I'm playing with a yeast starter right now and I've noticed when I shake the mix the yeast gets more active. I'm wondering how this applies to my actual fermentation. So I was thinking I'd let my primary sit still for 2 weeks then move it to a secondary carboy and shake it up. What are some best practices here and what can make the yeast perform the best?

I've got a batch of beer which was bottled last Saturday and a friend insisted I should shake them to assist in the conditioning. He couldn't offer any particular reason, so I was curious if/when it should be done. If it matters, these bottles were batch-primed (I thought he may be thinking of ensuring all sugar is dissolved if it's bottle-primed).

I shook the mead during fermentation and I'm concerned that i may have hurt the yeast, causing it to produce less alcohol. Could this happen, or am i over thinking it?

From chemistry I recall that we were supposed to shake almost everything in order to get the elements to react. With wort, however, we simply dump yeast in and wait 4 weeks before bottling. I would imagine that if we shook the carboy, we could decrease this 4 week time period. Even better if we could make a platform and use a stir plate. Why do we not shake the carboy for this particular chemical reaction? Edit: I am not …