airlock on primary fermenter?

You are OK doing it this way. Some may say that you need air during the primary but there is enough dissolved oxygen in the must.

Most of people I know and talked to cover primary with a piece of cheese cloth and use air lock only when must is transferred for secondary fermentation in a carboy. Tee

-- Verba volant, scripta manent.

This is not necessary. The must will have enough dissolved Oxygen for ferment with an airlock attached.

I have done it both ways with the results the same.

Thanks for the feedback. It's still bubbling away, I make my first SG check Monday.

Ken

Ken,

I always use an airlock on the primary. Perhaps that's because I started by brewing beer. But I'm a bit paranoid about having such a large surface area on the wine to pick up tastes, even through a cheese cloth. The best place for me to find a stable 75 degrees, is believe it or not, in my furnace room. I would worry that a cheesecloth would allow my wine to pick up a diesel fuel taste. Another thing I'm paranoid about is fruit flies. I would be afraid that they would have more opportunity to find a wrinkle in cheese cloth to crawl under.

Sometimes a cat will find its way into the room and jump up on top of the fermenter. Imagine the mess that would make if she found that it was only a cheese cloth cover.

Consider also, that the carbon dioxide put off by fermentation will lay on the surface of the must, effectively cutting off contact with the oxygen in the air. So any oxygen in the must used in fermentation is dissolved in it. Each time I test sg, I stir the must, which will pull some air down in. Never had a problem.

John Price

As you can tell, on of off it does not mater much. I just lay a rag over the hole. But you should have checked the SG before you started the wine.

Ray

Oh yes, I did. Guess I should have said "first check since fermantation started". My initial SG was 1.075.

Ken

Hmmmm. That is odd, It should have been up around 1.090 to 1.100. Especially with a kit.

Ray

Ken... u measuring in just juice? or u got grapes buoying ur hydrometer? I'm with ray on the hmmmm. did u spin the bubbles off the hydrometer envelope?

Gene

Well, I thought I had the hydrometer working right. definitely it was just juice (well, concentrate and water mixed). Actually, the range they gave on the instructions was 1.070 - 1.085 so we were in spec.

After seven days in the primary we checked b3efore racking. Instructions said to rack if below 1.010, we were at 1.002 so we went ahead. Biggest problem there was getting the syphon going. I finally submergede the whole tube, then put my fing on it to hold the prime. That worked fine in the primary bucket, I'm a little worried about getting it going from the secondary.

Ken

I really question the kit then. A beginning SG of 1.070 would only yield about 9.2%. The 1.075 that you had would only yield about 9.9%. these are very low numbers as target values for Merlot. If that is what the kit instructions said, sounds like it was a poorly designed kit.

Ray