Interview with Inga Stork from Weingut Darting

We’ve met with Inga Stork of Weingut Darting in the most beautiful setting possible and we’ve talked about her experience with Oculyze and the advantages of monitoring the yeast during wine fermentation.

 

Oculyze: Hi, Inga! Could you please tell us a few things about yourself and where we are right now?
Inga Stork: Hi! My name is Inga and we are at the winery Darting, a family-owned winery situated in the center of Bad Dürkheim, with many long-standing traditions and where the whole family is still part of the business.
It is a winery that, of course, as it is customary in the Palatinate region, has a focus on Riesling, but also has a variety of burgundy and red wine options in its portfolio.

Oculyze: Why is monitoring yeast, do you think, so important?
Inga Stork: The most important part of a business is its employees, and we have one employee that is often underappreciated but has one of the most important roles in the whole process, and that is the yeast!
When it comes to yeast, we have the problem that it can’t talk with us directly. The yeast just keeps working and it is our job to make sure it is on track.
That is why we need a solution to be able to see if the fermentation is working as planned.
Traditionally this is done with a microscope. However, this is time-consuming and not everyone has the knack or the patience to sit down and analyze the yeast. In addition, during the fall very little time can be spared as there is a lot to be done.
As a result, we needed to find a simple solution, so we did some research and ended up coming across Oculyze.
The greatest advantage about the Oculyze product is that it is very simple and quick to handle and understand, so one can even give it to the apprentices and explain how it works in just a few minutes.
You will then get all the information you need about your yeast and you’ll know how to optimally move forward.

Oculyze: How often do you monitor your yeast?
Inga Stork: As a rule, we examine our yeast halfway through the fermentation process.
Sometimes the fermentation process will be stagnating, and we need to know what could be the problem. Is it the fault of the yeast? Does the yeast have enough nutrients? Is the yeast possibly too cold or could it be that too many of the yeast cells have died off?
In these cases, we can quickly make an analysis, and see if it’s the yeast causing the problem or if the problem is arising from other factors.
Also, having a quick and easy analysis can be very practical when working with sweet wines. With sweet wines, the sugar concentration has to be maintained at a very high level but the yeast does not always flourish in these conditions, and as such could need a little care.
This is where one would like to see: are there sufficient yeast cells in the wine or do we need to add more? Is an extra inoculation step needed or is the growth proceeding according to plan, just more time is required?

Oculyze: Does Oculyze also help when using additives to help with yeast growth?
Inga Stork: Yes. An additional reason why we want to know how the yeast is doing is that we could add an assortment of different additives to support the yeast’s nutrition and growth.
Sometimes you wonder if the yeast even needs the extra additives, but with the extra support of Oculyze, we can now clearly say: OK now we have to take action, we have to change something, we have to give the yeast more nutrients, or we can just leave it as is because our yeast is doing fine.

Oculyze: Who would you recommend Oculyze FW to?
Inga Stork: I would recommend Oculyze to any winemaker who thinks “for me the microbiological part of what is happening in my wine is important and I would like to support my yeast.”
Oculyze is a simple method to quickly get the answers that you’re looking for.

Many thanks to Inga Stork from Weingut Darting!

Passionate about the beer and/or wine making process? So are we! If you’re interested in finding out how you can use our technology to control fermentation and monitor your yeast, save work hours and improve the cost-efficiency of your business, drop us a line at [email protected] or check out our product pages:

• Oculyze BB 2.0 (Better Brewing) Yeast Cell Counter App + Hardware
• Oculyze FW (Fermentation Wine) Yeast Cell Counter App + Hardware

Also, you can now get access to a fully functional demo account to test our Web App. Completely free of charge and with no commitment to purchase.