Not pitching yeast right away?

[WildernessMedic]

I'm seeing a lot of recipes that call for mixing in primary then leaving for a day or two before pitching yeast. Or pitching yeast, then waiting a day or two before adding sugar. Can someone explain why these two things are done please?

Is the latter done so the yeast has a day or two to populate and grow, then sugar is added when they stop colonizing and start alcohol production? If so what's the difference from just doing it all at the beginning...

 

[Scooter68]

Never heard of adding yeast before sugar.
Normally you get the must as ready as possible and add K-Metat or Campden tablets to kill off bacteria and stray yeast. Then from 12-24 hours later you pitch the yeast - after the K-Meta has done it's thing. Sugar is needed for the yeast to work.
Also once the yeast has started the fermentation, you will have tough time keeping tabs on the SG.

Where did you see about Pitching yeast first? Except for a 'all natural' fermentation we sanitize (treat with Sodium Metabisulfate) before adding any yeast. And in a natural fermentation folks don't normally add yeast.

Are you talking about the yeast energizer or nutrient perhaps?

 

[salcoco]

the correct method is add sugar to get sg to desired level of about 1092. then add potassium metabisulphite to kill bad bugs. wait 24 hours then pitch yeast.

Sugar addition post yeast addition is normally done to increase alcohol above 12% A heavy sugar content in the beginning make it difficult for the yeast to start. so one method is to step feed the must to get alcohol higher. addition is usually done at sg=1010 and addition increase sg to 1020. continue to step feed each time sg drops to 1010 . to follow this you must have a yeast that will leave in a 16-18% alcohol solution.

 

[WildernessMedic]

Maybe it's a typo? Found it googling recipes.

All I can think is the yeast gets the natural sugars, then adding the sugar afterwards to spike up abv. But if so why do it that way and not add the sugar to get the right SG before hand??

 

[salcoco]

you got this recipe from Jack Keller'e web site. reviewing the recipes posted before and after this recipe they all state put yeast in after sugar. this recipe is labeled as a sweet one, possibly the ferment process does use natural sugar then yeast used added sugar but does not complete the fermentation and the result is a sweet wine. however the next recipe on the list is also a sweet wine but medium body and the yeast is added after the sugar. I can only assume the recipe above is an error.

 

[garymc]

It's an odd recipe. 3 pounds of sugar in what I'm assuming is a one gallon recipe is either a wine that stops fermenting while still sweet or a wine that could be set on fire. If it's left sweet with no k-meta or k-sorbate, I'm wondering where you would store the bottle bombs so the mess would be easy to clean up if they explode or blow the corks. By fermenting whatever unknown amount of sugar is present in the berries and then adding to the sugar, you have no idea of the amount of alcohol and no good way to find out other than guess how much was in the berries and guess how much of the sugar fermented. I wouldn't use this recipe.

 

[PhilDarby]

Basically if you are using roar fruit or vegetable, a lot of recipies stipulate campden tablets, or similar, these are added to kill living organisms (ie) wild yeasts and wild organisms, the active ingredient, from the tablet, evaporates off over the next 24 hours or so, by which time you can add the yeast in the knowledge that most wild organisms are already dead, hence allowing the yeast to populate the must un hindered and without risk of opportunistic organisms.

I don't think there is any need to add the sugar afterwards, especially if it has been heated to aid dissolving, in which case you just allow the sugar to cool down a bit. You may be reading the hand me downs of a very old recipie there from the year dot, which might actually be a very interesting recipie as it sounds like it might be very old.

Could you please show us an example of some of these recipies, im very intrigued as I suspect they are vintage.

@garymc some old style uk country wine recipies call for 3lbs sugar per gallon, ive read a few, im guessing they are intended as a dessert wine, kind of flavour and some old time uk writers I suspect have over emphasised the need for sugar in their recipies, I am in possetion of some classic uk home brew books which stipulate large amounts but they date from a time before accurate sugar calculations where widely available and basically they where the fore runners of modern home brewing, competing with commercial breweries, who didn't exactly want the public to know, so the information might be slightly flawed, which is understandable.

 

[garymc]

The idea is probably that the boiling water gets you by the need for the initial dose of k-meta, but what about the follow-up doses 3 months later and at subsequent rackings? Well, I guess if the alcohol is really high, no worry about infestations, and if blackberry doesn't lose it's color or oxidize like red grape, then maybe it's not needed. But I see it as insurance against misadventures.

 

[WildernessMedic]

Wow I can't believe I didn't remember you have to wait to let the sulfite do it's job before pitching. Duh.

 

[richmke]

In summary, the instructions are:

1) Pitch yeast
2) Wait 4-5 days
3) Chaptalize (add sugar)
4) Wait another 6-7 days

IMHO, for most yeasts, it doesn't make much difference if you add the sugar upfront vs after a few days.

However, with sensitive yeast, too high a sugar level can be bad (why not much grows in honey). Letting the yeast ferment the natural sugar first, and then the added sugar, reduces the problem.