In the world of brewing I think there are two ends of the spectrum. There is the Charlie Papizan, relax, have a home brew end, and on the other side is the more scientific, Dave Miller kind of approach. I think most of us fall somewhere along the spectrum rather than pinned at one end. I am always interested in learning more, but I am not a scientist. I have learned a lot just by doing, and then if I am curious, I will go back and try and find out why things turned out the way they did. I can write down my brews and copy the recipe if I want to make it again, but I find it better to know why things work the way they do.
With wines things can take longer and thus I forget more about what I did when I brewed if I have not written it down somewhere. In a lot of brewing beer people use liquid yeasts and starters to ensure there is a strong fermentation. I have read, and found it to be true, that with dry yeasts it is not good to use a starter. Most wine is fermented using dry yeast. If you google around you can read about the different processes of getting the yeasts to you, and as I have learned the process of making dry yeast is not as clean and thus any replication (making starters) can amplify (like a copy machine) any imperfections. When using dry yeasts I have always seen better results using no starter, but a good dose of yeast nutrient.
I prefer liquid yeasts but for wines, there doesn't seem to be as much variety in the liquid category. Do you have a favorite yeast, or do you use wild yeasts when fermenting, let me know in the comments.
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