Hi Everyone... I ran into a "situation" today and was wondering if
anyone knows enough about yeast to know if I have a problem.

I have six gallons of Chardonnay fermenting in a 13.5 gallon barrel
(currently at 17 Brix). I have another 11 gallons in the cold garage
waiting until the barrel reaches Brix 10, then I'll rack to a carboy
and then place the other 11 gallons in the barrel and start
fermenting on that.

Okay... My "situation." I walked in the garage today to find the 11
gallons bubbling away! It wasn't bubbling last night, but I did see a
little foam around the meniscus of the six gallon carboy, which made
me concerned. I didn't see rising bubbles like I do today. The
weather warmed a bit today. There was no discernable lees at the
bottom of the glass carboys, so I'm hoping I caught this fast!

I immediately racked the wine in the barrel to another carboy, then
racked the two other early-fermenting carboys into the barrel. I
purposely left about 1/2 gallon of wine/lees on the bottom of the
barrel. I thought that would make a nice yeast starter ready to go.
Regardless of this, I created a yeast starter with enough yeast for
the 11 gallons and pitched it in the barrel.

My concern is, which yeast will take? Obviously I have wild yeast
that's become active. I'm hoping my yeast will take over and dominate
the wild yeast. Everything is fermenting nicely, I just don't know
which yeast is doing what in the barrel! :-(

Should I be concerned? Is there anything else I should do? I'm using
CY3079 yeast.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

-Paul

rec.crafts.winemaking wrote:
> Hi Everyone... I ran into a "situation" today and was wondering if
> anyone knows enough about yeast to know if I have a problem.
>
> I have six gallons of Chardonnay fermenting in a 13.5 gallon barrel
> (currently at 17 Brix). I have another 11 gallons in the cold garage
> waiting until the barrel reaches Brix 10, then I'll rack to a carboy
> and then place the other 11 gallons in the barrel and start
> fermenting on that.
>
> Okay... My "situation." I walked in the garage today to find the 11
> gallons bubbling away! It wasn't bubbling last night, but I did see a
> little foam around the meniscus of the six gallon carboy, which made
> me concerned. I didn't see rising bubbles like I do today. The
> weather warmed a bit today. There was no discernable lees at the
> bottom of the glass carboys, so I'm hoping I caught this fast!
>
> I immediately racked the wine in the barrel to another carboy, then
> racked the two other early-fermenting carboys into the barrel. I
> purposely left about 1/2 gallon of wine/lees on the bottom of the
> barrel. I thought that would make a nice yeast starter ready to go.
> Regardless of this, I created a yeast starter with enough yeast for
> the 11 gallons and pitched it in the barrel.
>
> My concern is, which yeast will take? Obviously I have wild yeast
> that's become active. I'm hoping my yeast will take over and dominate
> the wild yeast. Everything is fermenting nicely, I just don't know
> which yeast is doing what in the barrel! :-(
>
> Should I be concerned? Is there anything else I should do? I'm using
> CY3079 yeast.
>
> Any help or advice would be appreciated.
>
> -Paul
Chances are your pitched yeast will take over. Good luck.
Gene

On Oct 26, 12:51*am, "rec.crafts.winemaking"
> wrote:
> Hi Everyone... I ran into a "situation" today and was wondering if
> anyone knows enough about yeast to know if I have a problem.
>
> I have six gallons of Chardonnay fermenting in a 13.5 gallon barrel
> (currently at 17 Brix). *I have another 11 gallons in the cold garage
> waiting until the barrel reaches Brix 10, then I'll rack to a carboy
> and then *place the other 11 gallons in the barrel and start
> fermenting on that.
>
> Okay... My "situation." *I walked in the garage today to find the 11
> gallons bubbling away! *It wasn't bubbling last night, but I did see a
> little foam around the meniscus of the six gallon carboy, which made
> me concerned. *I didn't see rising bubbles like I do today. *The
> weather warmed a bit today. *There was no discernable lees at the
> bottom of the glass carboys, so I'm hoping I caught this fast!
>
> I immediately racked the wine in the barrel to another carboy, then
> racked the two other early-fermenting carboys into the barrel. *I
> purposely left about 1/2 gallon of wine/lees on the bottom of the
> barrel. *I thought that would make a nice yeast starter ready to go.
> Regardless of this, I created a yeast starter with enough yeast for
> the 11 gallons and pitched it in the barrel.
>
> My concern is, which yeast will take? *Obviously I have wild yeast
> that's become active. *I'm hoping my yeast will take over and dominate
> the wild yeast. *Everything is fermenting nicely, I just don't know
> which yeast is doing what in the barrel! :-(
>
> Should I be concerned? *Is there anything else I should do? *I'm using
> CY3079 yeast.
>
> Any help or advice would be appreciated.
>
> -Paul

Your pitched yeast will likely take over, but the results are
unpredictable.

You probably should have sulphited the must to stun the wild yeast
first.
I.E. add enough sulphite solution to give the wild yeast a hard time,
but not so much to completely inhibit your cultured yeast.
Then, pitch a strong yeast starter 12 to 24 hours later once the
sulphite has had time to partially react so it is not so strong.

This is the same thing that is generally done when the grapes
initially come in--sulphite to stun wild organisms, then pitch the
yeast later so that it has as little competition as possible.

Wild yeast fermentations are un-predictable enough--adding a cultured
yeast to an actively fermenting wild yeast might work out fine, but at
this point you don't know what you will get. You might find more
"off" flavours than you would have had otherwise, as wild yeast often
produce more acetic acid and H2S than cultured yeast.

I would ferment all the batches separately, then blend at the end, in
case one or more batches is spoiled or not up to the standards of the
others. I'm sure this is what you were planning anyway, but it is
even more important now.

Cheers, and good luck.
Chris.

Thanks for the helpful reply, Chris.

Yes... I originally fermented 6 gallons in the barrel with the
remaining 11 gallons in the cold garage. Brix was at 21.5 before
fermentation. When I racked the 6 gallons out of the barrel and
tested Brix on the 11 gallons it was at 21.5, so I saw no change in
the must. I must have caught it immediately after fermentation
started. Hopefully this will work in my favor in terms of the CY3079
taking a dominant role in fermentation.

When I racked the 6 gallons out, I left about 1/2 gallon knowing it
would be an excellent yeast starter for the 11 gallons. I also
created another yeast starter for the 11 gallons and pitched that too,
so that barrel has TONS of CY3079 in it! Unfortunately I didn't hit
the must with meta. SO2 was at about 15ppm for the 6 gallon batch. I
didn't want to increase it too much for fear it would mess up ML
fermentation when Brix hits about 10 or so.

The 6 gallon batch will never mix with the 11 gallon batch until aging
is complete and bench trials are performed to determine a proper
blend. It'll be very interesting to compare the flavor of the two
batches to see if there's a noticeable difference.

Wild yeasts are "like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're
gonna get!" :-)

But, with that said (as you pointed out), wine was made for thousands
of years using wild yeast so there's a good chance things will work
out fine, or not, or maybe better, or worse. What's nice is I have
that other batch properly fermenting on CY3079 to compare. I just
hope it's not all a waste. At $18.50/gallon, that's an expensive
waste!!! :-o

-Paul