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My wine started without me

Hello winemakers,

I'm making a batch of raspberry wine according to a recipe by CJJ Berry. The recipe says to pour boiling water over the berries, add pectic enzyme and leave for 4 days (stirring daily) before straining off the pulp and then pitching the yeast.

Today was day 4. Whilst straining I noticed a faint smell, sort of like fermenting must (but not quite the same, I don't know how else to explain it.)

I strained the liquor into a DJ a put an airlock on, and sure enough the lock is bubbling.

I guess my must has been contaminated. :( I'm wondering if it's worth trying to save this batch, or should I just give up? I've added two campden tablets hoping to kill off whatever it is. Shall I pitch the yeast tomorrow or shall I just poor it down the drain?

Now that this has happened, I'm not convinced of the wisdom of the recipe - if I'd pitched the yeast on day one instead of day 4, I would think that the wild yeast (or whatever) might not have had chance to get hold. Or would that have prevented the pectic enzyme from working? I'm sure I've seen other recipes that add the enzyme/yeast at the same time.

Thanks in advance, Nick

Reply to
Nick Grey
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That's kind of what I thought as well. I just thought I'd ask the experts in case everyone said "No way, you have x and it's gonna ruin your wine and it's unfixable."

I did, so I'm not quite sure how this happened. I guess something must have got in there since then. :( Or maybe my cleaning wasn't quite as thorough as usual.

Thanks for your help, Nick

Reply to
Nick Grey

Hi Nick, I just started a batch of raspberry yesterday. The berries, sugar and additional chemicals were all combined with the water, which ended up being slightly warm because the berries were frozen. This mixture sat for about 6 hours while my yeast starter was getting started. When it was going pretty good, in it went. It's bubbling nicely now and time is now spent trying to keep the fruit flies away. Seems like they told all their buddies this year! A thought on yours starting by itself, maybe the temperature was such that some gassing occurred as the fruit started the decomposition process. A normal occurrence if temp. was warm for an extended period.

Reply to
Chuck

I thought you had not read the recipe correctly but I checked and you were right on. I wonder if Berry forgot to include campden tablets in the recipe. Four days seems like a long time. While I use Berry extensively I often change his recipes somewhat and I think I would cut the soak time down in this one. One or two days in my normal. I agree though, add the commercial yeast and let it go. I don't think campden will inhibit the wild yeast at this point so it is. It primarily just inhibits reproduction. Sounds like it has had enough of that that campden would not help.

Ray

Reply to
Ray

Sorry, I caused a bit of misunderstanding here by not recounting exactly what I did. I did actually add campden tablets at the start, after the boiling water jad cooled. So whatever it was either survived the campden tablets or got in afterwards.

Not that it really matters anyway.. I've added the real yeast now and it seems to be doing fine. I'll get back to you all in a years time when it's ready for sampling. :)

Many thanks to all who replied.

Ray wrote:

Reply to
Nick Grey

Nick, normal amounts of campden tablets will not kill yeast. The SO2 only stunts wild yeast for a few hours and it does practically nothing to "wine" yeast.

Wild yeast are "real" yeast too and some are quite capable of producing excellent wine. Many wild yeast do not tolerate very much alcohol or SO2. Of course, "wine" yeast do tolerate relatively high alcohol and SO2 levels. That is the basic differences between "wild" yeast and "wine" yeast. See Jakisch, "Modern Winemaking," page 58.

Regards, lum

Reply to
Lum

Might have been interesting to let whatever yeast started in it to finish WITHOUT adding any commercial and see what you got... Might have been great! of course, duplicating it later would have been difficult....

email: daveallyn at bwsys dot net please respond in this NG so others can share your wisdom as well!

Reply to
Dave Allyn

Would be interesting, but I would not do it. The wild yeast may die off at a low alcohol level.

Reply to
Greg Cook

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