I'm doing a Brewmaker Strawberry wine kit for my missus (details on the blog). Following the instructions I have only added some of the water so far, and 3 days in I have to add the remaining water and give it a good shake. With all the beer I have done aerating the liquid during fermentation is a big no no, so what gives with deliberately doing this with the wine while its fermenting?
I'd appreciate any comments/thoughts/experiences on this please...
Thanks.
Brewmaker wine kit - shake after 3 days?
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drbell
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Horden Hillbilly
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Sorry for not replying sooner to your post drbell, but I am pleased that you had the good sense not to aereate your wine by shaking it vigourously once it had started fermenting, it would have undoubtly have spoiled the flavour of your finished wine.
As a general rule, regardless whether you are making a beer, lager or wine, aerate the brew before adding the yeast to allow it to grow, onwards from this point do not aerate.
I have not made the Brewmaker wine kits myself, if the instructions say give it a good shake when topping up after 3 days, this is bad advice as far as I am concerned.
I have topped up the 1 gallon wines myself after the initial foam has died down. A good way of doing this is to mix your cold water with a small amount of boiled water until it is the same temperature as your wine in the demijohn, ideally between 18c-22c. Then gently pour it into your demijohn, if you can try to make it go down the inside edge of your demijohn rather than pouring it straight in, therefore avoiding "splashing" occuring as this can cause areation as well.
As a general rule, regardless whether you are making a beer, lager or wine, aerate the brew before adding the yeast to allow it to grow, onwards from this point do not aerate.
I have not made the Brewmaker wine kits myself, if the instructions say give it a good shake when topping up after 3 days, this is bad advice as far as I am concerned.
I have topped up the 1 gallon wines myself after the initial foam has died down. A good way of doing this is to mix your cold water with a small amount of boiled water until it is the same temperature as your wine in the demijohn, ideally between 18c-22c. Then gently pour it into your demijohn, if you can try to make it go down the inside edge of your demijohn rather than pouring it straight in, therefore avoiding "splashing" occuring as this can cause areation as well.
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CyberPaddy66
The Youngs kits tell you to agitate your demijohn for 3 days after you put the stabiliser and fining's in there.
It's to make the yeast flocculate (whatever) faster and thus make bottling the wine sooner as it'll be clearer, I've read on some forum's that wine degassing involves using a spinney paddle on a drill to agitate the wine quickly but I've never done that myself so wouldn't know what how it works.
The way I understand it (correct I'm if I'm wrong) but Wine and Mead do not suffer the same with oxidation as beer and lager does, if you oxidise a beer after yeast has finished the beef goes off, wine does not go off it just gets old.
It's to make the yeast flocculate (whatever) faster and thus make bottling the wine sooner as it'll be clearer, I've read on some forum's that wine degassing involves using a spinney paddle on a drill to agitate the wine quickly but I've never done that myself so wouldn't know what how it works.
The way I understand it (correct I'm if I'm wrong) but Wine and Mead do not suffer the same with oxidation as beer and lager does, if you oxidise a beer after yeast has finished the beef goes off, wine does not go off it just gets old.
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lockwood1956
Aeration in early stages of fermentation is fine, and indeed useful. But in the later stages the wine needs to be protected from oxygen.
and wine does go off through too much contact with oxygen, It can acetify, and grow all sorts of microbiological spoilage organisms. Mycodermia and other surface contaminants, so topping up well is essential.
Degassing is something completely different, and a tutorial on the subject can be found here
http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=904
hope this helps
regards
Bob
and wine does go off through too much contact with oxygen, It can acetify, and grow all sorts of microbiological spoilage organisms. Mycodermia and other surface contaminants, so topping up well is essential.
Degassing is something completely different, and a tutorial on the subject can be found here
http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=904
hope this helps
regards
Bob