, but might be more of a PITA with some other filter types.

With country wines such as your plum or blackberry, I would usually first rack around 1 month but wouldn't add finings or expect to filter.

Therefore, I don't really care how long they would take to clear and would usually rack again around 3 months, by which time Mother Nature should have taken care of the clearing.

Therefore, with country wines such as your plum or blackberry, I wouldn't worry about de-gassing. Again, time will sort most things out.

 

[smoothlager]

Therefore, with country wines such as your plum or blackberry, I wouldn't worry about de-gassing. Again, time will sort most things out.

Thanks Moley :)

 

[Crastney]

is 4 gal of juice in a FV ok - or should I rack off to DJs?
at the moment it's got an airlock, and is still bubbling.
I have 3 DJs and 1 PET, but the 3 DJs are all 3/4 full of brewing cider, and I'm hoping to get more apples or pears, or juice AJ from Lidle to top up (but won't have enough to fill an FV)
I'm guessing that I need to buy more DJs.

 

[Moley]

While it is working that's fine, it's protected by the head of carbon dioxide. The problem only arises when fermentation has completely finished and you start removing the lid, once the CO2 has been blown away you've got a huge surface area exposed to oxygen.

Leave it alone completely until a week or two after all signs of fermentation have finished, then rack to DJs or PETs. Trust the yeasties to do their thing and avoid the temptation to lift the lid for a peep.

 

[shearclass]

With country wines such as your plum or blackberry, I would usually first rack around 1 month but wouldn't add finings or expect to filter.

Therefore, I don't really care how long they would take to clear and would usually rack again around 3 months, by which time Mother Nature should have taken care of the clearing.

Why is this please? I am starting some country wines at the moment for the first time. Is there a reason why you do not recommend finings for this? Will fining a country wine make it ready to drink sooner, or will it still take the year or so maturation.?

 

[Moley]

Fining will certainly make it clear faster, but won't necessarily make it ready to drink any sooner.

There are complex changes which occur within a wine over the maturation period, many of which I won't even pretend to understand, but it takes time for acids, tannins and stuff to marry and mellow. To me, that makes accelerating the clearing process pretty pointless.

You don't have to believe me, but do yourself a favour and stash at least one or two bottles from any batch away out of sight and out of mind for a year or so.

 

[shearclass]

You don't have to believe me,

I'm not doubting you! I don't know anything about wine. All i know is what i've read from you, or on a webiste by soem chap called jack Keller, which i think you suggested anyway.

All his recipes seem to need at least a year before they are drank :shock:

I thought i was being good leaving my home brew 2 months before drinking, 1 year is going to be very hard when i have no other stocks to try!

When you say leave a year, do you say leave a year in total, or a year from bottling? In lots of jack keller recipes, the wine has existed for about 6 months before it is even bottled.

 

[Moley]

I thought i was being good leaving my home brew 2 months before drinking, 1 year is going to be very hard when i have no other stocks to try!

When you say leave a year, do you say leave a year in total, or a year from bottling? In lots of jack keller recipes, the wine has existed for about 6 months before it is even bottled.

Let's be completely honest about this, although I advocate patience in winemaking I am not a patient man.

The only way this is ever going to happen is if you start things off much faster than you can drink it.

In my first couple of years after returning to this hobby I made a LOT of wine.

For example, I made 5 gallons of elderberry this time last year. After final racking that gave me 4.5 gallons. The half gallon was drunk almost immediately, but because I have a steady supply of the quicker juice wines, the 4 x 1 gallon DJs are still sitting down the cellar, along with 30+ others.

Once it is bottled, it's available to drink. If I say a year, that's from when it was started.

I still leave a couple of bottles from each batch (not the quick stuff) on a different wine rack, and those are not to be touched while there's anything else to be had.