Why Is The Airlock Moving??? - Mystery Solved

You can bottle with the dissolved CO2. Some people like it that way. It is what is called Piquant. The CO2 give a prickling to the tongue as you drink it, almost like bubbles. I do not like it but that is me. There are various methods of degassing if you want to get it over with. The most common is to rack to a primary bucket and stir the heck out of it for 3 min. Let it rest for 3 min. Repeat about 3 times. Put it back in primary and check it after a week. It will probably be fine. If not repeat and bottle.

Ray

I've seen "degassers" in the grape and granary catalog.I made my own out of a small whisk, and mounted to a plastic rod that I can chuck in a cordless drill, squeezed down enough to fit through the neck of a carboy. You have to be patient so that you don't send a geyser of wine up and out of the neck, but it works well. It's a must have tool if you're making wine from kits.

I don't know what I am doing differently from others but I have NEVER had a problem with CO2 in wine - especially after racking.

I looked at methods kit manufacturers recommend for their products... Most recommend stiring in a carboy. They BETTER be right, their survival depends on it. I have never gone wrong using Brew King/Winexpert methods...

A.J.

I fermented cold (around 60F), used slow moving yeast (Assmanshausen), and stopped fermentation prematurely at approximately 3 BRIX. I suppose any or all of these could have contributed to residual CO2.

Since this is apple wine, I have been hyper-sensative about exposure to air throughout the process. I've religiously purged all carboys with Argon and made sure sulfite levels stay on the mark. Perhaps I went a little too far ;-) Would your method below cause the delicate apple wine to oxidize noticably?

Either way, I'm happy to hear than bottling with some residual CO2 will not cause the cork to pop. I actually recall drinking a Muscato de Oro' from Robert Mondavi several years ago that tasted like you described and I actually liked it. I may go ahead and bottle.

Thanks again for the great advice!

Charles

If you purge the wine with argon the CO2 will be gone as a heads up. This is apple, I wonder if you might have a malolactic fermentation going on. You need pH in the right range and lower SO2 for that to be it, The bubbles are just tiny in the carboy if you see them at all with MLF. I don't recall whether we ruled that out. SO2 < 20 PPM and pH over 3.2 are usually conducive to MLF. It's an odd fermentation, bacteria consume malic and excrete CO2 and lactic acid. It softens a wine, but I don't know if it's something you do normally with apple wines, most fruit wines are not aiming for complexity, they aim for a fresh fruit forward taste.

Joe

Charles E wrote:

If you follow the directions for wine kits and bottle at 6 weeks or so, I think you will fine CO2. Of course they include directions that will get rid of it. If I let wine, kit or otherwise, bulk age for at least 6 months I do not have a problem with CO2. In the last few years I have made some non kit wines that I wanted to bottle at 3 months or less. Some of these have had the CO2 problem. It can be eliminated by degassing.

Ray

Joe raises a very valid concern. MLF is a bad thing with apple wine. It will leave it utterly insipid. You should follow this up.

Ray

I thought the wine went under a microscope and no evidence of bio activity was found - that should definitely rule out ML, no?

Pp

I dunno, I thought the sample was centrifuged first before examining at

Joe

I dunno, I thought the sample was centrifuged first before examining at

Joe

No biological evidence found. We spun down the wine in a centrifuge to consolidate any bacteria or yeast making it easier to identify. This is the procedure used with blood also.

This wine is clean. Must conclude CO2...

Thanks, Charles

OK , you can remove the CO2 with that argon, it's more efficient if you use a dispersion tube. You can leave it alone if you like the taste the way it is too. If you decide to remove it you may want to let it sit a few weeks just to be sure it's stable. Joe

If there is no activity, no yeast or MLF then you should be able to degas and it will stay degassed.

Ray