I heard that people used to skim the foam (yeast?) from their fermenting
wine until no foam was visible. Why would this be practical if good
fermentation happens with healthy populations of yeast?

Wine Enthusiast wrote:
> I heard that people used to skim the foam (yeast?) from their fermenting
> wine until no foam was visible. Why would this be practical if good
> fermentation happens with healthy populations of yeast?

I've read a lot on the subject of wine making, and this is the first
I've ever heard of this practice. A search on Google turned up a few
references to the practice in beer making.

http://groups.google.com/groups/sear...st&qt_s=Search

The search above turns up a lot of quotes on this topic. It seems to me
that Beer and Wine are two different beverages, and what may be
beneficial for one may not be for the other. I can't find any arguments
for skimming the foam that might possibly benefit a wine.

Greg

> Wine Enthusiast wrote:
>> I heard that people used to skim the foam (yeast?) from their fermenting
>> wine until no foam was visible. Why would this be practical if good
>> fermentation happens with healthy populations of yeast?

Hmmm, makes me wonder if this is one of the steps in developing a batch of
yeast to use in the future. My intuition says that the remaining yeast
critters are going to continue to propagate until killed off by alcohol or a
dose of meta. I'm wondering if skimming the foam would even slow down the
fermentation by a noticable degree.

>I'm wondering if skimming the foam would even slow down the
> fermentation by a noticeable degree.

I'm not sure I understand the goal; if you want some of the yeast for
later this is one method, but getting it and keeping yeast healthy are
not the same thing. This is a pretty tricky operation from what I have
read.

I'm a novice beermaker but I know keeping yeast from prior fermentation
is not uncommon with beer makers. Their ingredients are available all
year long so if they want to do batch after batch they really don't
have an issue with this. There is a limit to how many times they do it
though.

Wine is different in the sense that for the most part you are
fermenting it over a narrow window of time unless you use kits or
processed material of some sort.

Beer is heavily influenced by the yeast where wine is less so,
especially if it's aged any length of time. I guess that is why they
are more apt to do this than winemakers; if you are using grapes there
is already yeast on them in the bloom, that powdery looking coating on
the skins.

Joe

I'd not skim yeast past the lag phase (i.e. yeast population growth
phase) of fermentation.... Taking yeast from anaerobic alcohol
producing stage back into growth phase is asking for a stuck
fermentation. By that time, they've lost their fatty acid reserves and
aren't as able to handle the stress of another growth phase.. JMHO

Gene

Casey Wilson wrote:
>>Wine Enthusiast wrote:
>>
>>>I heard that people used to skim the foam (yeast?) from their fermenting
>>>wine until no foam was visible. Why would this be practical if good
>>>fermentation happens with healthy populations of yeast?
>
>
> Hmmm, makes me wonder if this is one of the steps in developing a batch of
> yeast to use in the future. My intuition says that the remaining yeast
> critters are going to continue to propagate until killed off by alcohol or a
> dose of meta. I'm wondering if skimming the foam would even slow down the
> fermentation by a noticable degree.
>
>

I have never heard of skimming foam. Would not recomend the practice.

Ray

"Wine Enthusiast" > wrote in message
...
>I heard that people used to skim the foam (yeast?) from their fermenting
>wine until no foam was visible. Why would this be practical if good
>fermentation happens with healthy populations of yeast?
>

As yeast do not know how to swim they will sink to the bottom
of the carboy.
Due to the escaping of CO2 gas some of the yeast will hitch a ride upwards
but few yeast will make it to the surface and even stay there.
So this is not the way to keep the yeast. If you want to preserve yeast,
you will get the lees from the first racking.

There is no good reason to skim the foam of the fermenting wine.

Luc

On Mon, 15 Jan 2007 02:34:34 -0800, Joe Sallustio wrote:

>>I'm wondering if skimming the foam would even slow down the
>> fermentation by a noticeable degree.
>
> I'm not sure I understand the goal; if you want some of the yeast for
> later this is one method, but getting it and keeping yeast healthy are
> not the same thing. This is a pretty tricky operation from what I have
> read.

Beer-makers do this; if you are thinking of trying it Palmer goes into
it under the 'yeast' chapter. He describes several ways to propagate
yeast. You may be able to find it online because the book exists
online at howtobrew.com.

They recommend this book highly at rec.crafts.brewing so I picked it
up; it's worth every penny I paid. It's the best book I have on
brewing. I got the most recent edition at one of our local homebrew
shops. They are going to sell me more stuff because of him...



Joe