Juice pail started without me!

[toddphilip]

Hi all - I picked up a pail of Zinfandel juice and when I got it home, it seemed to be bubbling pretty good on its own. I gave it a taste and it's got some CO2 to it. The specific gravity was 1.090.

The question: Should I just chuck some campden in there? I feel inclined to campden it out, then pitch yeast later on. Can I throw the campden in cold must?

Thanks for your help.

 

[robie]

Hi all - I picked up a pail of Zinfandel juice and when I got it home, it seemed to be bubbling pretty good on its own. I gave it a taste and it's got some CO2 to it. The specific gravity was 1.090.

The question: Should I just chuck some campden in there? I feel inclined to campden it out, then pitch yeast later on. Can I throw the campden in cold must?

Thanks for your help.

Does the pail come with the yeast already pitched? If so, just let it continue.

 

[Julie]

Sounds like the yeast was added, I would just let it go.

 

[shen]

It's probably started fermenting on the wild yeast. I would probably add Kmeta to stop the wild yeast. Wait 24 hours, then pitch the yeast you would like to use.

Last year I bought some Zinfandel that had fermented on the wild yeast in the cooler over the winter. It was actually sold as a "young wine." It wasn't terrible. I added some oak, then aged it in a carboy. I just bottled that a week ago.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[Julie]

To try and stop a ferementation that is very active is pretty hard to do and while I am not saying this is not wild yeast to be honest yeast was probably added. Let it go, keep an eye on the hydrometer.

 

[Runningwolf]

Personally I would not try to stop it if it was mine. A lot of pails come with yeast added. If it was not added, I would meke a good strong yeast starter and add that in. It will be stronger and become the dominate yeast.

 

[toddphilip]

It's been drilled into me that wild = bad. I crushed 6 campden tabs and tossed them in. A foam cannon went off and I mopped up the kitchen floor. I'll check SG again tomorrow and pitch yeast.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I really appreciate it. Thanks for the tip about oak too, Scott, how exactly did you oak it? I have a few oak rods available.

 

[Rocky]

Todd, just one thing. Wild is not necessarily bad. The problem with wild is that it is normally unknown and therefore not as reliable in producing a good wine as cultured yeast. Therefore, the safe way is to deactivate the wild yeast and add cultured.

 

[shen]

It's been drilled into me that wild = bad. I crushed 6 campden tabs and tossed them in. A foam cannon went off and I mopped up the kitchen floor. I'll check SG again tomorrow and pitch yeast.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I really appreciate it. Thanks for the tip about oak too, Scott, how exactly did you oak it? I have a few oak rods available.

Sorry about your volcano. I added about 4-6 oz of toasted oak chips to the carboy during the aging that I bought at my local wine making shop. It has a nice oak/vanilla flavor that should get better in a year or so. I call this my Wild Beast Zin.

The California Chianti juice I got last year had already started fermenting by the time I got it, however I didn't stop that. It was much further along than yours. I did exactly what Dan said. I made a yeast starter and added it.

I'm not as experienced as Julie, Dan, or Rocky. I'm sure they know much more than I do, but I can't say that I've ever heard of them adding yeast to the juice buckets prior to delivery. If that's the case, I'm not sure I'd like that.

 

[Julie]

I have bought juice buckets from Consumers Produce in Pittsburgh and the bucket was marked that yeast was added. I now buy from LuvaBella's and I have talked to the winemaker there and he explained to me that they balance the juice buckets and inoculate with Lavlin 1118.

As Dan said, you can make a starter and let that yeast become the dominate yeast. Personally, I go with the the 1118 that it is inoculated with. I haven't had a juice bucket yet that I didn't like.

I would advise you to try and talk to the winemaker from where ever you are buying your juice buckets and ask him/her what they do to the juice buckets before they sell them. And I don't mean to talk to one of the workers there, try and talk to the winemaker.

 

[BobF]

I had Chilean pails, Syrah and Malbec that started fermenting with indigenous yeast. The pails were frozen and started fermenting while icebergs were still floating in them.

These were pretty far along, so I pitched my yeast of choice without adding kmeta. They are both tasting pretty damn good even in their youth.

 

[robie]

Todd, it would have been better had you answered our question about whether or not the yeast had already been added. If the yeast truly had been added already, you wasted your time, some wine, and made a mess for nothing. I guess we will never know.

 

[robie]

I'm not as experienced as Julie, Dan, or Rocky. I'm sure they know much more than I do, but I can't say that I've ever heard of them adding yeast to the juice buckets prior to delivery. If that's the case, I'm not sure I'd like that.

Many, many juice buckets already have yeast added. This is pretty common, especially if the juice bucket is frozen. It is something one should always know before buying the juice. That's why I would never recommend someone try to stop a fermentation until I know if yeast was added or not.

Pre-added yeast is something I really do not like and I can't say why they do it, except maybe they know in most cases the wine will have already started fermenting by delivery time anyway, so at least they can control what yeast it is using. Ugh!

 

[pete1325]

I also think it's wild yeast. My supplier keeps his juice (and grapes) at 32 degrees, when I got my juice home last year and let it warmand it started to ferment.....I added peptic enzimes, nurients and yeast (not all at once) and the wine came out fine.

 

[Julie]

I also think it's wild yeast. My supplier keeps his juice (and grapes) at 32 degrees, when I got my juice home last year and let it warmand it started to ferment.....I added peptic enzimes, nurients and yeast (not all at once) and the wine came out fine.

I have no idea where you get your juice buckets but "thinking" is not a good idea. Sorry the last thing I want to do is argue with anyone but I need more facts from you members who think it is wild yeast.

First off, I guess we need to separate what is a juice bucket and a bucket of juice. Buckets of juice is when I go to Presque Isle or Walker's Fruit Basket and get juice. These I need to add yeast to. Juice buckets are either Chilean buckets in the spring or California and Italian buckets in the fall, these buckets are innoculated with yeast. If the bucket that the must is coming in has the name of the place you bought it from than I bet yeast has been added.

If you think about this the places that sell the juice buckets are getting them from another country and from across the state, their overhead is much bigger than the those places that are selling local juice. So they need to make sure that you have a fermentation so you come back again.