Skimming Foam/Yeast?

I've read a lot on the subject of wine making, and this is the first I've ever heard of this practice. A search on Google turned up a few references to the practice in beer making.

The search above turns up a lot of quotes on this topic. It seems to me that Beer and Wine are two different beverages, and what may be beneficial for one may not be for the other. I can't find any arguments for skimming the foam that might possibly benefit a wine.

Greg

Hmmm, makes me wonder if this is one of the steps in developing a batch of yeast to use in the future. My intuition says that the remaining yeast critters are going to continue to propagate until killed off by alcohol or a dose of meta. I'm wondering if skimming the foam would even slow down the fermentation by a noticable degree.

I'm not sure I understand the goal; if you want some of the yeast for later this is one method, but getting it and keeping yeast healthy are not the same thing. This is a pretty tricky operation from what I have read.

I'm a novice beermaker but I know keeping yeast from prior fermentation is not uncommon with beer makers. Their ingredients are available all year long so if they want to do batch after batch they really don't have an issue with this. There is a limit to how many times they do it though.

Wine is different in the sense that for the most part you are fermenting it over a narrow window of time unless you use kits or processed material of some sort.

Beer is heavily influenced by the yeast where wine is less so, especially if it's aged any length of time. I guess that is why they are more apt to do this than winemakers; if you are using grapes there is already yeast on them in the bloom, that powdery looking coating on the skins.

Joe

I'd not skim yeast past the lag phase (i.e. yeast population growth phase) of fermentation.... Taking yeast from anaerobic alcohol producing stage back into growth phase is asking for a stuck fermentation. By that time, they've lost their fatty acid reserves and aren't as able to handle the stress of another growth phase.. JMHO

Gene

Casey Wils>>

I have never heard of skimming foam. Would not recomend the practice.

Ray

As yeast do not know how to swim they will sink to the bottom of the carboy. Due to the escaping of CO2 gas some of the yeast will hitch a ride upwards but few yeast will make it to the surface and even stay there. So this is not the way to keep the yeast. If you want to preserve yeast, you will get the lees from the first racking.

There is no good reason to skim the foam of the fermenting wine.

Luc

Beer-makers do this; if you are thinking of trying it Palmer goes into it under the 'yeast' chapter. He describes several ways to propagate yeast. You may be able to find it online because the book exists online at howtobrew.com.

They recommend this book highly at rec.crafts.brewing so I picked it up; it's worth every penny I paid. It's the best book I have on brewing. I got the most recent edition at one of our local homebrew shops. They are going to sell me more stuff because of him...

:)

Joe