Hello all. First off I've found this forum to be very helpful. Most everything can be found by searching and by doing so I have learned quite a bit. Currently I have two batches of plum wine in seperate primary fermenters. Sadly, I do not have a hydrometer yet but one is ordered. I should have it before I transfer these to secondary which will be 6 gallon carboy's. Anyway, the primary in question has started fermenting on its own. I added everything yesterday at lunchtime including the k-meta. I followed Wade's recipe I found on here for fresh plums for the quantities of additives. Last night, 12 hours later added liq. pectic enzyme. So today I am expecting to add my yeast but when I took the towel off there was already a lot of action going on. Lots of CO2 bubbles, fairly thick cap, smell, etc. What should be done? Add yeast anyway or just let it go its course? Already had added k-meta in a healthy dosage 24 hours ago? Was it just not enough? I'm perplexed? Any ideas guys?
Fermentation started w/out me
- Thread starter jboyer
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Well went ahead and pitched two packs yeast in anyway because I had a couple of extra after adding the yeast to the other primary fermenter. The other primary had not started fermenting on its own, it was also dosed with same amount of k-meta. Each primary's have about 12 gallons of must in them. I'm assuming the wild yeast will probably overtake the cultured since it was already started but any info. would be good? Anyone ever had a wild yeast take over this fast from fresh fruit?
Thanks. I addded a couple gallons of real hot water with the sugar dissolved firtst, then used room temp. water the rest of the way. So, I think the must started out pretty warm. It has cooled down now because my basement is around 65 degrees constantly. Guess I will just let it do its thing and see if the wine turns out ok. I know some people only use wild yeasts and have good success. But I'm still a newb and don't have any experience doing so. Atleast I can compare the finished products since the other primary was inoculated with wine yeast packets.
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Sirs
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Okay, it must work well for you then. I'm hopeful and excited to see how it goes. Would you know how much abv could I expect using wild yeast from your experience? Ofcourse this is provided I added enough sugar, but currently don't have hydrometer. I also used nutrient and energizer as specified on the containers and recipe.
Sirs
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without knowing your starting SG it will be hard to say what your abv will be, all the wines I've made have all fermented dry and all have started back up and fermented dry more than once as I added more sugar to get the abv up more.
Dugger
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I had a similar ferment start with a blackberry wine and pitched my cultured yeast on schedule and as far as I know it took over from the wild yeast, which is what I expected, as Jason mentioned. If you added Lalvin 1118 it should be strong enough to overtake the wild yeast.
This is my first experient making wine and the local wine shop only carried Red Star yeast. I used Montrachet, added less than 12 hours ago after I saw the wild yeast had started, and appropriate doses of nutrient and energizer were already present from the start. This fermentation smells a lot worse than the wine I did from fresh grapes. Almost foul smelling, not nearly as fruity. Would this have anything to do from the wild yeast that started or maybe just plums?
Okay so not a very good morning. Go down to basement to find my batch in question with the wild yeast overflowing and the **** is everywhere. Had to clean the mess up and inspect. The level of liquid in the primary is no more than the one sitting next to it (about 6" head space) and the one next to it is fermenting away with Co2 bubbles and a cap of plums, but not anything like this. Never seen one foam so wildly. Also the must looks like syrup or something. Hard to stir its so dang thick. It does not drip, almost hangs on the spoon, smells good but not sure what to do. Should I just throw it out, probably lost a gallon to the overflow anyhow. The other batch is fermenting like I would normally expect.
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closetwine
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Let it go and see what happens... "bad wine" can be good wine in time. I had some strawberry do this, I just kept on with it and it turned out GREAT! Like alcoholic strawberry jam.... : P
Yea I decided to keep it anyway, could'nt bear to toss it. It has really calmed down a lot after three days of fermenting. Not sure if the wine yeast I added took from wild yeast but its acting like what I would consider normal now. I don't have a scale but I used 6 gallons de-stoned, halved plums to 8 gallons water at first. Added an extra gallon water after volcano eruption b/c I lost some liquid and it looked too thick. The plums are free floating, not sure if I should leave them in for entire primary fermentation though? If so what would be the best way to transfer to secondary carboys and remove the skins and pulp?
danielpego
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you mentioned ordering a hydrometer in your first post, and can i suggest something? order two!!! lol. they are pretty fragile, and since we use them a lot and work with slippery wet hands they tend to fall.
On a side note, I've been looking for some info on freezing plums to use for a future batch but can't find exactly how to. Would I leave them whole? Should I go ahead and cut them in half to remove stones? I just picked them a day ago and they are ripe now. No primary space and need to order more additives. 
SIRS, I too went the wild yeast route on my first batch. I believe if you pitch yeast, it takes about a week before you go to the secondary but I'm wondering approximatley how long if you use wild yeast. My assumption is longer. I know you shouldn't use the calendar and I will take a SG reading this weekend but being a newbie, the anticipation is killing me. Using wild yeast, am I looking at several (2-3) weeks or maybe 10 days or so before goine to secandary.
Yea I'm also wondering the usual time frame for wild yeast. My hydrometer has'nt gotten here yet but my plum that started with wild yeast has been going for five days. It seems to me that the wild yeast may have been a faster fermenting yeast but no way to tell. The batch has seemed to slow down a lot as compared to my other fermenting with Montrachet.
