Swirling secondary contents?

[Wannabe]

Was speaking with someone who said they always take their secondary and give it a good swirl once or twice a day. This moves all the contents around and keeps everything mixed. I was a little confused by this but they're been making wine for years now. I've never seen it mentioned on here and seems to me that you'd just be stirring up the lees, wouldn't you? Stir daily in the primary but then I thought after that you would want to disturb it as little as possible.....well, other than when you've racked and are degassing before bulk aging. Do people usually keep their secondary stirred and mixed?

 

[ibglowin]

Sure, your in "secondary fermentation". You want to try and get your SG as low as possible so a gentle stir every other day is a very good thing. There will be plenty of time for things to settle out later.

 

[sly22guy]

If it has fermented dry in the primary then there is no need to swirl it. if it is still in active ferment it is a good idea. I will do that if it has not finished ferment yet. but once its .99 i pretty much let it settle out.

 

[Wade E]

The problem is that viable yeast cells can get buried under lots of sediemnt due to racking early making them struggle to do their job. The other problem there in is that lots of viable yeast can get left behind when racking before fermentation is complete both resulting in possible stuck fermentations. I ferment to dry in the primary myself and I do stir it frequently unti I aquire the desired sg.

 

[robie]

Most don't stir the secondary. Keeping the yeast stirred up can help make sure the wine finishes all the way to dry, but it is really not necessary.

If the wine is a white, some like to stir the lees, as it gives more depth to the finished wine... mainly Chardonnays and sometimes Sav Blancs. However, if you are not familiar with the Surlees process, don't bother, it is not necessary.