de-gassing during finishing gravity period

[mrngbear]

I'm not sure of my exact gravity because of my subjective judgement and experience.

My question is, once you are seeing gravity, at or very close to estimated FG (around 1.000) should you continue to de-gas and or, attempt to suspend the yeast?

I am just now approaching FG, seeing no change in 2 days (realizing that it's not quite there yet, and will continue monitoring for the next few weeks looking for no change over an extended period)



My gravity dilemma:
Last 2 days; gravity from refractometer, compared to results with hydrometer.

refractometer using sean's calculator
"new linear" 1.006
"new cubic" .9988
"old cubic" .9886

Cheap Hydrometer calibrates at .998 in distilled h2o
so I add 2 points to correct,
with a result of...
1.001

I am unsure of an accurate OG because I added honey 3 days in, and am assuming an original gravity of approx. 1.092

I know...way to much assuming!

 

[bmwr75]

I generally don't degas after the S.G. hits 1.030 and water is installed in the air lock. Degassing in my case us usually shaking the carboy. Not degassing after 1.030 leads to quicker clearing for me. One exception is if I am worried about the ferment stalling because I started with a very high O.G. (e.g., 1.13 or above). In this case I keep degassing even with water in the airlock.

 

[mrngbear]

I generally don't degas after the S.G. hits 1.030 and water is installed in the air lock. Degassing in my case us usually shaking the carboy. Not degassing after 1.030 leads to quicker clearing for me. One exception is if I am worried about the ferment stalling because I started with a very high O.G. (e.g., 1.13 or above). In this case I keep degassing even with water in the airlock.

Thanks for your 'valued' reply bmwr

 

[djsxxx]

I've been vacuum degassing all the way through fermentation

 

[mrngbear]

I've been vacuum degassing all the way through fermentation

Mine is shake the crap out of the carboy...similar to bmwr and without a vacuum system I might be safer letting it be at this juncture?

 

[Farmboyc]

If your that close I would let it be. You will de-gasing again when you rack.

 

[bmwr75]

A vacuum degasser would be nice to have.

 

[djsxxx]

Mines just one of those food saver things... £15 or so from Amazon

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[Mazer828]

I degas regularly all the way until clearing begins. Yeast drop. Then I let the yeast drop out and then rack to secondary to do any final clearing or other maturing. I find doing this actually speeds up clearing for me, especially with traditionals.

 

[mrngbear]

Great...two brilliant minds with conflicting thoughts and results again. Your not making this easy LOL

 

[mrngbear]

I degas regularly all the way until clearing begins. Yeast drop. Then I let the yeast drop out and then rack to secondary to do any final clearing or other maturing. I find doing this actually speeds up clearing for me, especially with traditionals.

Not sure of what I'm saying or asking, but I have had yeast "dropped out" at the bottom of the carboy since the beginning. I also de-gas regularly, but have never seen even the slightest indication of clearing and wonder if I ever would, if I continue to de-gas. Could be in part due to my home made yeast hulls? I'm so confused! LOL

 

[Mazer828]

There'll always be some yeast on the bottom. But when I say yeast drop, I mean the ferment stops and you actually see the top few inches of the mead clearer than the rest (i.e., the yeast is dropping out).

 

[mrngbear]

There'll always be some yeast on the bottom. But when I say yeast drop, I mean the ferment stops and you actually see the top few inches of the mead clearer than the rest (i.e., the yeast is dropping out).

Thanks for the clarification...I'll watch for that, being I'm just now approaching finished fermentation.

 

[mrngbear]

Mines just one of those food saver things... £15 or so from Amazon

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

I will definitely be buying one of those for my next meads...thanks

 

[Squatchy]

So here is even another possible way to do it

I know many on here will not agree with the first part of this statement, but, I have not seen any indications of oxidation from any exposure to oxygen prior to long term aging.

I have found ( although I have only tested a handful or so of batches ) that instead of letting your batch start sitting dormant just as soon as the ferment seems finished. If I continue to stir the mead every day to keep everything up in suspension for a couple weeks and compare that to the same batch that I let sit, the stirred one ends up clearing before the one that started sitting right away. I haven't made anything in a year or so with faults but I would be willing to bet that if you had one with faults and you left it with the yeast being stirred into suspension the yeast will do a great deal to remove the faults.

I don't know why, except I believe as the yeast start to die they start to absorb things that would otherwise have to be aged out over time. Maybe some of our science guys can chime in here.

I have had some batches never clear on their own and have also had some clear very quickly. I made a six gallon bochet that cleared almost right away.

I have a 5 gallon traditional cold crashing as we speak. The yeast and heavy ditrious has fallen out in a 2 weeks time but the finer hazzy stuff has not changed one bit. I have let it sit for 4-5 months with very little happening after I racked it off the gross lees.

 

[mrngbear]

So here is even another possible way to do it

I know many on here will not agree with the first part of this statement, but, I have not seen any indications of oxidation from any exposure to oxygen prior to long term aging.

I have found ( although I have only tested a handful or so of batches ) that instead of letting your batch start sitting dormant just as soon as the ferment seems finished. If I continue to stir the mead every day to keep everything up in suspension for a couple weeks and compare that to the same batch that I let sit, the stirred one ends up clearing before the one that started sitting right away. I haven't made anything in a year or so with faults but I would be willing to bet that if you had one with faults and you left it with the yeast being stirred into suspension the yeast will do a great deal to remove the faults.

I don't know why, except I believe as the yeast start to die they start to absorb things that would otherwise have to be aged out over time. Maybe some of our science guys can chime in here.

I have had some batches never clear on their own and have also had some clear very quickly. I made a six gallon bochet that cleared almost right away.

I have a 5 gallon traditional cold crashing as we speak. The yeast and heavy ditrious has fallen out in a 2 weeks time but the finer hazzy stuff has not changed one bit. I have let it sit for 4-5 months with very little happening after I racked it off the gross lees.

All great information, thanks. I have decided to continue with my de-gas protocol, at least once a day for the next couple weeks.

On a different note; a friend just told me that they cancelled the Pro Cycling Challenge (Colorado)

 

[Squatchy]

All great information, thanks. I have decided to continue with my de-gas protocol, at least once a day for the next couple weeks.

On a different note; a friend just told me that they cancelled the Pro Cycling Challenge (Colorado)

Yes . I just heard that on the news a few minutes ago. I'm totally bumbed. I have gone every year since the first year to at least one day, usually 2 different days.

 

[mrngbear]

Yes . I just heard that on the news a few minutes ago. I'm totally bumbed. I have gone every year since the first year to at least one day, usually 2 different days.

Yeah I'm kinda bummed too! My friend works for the Division of Wildlife in Carbondale and I was going up there to see the start this year.

 

[zpeckler]

I will definitely be buying one of those for my next meads...thanks

I made my own vacuum pump for transferring and degassing my mead. A few things I've learned using it:

1. When using it for degassing you need to have either plenty of headspace, or keep the pressure only slightly negative. Once you switch the pump on and significant negative pressure builds up the CO2 rushes out of solution, and there's a huge potential for a MEA. Seriously. Depending on the amount of negative pressure your pump is capable of creating, the degassing process can end up being very... exciting.

2. If you do have a MEA while degassing, unless you want to have the overflow sucked up into your pump, you need to have a small vacuum chamber attached to the line in order to protect your pump.

3. After degassing is complete and you detach the vacuum line, air rushes in to fill the vacuum in the headspace. Obviously oxygen comes in along with the air. Not an issue during active fermentation since the yeast quickly build up the CO2 layer again, but if you're degassing after fermentation is finished the mead will be exposed to some amount of O2. YMMV depending on how concerned about oxidation you are.

4. While vacuum degassing is super, super quick and convenient, you don't get the benefit of lees agitation.

 

[Mazer828]

Would love it if you could diagram your setup.