Wine De-Gas

[jw6520]

I have seen people mention 'de-gassing' wine. Could someone explain what is involved in this process please?


Cheers

 

[fermentall]

Wine needs to be de gassed before bottling.Basically the fermentation process creates co2 and this needs to go.Before fining or bottling when you have racked the wine shake the hell out of it then release gas,then shake/release etc 3 or 4 times.You can buy a de gasser from HBS which attaches to a drill and makes it quicker but not essential. : Ken

 

[jw6520]

Thanks for the info Ken!
:thumb:

 

[fermentall]

Welcome JW :

 

[Barkie]

Lately when I'm racking wine off the lees for the first time I siphon about half the gallon of liquid into the Dj the other half into another and swirl/shake both every few mins until I'm happy then it can go into one Dj.

I tried stirring the whole Dj full with the 'other' end of the long spoon but it didn't seem to work for the effort. A bigger quantity you could siphon into a fermenting bucket and stir. Just watch it if you insert the spoon handle into a drill though that it isn't too high a speed as I heard it can be funny after you've cleaned up

 

[Ken L]

OK, time for a dumb question:
Why does the CO2 have to go ?

 

[Samarith]

Mainly because CO2 alters the flavour profile of a wine, most taste better without it.

Also CO2 in the wine will eventually escape if it does this in the bottle you'll most likely get a cork shooting across the room, seepage from the cork or if very unlucky an exploding bottle but that really needs ongoing fermentation.

I've been 'blessed' with malolactic fermentation in my ginger wine. I degassed, stabilised, fined and filtered but two bottles have popped there corks and thrown themselves all over the floor; I'm now busy degassing the rest again. Hopefully the remaining bottles will be fantastic but you never know with malolactic conversion, sometimes the result is bloody horrible.

 

[Barkie]

two bottles have popped there corks and thrown themselves all over the floor;

You have my commiserations.