We’ve been trying our hand at wine making using these kits… Our first batch was a Cabernet Sauvignon which tasted okay if you didn’t know it was a Cab Sauv. It’s red, it tastes like Pinot Grigio to me, and it’s bubbly like champagne. I’m sure the error was that we didn’t degas the wine enough with our “vigorous stirring” as we did it by hand.
There are these cool attachments to add onto your drill to stir the wine and degas it. They’re not expensive… I wanted to buy one (and will if we make any more wine after this batch), but we needed to do the degassing TONIGHT so I couldn’t wait for it to get shipped.
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I really do recommend that option because my diy solution definitely did the trick, but we are lucky we didn’t hurt ourselves and I’m not sure the mixer would’ve survived repeat use like this.
So yes… If you do this, keep in mind that it’s sort of like wrestling a bear. Do it at your own risk.
I had an old mixer that I was getting ready to donate as it’s not in super great condition anymore. I also had our long spoon that we use to manually stir the wine. I duct taped our long spoon with the big end to the mixer’s attachment (the big end won’t fit into our carboy). Then we put the end into the carboy, turned it on the lowest setting, and mixed. Like I said- it’s like wrestling a bear. My husband and I were giggling over it all… And the poor mixer was struggling (not sure if this is a great thing to do if you want to keep your mixer in good shape).
Here’s a video of it in action:
Ultimately it’s not the fanciest setup, but it worked for the moment when we didn’t have the proper equipment. I’ll probably pick up the attachment before we do another batch in hopes the drill will be a little easier to control than the mixer was.
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