Is the length of time to see meaningful fermentation have a correlation to primary size? I am doing my first 10-gallon batch. I pitched the yeast on Tuesday and again 24 hours later, and am just now beginning to see any life to the must. My one-gallon batches usually see vigorous fermentation the same day I pitch the yeast.
Quixote
Guess no one does 10-gallon primaries? Anyway, it did finally start, and start with a vengeance. Sure made me nervous waiting 3 days for fermentation to start showing. Thought I was going to have to dump it and spend another 6-hour day picking grapes.
Quixote
Dump it? Unless it smells of vinegar and you hate vinegar I can't think of a reason to ever dump must.
I think what you saw was 'propagation delay' the yeast multiply at a rate based on many factors such as strain, temp, nutrient availability, oxygen, sugar. It would definitely take longer (all things being equal) for a 10 gallon batch to show visible signs of fermentation versus a 1 gallon batch. Pitching rate is rarely descussed here because most people on the group are making batches smaller than 6 gallons. That affects this too. A good rule of thumb is pitch 1 gram of dry yeast per gallon.
Joe
Thanks Joe. I had begun to wonder, but I was not seeing any telltale tiny bubbles or miniscule amount of foam, even when stirred. What I did for the second pitching of yeast, which in retrospect was probably unnecessary, was to create quite a large starter that had must added in several aliquots to acclimate the yeast. Still the behavior was certainly not what I was used to seeing and had me worried. About the dumping, I realize I had a few more days to try to get the must fermenting, but was beginning to wonder if something had happened to make it unamenable to fermentation. Thanks for the replies...
Quixote
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