No Degassing Step for Elderberry Wine

[HelpImBlind]

Hey All.

I'm entirely new to homebrewing, and I decided to jump off with this Elderberry Wine recipe: https://www.brewbitz.com/content/10-elderberry-wine-recipe

I've just moved it to a second demijohn, where I added a Campden tablet, and I will leave it for a month before and final racking. I was just wondering - this recipe doesn't seem to have a degassing step whatsoever. Why? Is it necessary but skipped in the recipe - or unnecessary for some reason?

Thanks!

 

[chewie]

Hey All.

I'm entirely new to homebrewing, and I decided to jump off with this Elderberry Wine recipe: https://www.brewbitz.com/content/10-elderberry-wine-recipe

I've just moved it to a second demijohn, where I added a Campden tablet, and I will leave it for a month before and final racking. I was just wondering - this recipe doesn't seem to have a degassing step whatsoever. Why? Is it necessary but skipped in the recipe - or unnecessary for some reason?

Thanks!

Wine will clear and degas itself over time, degassing is usually done to speed up the process when finings are going to be used.

 

[Cwrw666]

I'd never heard of de-gassing homemade wine until I joined this forum. Just another way of introducing an infection to your brews if you ask me.

 

[Bigeck]

It's well worth making sure your wine is degassed. It spoils the taste, although there is nothing wrong with the wine itself. If you bottle up with gas still there you run the risk of the cork being pushed out, or having to shake the bottle to get rid of the gas when you open it.

You can leave it to degas naturally while the wine is clearing, but if it clears quickly you might still have a lot of gas there, and it could take months for the gas to go. Leaving the wine in a warmer area will help the gas to come out.

You can give the wine a shake to degas once you have racked off the sediment of use the drill and whip / coat hanger method.

 

[tonyhibbett]

I never encountered degassing until I started using some (but not all) kits. It is supposed to ensure quick fining. I have found that red wine clears quite quickly without assistance, even before fermentation has finally completed. Fining removes some tannin, which may be desirable if large quantities of elderberries have been used, as is the case for the recipe you have used, depending on the size of the carrier bags! 5 pounds of elderberries with stalks should give 2 kilos of elderberries which would produce lots of tannin, so perhaps fining might be desirable. However, 3 pounds of sugar per gallon will almost certainly produce a sweet wine, especially since 2 kilos of elderberries would add another 200 g of sugar.