shaking the primary

I've been told, by a fellow homebrewer, that after 4-5 days in the primary fermenter, its a good idea to give the container a decent "shake", in order to get any inactive yeast back into gear.

Has anyone does this, or any other method? Will this oxygenate my beer and give me off tastes?

My SG was around 1.069 and I used a starter.

This is common. Some people with plastic fermenter buckets just pick it up by the handle and twist their arm back and forth in a circular motion to rotate the bucket. I wouldn't worry about the oxygen, the leftover yeast needs to it.

After 4 -5 days of fermentation you do not want to shake the carboy, the yeast will not use the O2. It will remain in the beer and after a while it's very possible your beer will taste like cardboard.

It is okay to swirl the carboy to get the yeast back into suspension, just don't splash.

after 4-5 days theres no more o2 left in the primary. CO2 is heavier and thus pushes the O2 out first. but i still wouldnt shake it. i sometimes give it a swirl without splashing like monster mash said.

I've heard the same thing...I only do this with heavy gravity brews. After the first week I'll give it a good swirl. I don't shake it up but just enough to stir it up a little. Like someone above me said, there is no O2 left in the jug to ruin the beer and the C02 will just continue to bubble out.

Ive heard this is true with wines also .

I swirl the fermenter around in a circular motion after the primary has slowed down. (4-5 days) I highly recommend against doing it when the primary is active as it could cause enough activity to foam up to the airlock and blow the top off. I've simply moved primaries that were at peak fermentation and the damn airlock was so active it blew most of the water right out. Luckily I had a 7.9 gallon primary, cause there was enough krausen to put a little wort into the lock.

Just keep in mind, if you swirl it you really need to let it sit another week to clear out. Swirling, then racking to a secondary the next day is kinda counter productive.

Heh, I added some mroe yeast nutrient/energizer to my mead this weekend, and I should have noticed there was some CO2 in there when the damn thing formed a foam head 2 inches high... But I swirled/shook it a bit to mix the nutrient in, and the CO2 roared out of the mead! I put my hand over the (closed) top of the airlock, and felt a steady stream of gas, like somebody was letting out a balloon. Wow!

But I think mead tends to stay very gassy for a long time, because it ferments so slowly. but wow!