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newbie degassing questions!

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kendeebot

NewBee
Registered Member
Aug 2, 2015
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Hey guys, first post. I just brewed my first batch in June and have been doing tons of research along the way to figure everything out. But I still have a few questions. I made a 2 gallon batch strawberry & orange melomel, same must but i put it into 2 one gallon jugs. I feel like I've done a pretty good job up to this point with handling fermentation and racking. I just decided today to rack them again. And is usually the case when I get to play with my new hobby I sat down to do more research about mead making and came across something I haven't read at any other point in learning about this. Degassing. I don't know if I just missed this somehow or if it just isn't mentioned very much. How vital is degassing mead? I brewed on June 6th and have now racked twice. After doing a little research on the matter for the past few hours I felt reasonably confident to give my mead a little stir. i sanitized a metal stirring spoon, placed it in the carboy and made sure to stir under the surface for about 3-4 min. But there were little to no bubbles. After I replaced the air locks there has been basically no activity. At this late stage do I even need to degas? Should I just let it hang out with an airlock on it for the next several months? Am I just doing it wrong?
 

Squatchy

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Nov 3, 2014
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You will want to degass somewhat vigorously during the 1/3 to 1/2 of your ferment. Maybe the latter applies more to fruit melo's. in any case you want to do this a couple times a day during robust fermentation. The idea is to help the gasses escape and also to add more oxygen to the must early on.
 

mannye

Administrator
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Oct 10, 2012
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But don't worry if you didn't. It's not the end of the world. Although by racking the must you actually did degas. (de-gas). Degas is a French artist...we de-gas. lol Anyway.... If you didn't degas this time you're still fine. For the next batch, you should get in there once a day or every other day and CAREFULLY agitate. i say carefully because if you agitate too much you will experience an MEA which looks something like this: http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php/24651-This-is-why-you-should-add-nutrients-in-the-sink

Ditto when you are adding nutrients. All those tiny little nucleation points in the various powders we use to feed the yeast can cause massive foam-ups and in the case of one gotmeader, cause thousands of dollars worth of damage to his wooden floors. Others have had mead hit the ceiling and, it is rumored that the demise of the dinosaurs was indeed, a careless de-gassing of a 5 gallon carboy of mead. What I'm saying is, do it in the sink.

I made a gadget with a fork and a drill that did a decent job until I got one of those wands. Not this one, but very similar http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Bottle-...1438606734&sr=8-1&keywords=wine+degasser+tool

That one for 8 bucks and free shipping is cheap and less hassle than making your own.
 

kendeebot

NewBee
Registered Member
Aug 2, 2015
15
0
1
Thanks for the help!! I'll definitely look into getting a wand or something for my next batch.
 
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