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Practical use of Argon, Nitrogen, CO2

Spent the last day or so reviewing all the previous posts on the use of inert gases for top-up, and wine transfer.

I understand the caveats that Tom S raised about a false sense of security.

So after all this I would still like to use either Nitrogen or Argon for the temporary protection it provides.

However, I am not sure exactly what I need, and how to best use it. I want to use it for temporarily protecting partially filled carboys, displacing oxygen in bottles at bottling time, and for protecting unfinished bottles of wine (like Private Reserve does). So I know I need:

  1. A tank - 20 or 40 seems to be physically the right size but I have no idea how long it would last
  2. A regulator - I believe the same regulator (and tank) could be used for Argon or Nitrogen. Question is, what specs for the regulator? Seems that you want a low pressure output to minimize wine disturbance.
  3. Nozzle? Gun? - So how do I apply it to the wine? I've read to do it gently to not disturb the wine but not sure what fitting I need or how to best do it. Given that I also want to use this for unfinished wine bottles, it needs to fit that application as well.
  4. How do I use it as part of the bottling process? How much gas do I need to add to a bottle, and how do I control it?

Any additional insight appreciated. Dan

Reply to
dantort
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Rule of thumb for CO2 and Ar, use twice the volume of the ullage. Re-gas weekly. However consider that doing this is a bit like putting something in the refrigerator, it will still go bad, but not as fast. Try to top it, or move it to a vessel which matches the volume. Full tanks are the way to got, if you have a little bit that is not full, then keep lots of SO2 in it, say 50 free SO2 min, then back blend this across the final blend.

James.

Reply to
James

My newsreader (Thunderbird) seems to be unable to search on sender. :( When I try to search I get an error "NNTP: aborted by user" error message and no results. And so I can not find the posts by Tom S you refer to. So at the risk of repeating old content, my understanding on bottled gasses was that the greatest risk was concerning the quality/purity of the gas, as anything other than medical grade carried the risk of all kinds of contaminants including oils and other substances being contained in the gas. Is this a realistic concern, and if so how have you protected your wine against foreign substances being introduced via bottles gasses?

Cheers, Ken

Reply to
mail box

I think you mean PSI, not CFM. As regulators change pressure, not volume.

Also, if it was me, I would put a valve just after the regulator with a barbed hose end and use the same tube you use for siphoning your wine.

Steve

Reply to
Steve Potter

Dan, Using inert gasses to store wine involves much more than just squirting a little gas into the container. Please see the info here

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Lum

Reply to
Lum Eisenman

Yes, you are going to regulate the pressure with the regulator. The valve is to start and stop the flow as well as a crude regulation of the volume.

Steve

Reply to
Steve Potter

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