Can you kill the yeast, I think we did, Winemakers Help!

Hubby did the wine making thing and this is what we did we picked and washed concord grapes 1 gal. mashed and put in 3 gal. disteilled water and then 1 package of yeast all in a clean 5 gal. bucket. We let it set for 24 hrs. the thing is to keep bugs out he covered it with plastic wrap, now I just put the 8 lbs. of sugar in and it smells like wine but I just remembered that yeast is alive and needs to breathe and this mixture is not bubbling, is it alright? Should I add another package of yeast? Did we kill the yeast? I know there is an expert winemaker here somewhere, help me please as we have never made wine before and I was kind of wanting to be drinking my own homemade wine in about a year. TIA!

Hey there... well, i'm no expert, but you can kill the yeast, best thing to cover it with is several layers of cheesecloth. lets gases escape, but keeps creepy-crawlys out..

Also, it may smell like wine, but does it taste like wine? it can change to wine-vinager very easily...

Thanks, It smells like wine and is now bubbling thank goodness. There was about 6 inch of air space so hopefully that was enough to keep it alive, right now I have a t-shirt stretched over it to where nothing can get in there but it can breathe. Gosh I hope it doesn't turn to vinegar. I don't have any cheesecloth, meant to buy some but forgot.

[Edited on 25-8-2004 by goose]