How to stir and when to stir wine?

[Zule]

I started a new batch in a 3 gallon carboy with juice. Took a hydrometer reading of 1.082. Ive read and been told you should stir it 1-2 times per day in the early stages.

I started this batch on the 10th. But for some reason activity started on march 15th (never had a delay like that before). Been stiring at least once per day since the 10th, sometimes twice per day.

My questions:
1# How vigurous or long should this stiring be? Ive been doing a normal calm back and forth for about 30s to stur out some gas and mix in the lees. Good enough?

2# When do I stop this daily stiring so I do not risk oxidation?

 

[3274mike]

]vigorous enough to mix it all up and what your doing this for is to get oxygen into the must as far as when to stop when your hydrometer reading reaches dryness like around 1.000 to .090 I am sure that one of the more experenced people will give you a much more detailed explanation of why and how long but this is the basic answer I hope it helps

 

[cintipam]

About the delay in starting fermentation. Yeasts are different in how quickly they start visible fermentation. Some of the more subdued yeasts you only know for sure they are fermenting when you take daily SG readings. So diff yeasts, diff timing. Above that colder always means a slower start. Not a bad thing, esp if the rest of the ferment is slower than normal. Often this leads to a more flavorful more aromatic wine.

Pam in cinti

 

[SBWs]

Stir for the first 48 hours, then just punch down the cap after that. I have a post on my BLOG called Yeast for Beginners that explains why if you care to know more.

 

[dralarms]

I'm not usually the spelking police but stur is spelled stir.

 

[Pumpkinman]

Zule,
Can you provide a few more details about your wine and the process that you are using to make it:
Is it a wine kit, juice bucket or fresh grapes?
What type of wine, red, white and the variety?
What type of yeast are you using?
How much are you making, volume wise?
What is the temp of the must and the area that it is being fermented in?
What are you fermenting it in, bucket, carboy?
Have you added anything to it such as Meta or anything else, and how much?

To be honest, unless I'm making wine using fresh grapes and have to punch the cap down several times a day, I do not stir my wine. You will be fine during fermentation as the yeast will benefit from the oxygen, and the CO2 will protect the wine to a certain extent, but there is a fine line between adding oxygen and oxidizing your wine.
I look forward to your reply.

 

[GaDawg]

I'm not usually the spelking police but stur is spelled stir.

Personally, I try to never limit myself to only one way to spell a word

 

[sour_grapes]

Personally, I try to never limit myself to only one way to spell a word

You mean like: donut/doughnut, czar/tsar, catalogue/catalog, disk/disc, enology/oenology, acknowledgement/acknowledgment, sulfur/sulphur, vial/phial? That sort of thing?

 

[tonyt]

You mean like: donut/doughnut, czar/tsar, catalogue/catalog, disk/disc, enology/oenology, acknowledgement/acknowledgment, sulfur/sulphur, vial/phial? That sort of thing?

Don't forget potato and potatoe.

 

[tonyt]

My questions:
1# How vigurous or long should this sturing be? Ive been doing a normal calm back and forth for about 30s to stur out some gas and mix in the lees.

I actually whip in some air for three days or so then just punch down the head and grape pack after that.

 

[Zule]

Zule,
Can you provide a few more details about your wine and the process that you are using to make it:
Is it a wine kit, juice bucket or fresh grapes?
What type of wine, red, white and the variety?
What type of yeast are you using?
How much are you making, volume wise?
What is the temp of the must and the area that it is being fermented in?
What are you fermenting it in, bucket, carboy?
Have you added anything to it such as Meta or anything else, and how much?

To be honest, unless I'm making wine using fresh grapes and have to punch the cap down several times a day, I do not stir my wine. You will be fine during fermentation as the yeast will benefit from the oxygen, and the CO2 will protect the wine to a certain extent, but there is a fine line between adding oxygen and oxidizing your wine.
I look forward to your reply.

March 10th
It was three types of juice (as in picture, but used two of each) in equal parts. In a 3 gallon arboy. I then started adding sugar. First time using hydrometer, so no room for sugar had to dump some juice out to get hydrometer reading I wanted. Ended up adding more then 3 KG of sugar.

Put in 1/4 tsbp of potassium metabulphite.

About 5-10 minutes later I added my activiated yeast (EC-1118 - Lalvin).

March 11
Added 1 tsbp of yeast neutriant

MArch 13th
Stired. Still no activity. In about 20 EC-1118 - Lalvin batches, this was first time that yeast did not activate. Was not sure if high sugar content or due to not having airlock on right away. Added small amount of inactivted yeast to top of carboy without activiting it (in case first batch was dead somehow)

March 14 & 15
Stired. Added airlock

March 16th
First activity. So much that foam was going into airlock. Cleaned it and removed juice several times during the day and night.

17thCleanerd out airlock in morning, foam issue was gone. when came back in the evening from work I saw lots of bubbling action (no foam). Id never seen anything so active before (not even in a 6 gallon carboy)

21st Stupid mistake. I added another 1 tspb of yeast neutriant. Had some wild foaming valcano on my hands. Lost about 400ml of juice on foam alone.

note: The reason why I use garbage bags is so not direct sunlight hits these carboys. At the same time it doubles nicely if there is some sort of spill.... I also do not know the temp. Probably about 21c.

 

[SBWs]

Your March 10th Steps:

Put in 1/4 tsbp of potassium metabulphite.

About 5-10 minutes later I added my activiated yeast (EC-1118 - Lalvin)

For a 3 gallon batch should only be 1/8 tsp of k-meta and you should wait 24 hours before adding yeast.

With bottled juice you don't even need to add k-meta up front. K-meta is used when using grapes/fruit. It is used to stun any wild yeast.

One other thing I noticed was one of the juices was a blueberry cocktail. Anytime you see the word cocktail check the ingredients, because normally there is very little juice in these. Not saying you can't make wine with them, but 100% juice is better.

 

[sour_grapes]

Don't forget potato and potatoe.

Dan? Dan Quayle, is that you??

 

[Zule]

Your March 10th Steps:

Put in 1/4 tsbp of potassium metabulphite.

About 5-10 minutes later I added my activiated yeast (EC-1118 - Lalvin)

For a 3 gallon batch should only be 1/8 tsp of k-meta and you should wait 24 hours before adding yeast.

With bottled juice you don't even need to add k-meta up front. K-meta is used when using grapes/fruit. It is used to stun any wild yeast.

One other thing I noticed was one of the juices was a blueberry cocktail. Anytime you see the word cocktail check the ingredients, because normally there is very little juice in these. Not saying you can't make wine with them, but 100% juice is better.

I did not know about the 24 hour rule with meta. I used it in my last two batches because I am getting a weird sour/bitter taste. Not sure what it is, figured id try meta incase it was wield yeast or something partially making things sour.

As for the blueberry juice, I did make sure the ingredients were fine. I even tried a mini batch of it fermented right in the juice container (and currently got another 3 gallong carboy full of it). All things considered it tasted very good.