Aerating the must

I've brewed beer for a long time and want to fool around making some wine. One thing I've noticed in wine recipes is that there is no step for aerating the must. Now, if you never heat the juice then that makes sense. But a lot of recipes, especially country wines, do boil the water and/or fruit. But they never say to aerate after cooling before pitching. I see some recipes are basically open fermentations for a few days then airlocked. Is this how they aerate? Could you aerate the must, like you do for wort, and skip the open fermentation?

pkeeler said:

I've brewed beer for a long time and want to fool around making some wine. One thing I've noticed in wine recipes is that there is no step for aerating the must. Now, if you never heat the juice then that makes sense. But a lot of recipes, especially country wines, do boil the water and/or fruit. But they never say to aerate after cooling before pitching. I see some recipes are basically open fermentations for a few days then airlocked. Is this how they aerate? Could you aerate the must, like you do for wort, and skip the open fermentation?

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You shouldn't boil fruit- so don't follow recipes that call for you to do that! I do boil some things- like dandelion petals- but don't boil fruit unless you're making jam.

You often stir the must in primary for the first three to five days, to "punch down" the cap, and to aerate. You can airlock the primary if you want, but you still want to punch down any cap that forms, since you don't want the fruit that might be floating to dry out. I airlock my primaries in the summer, when I might have a fruitfly issue. This time of year, I just use a clean towel as it makes it easier to leave the sanitized long handled spoon in there so I can stir once or twice a day.

It seems like those who use a carboy as a primary and airlock them, have to wait 6 months or longer to get most of the off flavors back out of the wine. Those who use an open bucket primary and aerate/degas along the way don't have to wait near that long. It's just a wine makers preference or style more then anything. The big thing is to airlock before the sugar runs low.