# How much yeast to add to primary fermentation?



## Siwash

The Lavelin site says that a 5 gram pack of yeast for every 5 or 6 gallons of wine should be added to fermentation. But what I am not sure of is how to measure how many gallons I've crushed in order to add this amount. For instance, if I crush 15 lugs (36lbs) of sangiovese how many gallons is this? I know that 1 lug yields about 2 to 2.5 gallons of wine but that is finished product. The amount at the point of crush is obviously higher. 

So how much would 15 or 20 lugs require? Any calculation/formula?

Thanks!


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## spaniel

I interpret that as the amount of yeast per gallons of must. At my scale, I just crush, measure my volume of must, and add yeast accordingly. I don't weigh but I know from my number of vines the rough volume I will get so have enough yeast on hand. I crush into 5gal buckets and transfer every 5gal, so I track my total volume.


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## Siwash

I have a manual hand-crank crusher... I just lay it on top of my fermentation vats and crush away.. I cannot get an exact handle on my volume when i crush. Only once it is pressed and transferred into carboys/demis


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## NorCal

My calculations are:
36 lbs of grapes
3.6 gallons of must
2.2 gallons finished
11 750ml bottles

Most yeast are 1-1.2g of yeast per gallons of must.


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## Siwash

That works out to about 9 packets of 8 grams of yeast to 20 lugs... I may add 10 to be on the "safe" side.


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## Billpizzaiolo

Siwash said:


> The Lavelin site says that a 5 gram pack of yeast for every 5 or 6 gallons of wine should be added to fermentation. But what I am not sure of is how to measure how many gallons I've crushed in order to add this amount. For instance, if I crush 15 lugs (36lbs) of sangiovese how many gallons is this? I know that 1 lug yields about 2 to 2.5 gallons of wine but that is finished product. The amount at the point of crush is obviously higher.
> 
> So how much would 15 or 20 lugs require? Any calculation/formula?
> 
> Thanks!



For the past years (lots of them I lost count) I have been using one packet for each 36 lb box of grape and have had very good results. I generally crush 360 lbs of grape each year.


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## JohnT

Billpizzaiolo said:


> For the past years (lots of them I lost count) I have been using one packet for each 36 lb box of grape and have had very good results. I generally crush 360 lbs of grape each year.


 
That pretty much is what I use. I packet per lug. 

I know that this is much more than is really needed. I do this thinking that I can get a faster ferment and sooner.


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## Siwash

Love the name Bill!!


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## Brian

*Yeast*

Generally 1 g of yeast for each gallon of finished wine. 36 lbs of grapes yields 2-2.5 gallons so to be on the safe side 3 g per lug. Just my opinion.


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## MisterEd

I have a vintner friend who has used 1 regular sized packet of yeast to inoculate up to 30 gallon batches of must. He's done it for years with never a failure. Research the number density of individual yeast cells per milliliter and you can see why he has no fermenting problems. Yeast suppliers obviously welcome a more generous approach to it's use.


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## Siwash

MisterEd said:


> I have a vintner friend who has used 1 regular sized packet of yeast to inoculate up to 30 gallon batches of must. He's done it for years with never a failure. Research the number density of individual yeast cells per milliliter and you can see why he has no fermenting problems. Yeast suppliers obviously welcome a more generous approach to it's use.



Well maybe some wild yeast is helping him along the way...


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