You come to the expert armatures and you get no consensus. For my part, I
vote with Jack. The first few days of fermentation are probably going to be
very vigorous and you need a lot of head space so the method I was taught is
to keep it in a food safe bucket about twice the volume of the must. This
allows air to get to the must AND it prevents a major mess. Then when
fermentation slows down and it is important to keep air away from the must I
rack to a secondary with a small head space and use an airlock.

I recommend that you find an easy to follow, easy to read, and well accepted
book that outlines the basics of winemaking. It will probably have the
basics on a few pages. Follow these procedures at least for your first few
batches. Another good way to start is to make a few kit batches. They give
very specific instructions and will get you following some good basic rules.
Incidentally, all kits I have seen follow the open air method.

Ray

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Im new to winemaking and making my very first batch. I used two 49oz
> cans of oregon blueberry puree, 10lbs of sugar, warm water, pectic
> enzyme, acid blend, grape tannin, super yeast, and wine yeast. I
> stirred well.
>
> Now, the place I bought the stuff said to put the airlock on the
> primary fermenter as soon as I am done mixing it up. Jack Keller.net
> says to let it sit for 48-72 hours to assist the yeast in rapid
> reproduction. Which is correct? Should I go pull the airlock out and
> leave the airlock hole open to allow oxygen to get in the primary
> fermenter bucket?
>
> Any other advice? In 5-7 days I'm going to syphon it into my 5 gal
> carboy.
>
> Thanks
>