Degassing

Mirakk said:

Hey guys,


My first batch of sweet mead is coming along nicely. I just hit the 1/3 sugar break today and dropped in my final nutrient addition. From what I understand, the yeast is going to go anarobic soon and oxygen will be bad.

So my question is: How do I degass this from here out?

Until now I'd been WTC out of it with a whisk 2x a day until the foam subsided. I'd heard some people say that they shake the bucket frequently. Others say they open the lid and carefully stir the must without splashing. What's the deal? How do you degass the mead at this stage of the game?

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You don't.......

Correct terminology might seem pedantic, but it tells the rest of us where you're at in the process.......

Agitation of the must up to now, will have been for aeration - yes, a side effect is that the sediment stirs up creating the nucleation points that the carbonic acid will attach to and come out of solution as gaseous CO2.

You would now, routinely, air lock it off and leave it to finish.....

If you are determined to get the gas out, then a lees stirrer or even a vacuum pump should be considered.

A lees stirrer is like a straight rod, that has a couple of small hinged fins so it can be slid into a carboy and then spun on a drill. The fins will spin out causing enough movement to disturb the sediment to nucleate it and for the carbonic acid/dissolved CO2 to do its thing but causing a minimal disturbance at any air/liquid interface so all you get at the top is the rising CO2 bubbles.

Or of course a vacuum pump (even like a mityvac for bleeding car brakes can be used - actually more gentle than a powered pump) and reduced pressure at the air/liquid interface gets the dissolved CO2 "pulled"out. This only works with fermenters made from materials with a strong structural integrity i.e. glass or stainless steel - plastics tend to suck/pull in and deform before all the dissolved CO2 is removed.

Personally I just air lock and leave it. The air lock does its job and there's less messing around......

fatbloke said:

Personally I just air lock and leave it. The air lock does its job and there's less messing around......

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Spoken like a lazy procrastinator... The hallmark of the great mead maker !



sent from my THINGAMABOB with WHATCHAMACALLIT

Medsen Fey said:

Spoken like a lazy procrastinator... The hallmark of the great mead maker !

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I humbly bow in the shadow of such praise

But if you think that's dragging it out Medsen, you ain't seen nothing..

My PhD is in "bone idle".....

Medsen Fey said:

Spoken like a lazy procrastinator... The hallmark of the great mead maker !

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I thought about procrastinating... but I decided to put it off.


Joe

joemirando said:

I thought about procrastinating... but I decided to put it off.


Joe

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I like procrastinating... It always gives me something to look forward to...but i've never gotten around to being a good procrastinator...Tomorrow for sure!

I'll be here all week...try the veal.