So, I Maaay have never added yeast...

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Crystalcourts

Junior
Joined
Nov 16, 2010
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Hi, I'm new here. I made an account specifically to ask this question, and I hope you find it at least amusing.

This is my first time making wine. My friend and I got some great concord grapes, cleaned them thoroughly with crushed campden tablets, mashed them well and put them in a 10-gallon bucket with a clean plastic sheet securing the top. It was put on a table, and I went and got some champagne yeast from a place out of town. I made a starter bottle, and stuck it on top of my fridge with a cotton covering it so that it could breathe overnight. When I woke up the next day, I was greeted by a giant mess on top of my fridge. I thought I'd given it enough room to breathe, but I obviously made a mistake, so I decided to just get more yeast in a few days when I had time to drive out to the little beer and wine supply shop.

This never happened. I'm a college student. While it may appear that booze is always in the forefront of a college student's mind, it is not. Two months have passed, and I have this 10-gallon bucket of must in the basement on a table. I went down today, and checked the sugar content -- the meter says 0. I was very hygienic with my tools and ingredients, but *something* fermented it, and it smells like wine. It didn't have fur or anything scary or suspicious on growing on it. It doesn't seem vinegar-y. So...will drinking this kill me?
 
Most likely you either didnt add enough sulfite to stop the wild yeast or that the sulfite level dropped enough to let the wild yeast finally start.
 
Depending on how much campden you put in, it may have started a natural fermentation. Only thing it could be....unless the yeast spread through the air. Anywho .... No way this drink should be harmful. If you feel the need for a test, the school's chemistry department should have a way to test PH and TA with test strips.
 
It may be oxidized depending on how much space there was on top unless you had the lid snapped down with airlock as the C02 would have filled that void making a nice blanket or your wine.
 
Hi Crystalcourts,

Welcome to winemakingtalk, glad you stopped in and hopefully before you decide to make another wine you will ask how you should do it here before you start. :tz

No the wine will not kill you. You could chug that down and still live. You might want to get some k-meta and sorbate, add that and then pull some of the wine out of the bucket, warm it up and add some sugar to backsweeten it. Concord taste better sweetened. And go out and get a carboy and airlock to rack this wine into.
 
I actually sweetened it with invert sugar and had the proper yeast nutrient added. I was following "Step by Step Winemaking" by Mary Carey, (c) 1973. Retrotastic. I have a 5-gallon carboy and a couple 3-piece airlocks ready.
 
Drink it - see if u fall over happy or sad! Sounds like it made it on its own - if it smells good, and tastes good, can't see a problem!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top