Any idea what this guy is doing?

[smurfe]

Well, he said no on the kombucha.


Smurfe

 

[winesnob]

Is he extracting olive oil?? The regular olive oil we see on the shelves of super markets is actually extract from the leftover must after the first press. Chemicals are added to the must to extract the rest of the olive oil.

 

[rshosted]

I would have to think he is making vinegar then.... This better be pretty intersting after all this frustration.

 

[smurfe]

OK, got another clue. He is not trying to make anything. He is trying to do something. So, anyone got an idea on what he is trying to do? Not what he is trying to make?


Smurfe

 

[rgecaprock]

With the paper towel (must require some air) on topwhich reminds me of my hay infusion beaker at school. is he trying to culture some sort of bacteria or grow a strain of yeast.


Ramona

 

[winesnob]

He is trying to confuse people.

 

[bmorosco]

Has to be some sort of yeast culture...Or he just wants to see how long he can make us do this.....

 

[peterCooper]

HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE'S DOING. That's why he is asking us. We know everything there is to know on this forum (or at least we can pretend that we do).

 

[Harry]

He is trying to mix soy sauce with some sort of oil, If you look at the label you can see an oriental person and some letters like Ninja


Harry

 

[smurfe]

He is trying to mix soy sauce with some sort of oil, If you look at the label you can see an oriental person and some letters like Ninja


Harry

It is not an oriental person on the label and the lettering could be Dutch. This person lives in the Netherlands. Here is the pic.

Smurfe

 

[Funky Fish]

Did you see if he was using oil to protect his wine from oxidation? They used to do that in "the days of yore" - actually, they used to do that long before the days of yore.

 

[redderthebetter]

That's not some sort of pickled ear in the bottom of the bottle is it??

 

[grapeman]

Boy you guys are seeing some strange things - an ear? All I see is the reflection of the curve of the glass bottle. And an oriental guy?

I figured the guy was trying to separate a red and a white wine with some other material. It would have to be about the same sg as the wines so it didn't float or sink. I thought it was just some lees in the middle of the bottle between the red and white. I'm thinking along the lines of theMagma hot sauce where it's separated until shaken.

Edited by: appleman

 

[rgecaprock]

Hey smurfe,


See if you can get some hints for us......it is driving me crazy!!! I gotta know.


Ramona

 

[sangwitch]

yea... I agree. Tell him to let us know!

 

[Pepere]

He's making some strange oriental concoction unfit for human consumption or, he spilled motor oil in his secondary fermentor and is trying to seperate it out before serving.......sort of "decanting" if you will.

 

[smurfe]

Did you see if he was using oil to protect his wine from oxidation? They used to do that in "the days of yore" - actually, they used to do that long before the days of yore.

Funky Fish, you are correct and you are the winner of the prize less contest! LOL Here is the text he posted with his explanation.


Smurfe

Well I grant you this one. Actually it is not during fermenting but during aging.
But you are right.

Ok I will explain.

A lot of discussion is going on about topping up of the cartboy afther you have racked your wine and there is a lot of headspace.
Best way is to move to smaller carboys, but that is not always possible as they are not always available.
Then you can top up with wine, juice water etc.
Some are filling the carboy with marbles to top up, or are using an inert gas like Argon.

I tried to examine the ancient approach. But I wanted to know several things:
- Will the wine oxydise
- will the oil spill due to exposure to oxygen
- will the fluids mix
- will the taste of the oil get into the wine.
- will the oil be spilled through the exposure of oxygen.

Well oil is a widely known preservative in food storage. So I thought it
is not likely to spill over time. But only tests will tell if this is the case in an open jar as opposed in the food industry in a closed tin can or glass jar. Only one way to find out: test it yourself, and that is what I did.

So I took a wine bottle and drank half of it. The other half I split into 2 bottles.

So I have now a bottle with a little bit of wine (look at the picture). I then added a lot of olive oil to one bottle and sunflower oil to the other bottle.
The results are what you are looking at in the picture. Both looked similar.

My thoughts were that if I used a little bit of wine and a whole lot of oil it was more likely to have influence on eachother then if I was going to use a lot of wine and a very small bit of oil.
Said in other words: if this would work, it is certainly not going to spill my wine if I use a small bit of oil on a 3 gallon carboy.

I put a paper tower on the bottle so oxygen could go in but no bugs could get in.
I left it like that for more as a month.

After one moth I racked the wine from beneath the oil.

How to proceed:
Take a siphon and put a small bit of plastic at the bottom and suck.
Now while the plastic stays on the siphon put the siphon in the bottle to the bottom and blow a bit.
The plastic will get off and no oil will get into the siphon.
I will look into this to test for other means. The best way is of course a fermenter with a tap at the bottom.

So now for the results:

The wine from the bottle on which I poured olive oil, was not oxydised and was not spilled. But the wine definately had a taste of the olive oil in it.
Now if you use a small drop of olive oil on a large carboy you are not likely to notice it but nevertheless I would not recommend it (although the ancient Romans did it this way).

The wine from the bottle with the sunflower oil was great.
It was not mixed, it was not oxydised, it was not spilled and there was no of flavor from the oil in the wine.
I am certainly willing to try this experiment in a larger batch and for a longer period.

One month is a short time in wine aging but my results so far are very promising.

Look if this will work or you. Try with small bits of wine and a lot of different oils.

In future times the experiment will continue.

In the mean time it was fun having you all guessing what I was trying to do.

Thanks
Luc

 

[Funky Fish]

Cool! It's such an honor to get this prize...less.


I had heard of that being down in ancient cultures, but I had not heard of anyone experimenting with it nowadays. Thanks for sharing the info!

 

[rgecaprock]

I think it would be fun if we had more "brain teasers" not for any contest but just to keep our brains active. I thought that was fun!! Thanks Smurfe!!




















Ramona

 

[Flossie Mae]

Yea, teasers are cool!