To stir or not to stir

[Alex Tretter]

When doing a juice bucket do you have to stir the juice every day or is that just for when there is fruit pulp or grapes in the must ?? One other question, would it help to add a lug of grapes to the juice before fermentation ? Thank you for your time. Al

 

[jburtner]

I'll stir mine to keep all the goodies in suspension during AF and add grapes or skins if available. Sometimes I'll do a white wine on the lee's where you rack off the initial drop of sediment (Gross Lee's) as AF completes then leave the fine lee's in suspension and stir it up every couple days for a couple months. Sur Lie Method or Battonage is typically done with a Chardonnay but I've done it with some others as well like a Pinot Gris and Viognier.

I have a Chardonnay juice bucket clearing right now that has spent about five months on the lee's and oak and will start another soon because they don't seem to last that long around here once in the bottle...

Cheers!
-Johann