while making wine at home, after it is transferred to the air tight container, should i open the container and
stir the wine while its fermenting or leave it untouched for 3 weeks and then stir later?
You should never really stir wine. During primary fermentation you may want to punch down the cap (the fruit that has floated and collected at the top) calmly to keep it in the wine. You do not want to stir, as this could aerate the wine, and once fermentation has begun you do not want any oxygen to some in contact with your wine. After you rack to secondary, you want it to sit perfectly still to allow it to clear and everything to settle out. Also, neither of these vessels should be airtight, they should both be under airlock. If you try making wine in an airtight container, you are risking a messy explosion.
My general rule is 2 weeks to a month in primary, then another month or two in secondary until the wine is clear enough to read a newspaper through the carboy. This depends on your recipe and fermentation environment, but will give you a good basis to work from.
Feel free to email me anytime if you need help or have any further questions.
