It is surprisingly common among winemakers who have not got that much experience in the art of making wine to basically overlook the very real importance of yeast in the wine making process.
This is surprising for the simple fact that it is actually the yeast that ultimately makes the wine.
Although it is people who are called winemakers, this is because it is they who move, mix and eventually bottle the wine.
However, the real wine maker is the yeast and not us humans! The only way for us to be able to enjoy a glass of wine with our meals, or give as gifts on special occasions to our family and friends, is if it contained a single-celled organism that, for all intents and purposes, is a type of fungi.
This is what wine making yeast is.
Basically it is the organism that causes the fermenting process to catalyze and that is when wine as we know it is produced.
Unfortunately there is no way of being able to determine how or when people began to make proper wines, or when they discovered that it can be rather intoxicating too.
For all we know that whole thing might have come about by pure chance.
No-one has been able to unearth any kind of evidence or literature to give us any clues as to the first wine makers that existed and the methods that they used.
Despite what you may hear or read to the contrary, nobody knows how it all began.
The importance of wine making yeast in the production of wine cannot be overstated.
As a winemaker, or viticulturist, you would need to determine how much yeast to put into the grape juice.
You would need to find out exactly which variety of wine making yeast should be used with your particular vineyard grapes and you also need to know the proper temperature and conditions in which to store the plants.
You would also need to know the right time to add it to the grape juice along with the sugar and other needed nutrients, which assist the yeast to work.
The amount of wine making yeast that you add to the grape juice will determine many factors in the wine that results.
It will determine the flavor of the wine, as well as its color and its alcoholic content, among other things.
This is why you need to do your homework before you begin.
In order for the wine that you produce to be of a superior quality you need to ensure that you know how to properly care for it.
These tiny little plants need to live in an environment that is the right temperature, not too cool and not too warm.
The environment will need to be somewhat acidic and it needs to provide them with sugar.
You will be able to find both standard varieties as well as more specialized varieties that might be more suitable for use in wines meant for romance.
Wine making yeast causes the sugar in the grape juice to ferment and that determines how much of alcohol content the wine you produce will have.
It turns the grape juice into an alcoholic beverage.
Never hazard a guess as to how much wine making yeast you should use.
You need to know the quantity so make certain.
You can find all the answers you might need on the Internet at wine making sites.
This is an excellent resource for information.
Alternatively, you can also consult a wine making guide for answers, so that you can have peace of mind when it comes to the question of how much yeast to include.
Whereas yeast is also used in the production of liquor with high alcohol content, remember wines usually contain low amounts, so you do not want to overdo it, as this would ruin all your effort.