de-gassing wine?

Hi Lee

Stir it again, once or twice a day for 2 or 3 days. That should take care of the CO2.

HTH

Frank

Lee - It does sound like dissolved CO2. Stirring should take care of most of it. The other factor is temperature. I have this same issue with wines I do over the winter - the temp. in my basement (wine cellar) stays around 60F over the winter, so wines tend to hold onto CO2. If you can raise the temp. to 70F or so for a few days or a week, I think that would help a lot as well.

Doug

I was thinking the same thing, ccold wine holds more gas in saturation. Here is an easy way to raise the temp. Grab a heating pad and tie it on to a carboy set at low, then wrap a few towels around it. It works for me. I might go for 80F though.

Joe

I am in an apartment, so out of necessity, the temps are around 72-75F pretty much the whole time. Even at that level, I've still got lots of CO2 in carboys with whites that have been bulk aging for up to 6 months. I'm blaming this on the cold fermentation temps.

Joe, if you heat up to 80F, what does this do to the wine quality for whites?

Pp

Sounds a tad warm. Are you worried about cooked flavors or is the duration at 80F short enough to prevent damage?

Frank

Higher temperatures will damage the wine, browning occurs 15 to 20 times faster at 40 C than 20 C. That said, I would heat it up, degas it and let it cool down. 77 F is 25 C and you are already at 72 to 75. I doubt it will help you much to take it to 80 so maybe can that idea.

Have you checked RS? Is it below 0.25%? If not, it could just be starting up again nad will die off on it's own.

The best way to degas is to bubble nitrogen through a bubbling stone into the wine for a few minutes according to Margalit. I don't have that kind of setup though. I stir it at room temperature.

I have noticed that if I degas and bottle below 65 I'm wasting my time, the results are not consistent. The wines may or may not have just a bit of fizz. (Not that that's a bad thing, there are wines in France made that way on purpose.)

Joe

pp wrote:

72-75F

Frank, I wouldn't keep it there at all, just raise the temp and degas, then get it cool again. It will oxidize faster at high temperatures, you are right.

This wine is actually warmer than I thought, so I would really double check the residual sugar just in case it's spontaneous seciondary fermentation. I have had mostly dry (~0.5% RS) wines restart in the spring, a lot of my reds never get to 0.2% before it gets cold.

Joe

It's interesting what you say about the ill effects of an 80 degree temperature. I've ound that the best way to get a vigorous MLF going is to elevate the temperature. I have a relatively controlled environment, and when the temperature drops to 70, the ML seems to stop, but when I get it back up to 75 or so, it re-starts.

But now I'm wondering if it was just dissolved CO2 that bubbles out better at 75 than it does at 70.

Lee

I heard that the ideal storage temp for red wine is 65-70. Is this correct and if so how could 80 be too warm for a short period of time??

Just wondering.

Bob

Frank Mirigliano wrote:

Hi Bob

If you are storing both whites and reds it is easier to shoot for a year round temperature of 55F. Most folks prefer to serve the reds at ~60-65F. Simply remove the bottle from the storage area an hour or so before you intend to drink it. Most whites will be perfect around 55 to 60F.

HTH

Frank

One other possibility for you to use is to put something in the wine that will give the CO2 a chance to bubble off of, which will speed things up. With a sediment-free crystal clear wine in a smooth glass carboy, the CO2 has nowhere to start it's gassing-out process. You're looking for an inert material with a slightly rough surface. Perhaps run a dozen or so marbles over some sandpaper to roughen their surface, rinse well, then pop them in. Couple of oak-cubes would work really well, but that would change the wine's flavor. You get the idea.

Think of what dropping a couple of ice-cubes into a soda does. Obviously the ice is colder and is water, so it's not temperature or CO2 concentration that causes it to foam - it's the irregular surface of the ice that allows the CO2 bubbles to form.

HTH

Rob

Lee;

The reference says wine oxidizes 3 to 5 time faster at 20 C than 10 C and 15 to 20 times faster at 40 so I plotted it for reference, here is what I get: (It's best guess.)

C F Rate

10 39 1 20 68 3 to 5 25 77 4.5 to 6.5 30 86 8 to 10 35 95 11.5 to 15 40 104 15 to 20

The reference was Principles and Practices of Winemaking by Boulton et al.

It's just something to be aware of. I try not to bottle until the wine has gone from cold to warmer at least once, it seems both racking and warming seem to start up a little outgassing with mine. My winemaking area doesn't get above 70 F or below around 45, but I do cold stabilize all whites and any red that has too much acid at 25 F for a few weeks. I haven't done a lot of MLF because most of my musts are lower acid to begin with.

Joe

Lee wrote:

Knew I'd finally remember. It's called nucleation, and it's the same principle that's used to get Tartrate crystals by dropping a little cream of tatar into a cold-stabilizing carboy. Everything happens on the edges.

Anyway, you get the idea, and hope it helps.

Rob