Newbie about oxidation

Jason,

Relax. You're just smelling the normal yeasty/fruity smell from an aromatic wine like Riesling. If the wine is actively fermenting (and most would use a closed container for whites, BTW) there's little likelihood of it even absorbing enough O2 to matter. Besides, the yeast would tend to gobble it up & stop producing alcohol for a bit.

I'm curious though. Why the shaking & stirring?

HTH Mike MTM

I shook it after twenty four hours and that seemed to get the airlock going, (although it would have built up enough pressure eventually. After all the batches of beer I've done, I still find it hard to just leave it alone. I will be leaving it be though now that I know nothing is wrong.

One last question...In the directions there is a lot of "degassing". Using a degasser a few times a day as its settling. Does this not introduce a great deal of oxygen or is it not signifigant at that point. I'll follow the directions exactly but I'm always curious on why.

Thanks

John, An important part of winemaking is learning to recognize problems so they can be corrected or avoided. Oxidation is one of the biggest dangers in winemaking and it is not always easily avoided. Consequently you really should get to where you can recognize it.

I recommend that you get two bottles of a white wine you like. Open one and drink all but one glass. (These experiments are rough but they really need to be done.) Pour the last glass into a clear bottle if it is not in one already. Lightly stopper it with a cotton ball. Set it aside until you start noticing a browning of the wine. This is oxidation. It may take a day or a week depending on how well protected it is with sulfite. Open the saved bottle and smell and taste each. Then you will be able to recognize oxidation in the future.

I know, it is hard to sacrifice a glass of wine but it is for a good cause.

Ray

Jason,

Degassing when fermentation is over is a different matter, and many people (including myself) view it as somewhat unnecessary if one is patient enough. With your first batch, that's not likely, is it? ;) Given enough time in bulk aging & at room-ish temps, most wines degas naturally pretty well. The reason kits recommend vigorous degassing is to speed up the process so the maker gets quicker gratification. Again, patience is enormously helpful in making a good wine, but it _can_ be drunk at the end of 28 days or whatever. But it's much better after 6 or

As to the process of degassing with a stirrer, If you're using a drill-mounted type, be careful to keep it well submerged in the wine and run it at high speed, but don't let the vortex draw air down & create air bubbles. As you surmise, this does add unnecessary oxygen. The spinning arm types seem to work best when they "cavitate" through the wine and liberate the CO2 by low pressure. When you do degas, do it at room temp, as the gas is less soluble at higher temperature.

H>

One way to help avoid too much oxygen would be to degas in a container with a narrow neck and stir under Nitrogen (or even better, but expensive, Argon) gas cover.

Rob L

(in the winery, for early bottled wines we sparge with N2 gas to pull the CO2 down.)