Fermenter / Batch Fermentation

Question: Homebrewing and primary fermenter questions?

(Posted by: Psilocybin on 2007-04-22 12:52:14)

Primary fermenter started bubbling within a few hours after I pitched the dry wine yeast (activated for 3- 4 hours). It's been two days and now it bubbles (tube going into a glass of bleach:water solution) every few seconds. I can see tiny bubbles forming all around the top of the fermenter, and there is a layer of foam floating on top. 1) Do I stir the fermenter or just let it be? Stirring will increase surface area and so forth.. but it's a bit hard because my fermenter is big and I have a tub running out of the top. 2) Is there any way to tell right now if what I have is wine yeast fermenting, or if it is vinegar bacteria, or something else? 3) When it is finished fermenting, do I decant the wine, leaving the lees? or should I take some lees along to the secondary fermenter? I read that there is active yeast at the bottom and failing to put some of this into the secondary fermenter might result in a stuck fermentation.

Posted by: freesumpin' on 2007-04-23, 19:17:59

1. Leave it be, it does not need to be stirred. It's 'working' and is stirring itself. 2. You have only wine yeasts fermenting if you properly sterilized everything. 3. Leave all the lees. There are still some live yeasts in the lees but there are billions of yeasts cells still in the working wine. You don't need the ones at the bottom. Happy Wine making! Send me a bottle! .