Stiring during fermentation

[HeyZeus]

Ok so I'm not brewing cider, I'm brewing a fruit in New Zealand that we call Feiloa. This obviously isn't cider but it's fermenting fruit nonetheless and I had nowhere else to post this thread.

I've looked online at a number of Feijoa wine recipes and some of them are quite different from the other, so I've decided to experiment with a combination of these recipes.

My question is: All the recipes say to put the flesh of the fruit in the fermenter, mash to a pulp, add sugar and water etc... I have done this and am about to pitch the yeast. I've noticed that the pulp has separated from the water, although it looks like the water has taken on some of the flavor of the Feijoa. I want to know if it would be a good idea stirring the wort daily, if at all, until fermentation is complete? I ask this because it would seem a lot of the flavor and sugars would still be in the fruit pulp that has settled on the bottom and stirring would help release these flavors? Another concern would be disrupting the cake while stirring.

Any ideas?

 

[allthingsgiant]

This sounds similar to making wine. Winemakers push down the "cap" daily, the skins and "meat" of the grapes, to ensure the flavor goes into solution. You won't hurt anything doing this during fermentation, just make sure you use a clean stir stick. I use a stainless potato masher when I make wine.

 

[Mr_fleabite]

it won't hurt to make it homogeneous, my guess would be if you did it too aggressively you could extract a lot of flavor compounds (maybe desirable, I have no idea what this fruit is or how it tastes). I think it's pretty safe to say stir though fermentation but you'll need to stop as soon as fermentation ends so you don't oxidize your fruit wine.

 

[Magnus314]

I don't know Feiloa, but generally in winemaking you want to push the fruit and the "cap" down into the "wine" a few times a day for the first week or so at least.

If you're using wine yeast, they generally love the extra oxygen, and if you don't "punch down the cap" it'll get moldy or even acetobacter/vinegar bugs.

 

[Jaybird]

What yeast are you planing on using? If you are using a wine yeast, yes push all you want. If you are using a beer yeast, I would pitch, cap and forget for a couple of weeks.

Good luck on the project.

Cheers
Jay

 

[HeyZeus]

Thanks for you comments everyone.

I'm using a Gervin GV5 white fruit wine yeast. I'm an amateur when it comes to fermenting fruits but I presume because it's a white fruit wine yeast that I will treat the fermentation temperatures as you would with a white wine, ideally between 7 - 16? This might be difficult as we're coming out of summer over here.

I'll push the flesh down daily until fermentation has complete then transfer to the secondary and leave untouched.

This might be a stupid question but will I need to sterilize the stirring paddle every time I do this or will it be ok if just cleaned it thoroughly?

 

[Magnus314]

I would sanitize. I just set a bucket of star san next to the fermenter and dunk the clean stirrer (I use a paint mixer) each time before it goes into the must.

 

[WVMJ]

Stir and Stir your must some more, try to keep the yeast and pulp mixed up a couple of times a day, close to when its done stop stirring and let the yeast and pulp settle to the bottom and try to rack off most of the wine without the pulp into a carboy. What does this fruit taste like? Is it a light colored wine or deep red or purple juice? Do you have any hydrometer readings? WVMJ

 

[HeyZeus]

The fruit has a taste that is hard to explain. It's been described as a mix of Strawberry, Guava and Pineapple. The colour is similar to that of white wine when fermenting. When it comes into season in New Zealand there is an abundance of it. People can't give it away!

With regard do hydrometer readings, the OG was 1.07 and I'll ferment it down to 1.01.

 

[abrewnoob]

The fruit has a taste that is hard to explain. It's been described as a mix of Strawberry, Guava and Pineapple. The colour is similar to that of white wine when fermenting. When it comes into season in New Zealand there is an abundance of it. People can't give it away!

With regard do hydrometer readings, the OG was 1.07 and I'll ferment it down to 1.01.

Hey bro nice to hear your doing some fejoa...i was thinking about doing a batch aswell and after reading this thread its gonna be next on the list! Oh and by the way if you havnt useds GV1 yet its awesome, itl do everything and activates really quickly...also ferments to about 10-12% ive found that to be a good yeast for doing fruit wines