OK - you have finished fermenting your first batch of homemade wine. You are thinking about putting it in the bottle. Then you read something that says you need to 'degass' the wine first. What's that?

I'm going to let you peer behind the curtain of the homemade winemaking process and see if the 'man behind the curtain' is really the wizard that he says he is.

Fact: While wine is fermenting, and even after it has fermented, there will be some carbon dioxide left in solution in the wine.

Many guides and wanna-be wine gurus will use the above information and then tell you that if you don't 'degass', then your corks will pop out later due to a buildup of pressure in the bottle from the carbon dioxide.

Degassing simply means stirring vigorously or agitating your wine to get a lot of the carbon dioxide to come out of solution.

But here's the twisted truth: As long as you stabilize the wine using a stabilizer or preservative, you don't have to worry about corks popping out. The wine is stable at room temperature and pressure, right? It doesn't sit there and fizz. So whatever CO2 is in the wine is balanced with atmospheric pressure.

Another little juicy fact: If you let your wine sit in the secondary fermenter for at least 2 months, most of that CO2 will escape anyway.

So - do you NEED to degass the wine? In my opinion, the agitation or vigorous stirring results in unneeded oxidation. The stirring exposes your wine to oxygen and this is probably more damaging to it than having a little CO2 in solution.

The reason corks pop out is because people forget to add stabilizer - NOT because they didn't degass. Many winemaking guides and videos will tell you degassing is something you MUST do. My opinion? Just let nature take it's course and let the wine sit for a couple of months and you'll be fine.

My corks are popping out! What do I do? Don't worry - be happy! Get this FREE 24 page winemaking guide that includes complete step by step 'How to make Homemade Wine' information: How To Make Wine. With this instantly downloadable winemaking guide, you can start your first batch tonight and KNOW that you aren't missing anything or skipping an steps. Get it here: How To Make Wine.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Carraway
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