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Who has had luck serving red wine from keg using CO2?

Posted: Wed May 04, 2016 12:36 pm
by TimG
Thinking about kegging a batch of red wine. Who has had luck serving using CO2 and just bleeding off the 3-4 psi serving pressure each time? I don't mind a tiny bit of carbonation in the wine (this isn't fancy shit we're talking about).

Re: Who has had luck serving red wine from keg using CO2?

Posted: Wed May 04, 2016 1:27 pm
by RossBee
Been carbonating fruit wines and whites, have to be chilled to -4C at least for carbonation to absorb. Reds not a problem since they are at room temperature and all the CO2 does, is push the wine out and keeps it protected from oxidation. My experience, any marginal carbonation that does occur dissipates very quickly.

Hope this helps.

Re: Who has had luck serving red wine from keg using CO2?

Posted: Fri May 06, 2016 11:07 am
by jacinthebox
I put a melon/cucumber mist down last week...I plan to keg...cold wine on tap makes my wife happy

Re: Who has had luck serving red wine from keg using CO2?

Posted: Fri May 06, 2016 11:52 am
by jason.loxton
Haven`t tried it, but Winemaker Magazine seems to think your approach will work fine:

Carbon dioxide option
If you like, you can also go with a standard CO2 setup. If you turn the gas off and pull the pressure relief valve each time you serve wine, it will only absorb a small amount of CO2 — enough that you might occasionally see a lone bubble when you pour, but far from enough to make the wine seem fizzy or gassy. A CO2 setup will also allow you to also use your keg for sparkling wine production as well as beer brewing and soda making. (Various sparkling wine making methods — including using a Cornelius keg as a pressure vessel — will be addressed in a future issue of WineMaker.)`
https://winemakermag.com/416-kegging-wine-techniques" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: Who has had luck serving red wine from keg using CO2?

Posted: Fri May 06, 2016 2:16 pm
by saosborne
I've done it works ok if youre lazy and dont feel like cleaning bottles. It had a slightly carbonic acid taste to it plus the gas was left on a couple of times (my wife). I found the best way to do it was to put it in a decanter from the keg shake and swirl the crap out of it (like your degassing the wine in a carboy) then let it sit for 1/2hr. Id do it again with the cheap kits from costco but probably not with anything more expensive. My next experiment is going to be using one of the camping water bags and squeeze it out one carafe at a time. Another fiddly thing to ensure no oxygen gets in.