Fruit flies (I have no idea what I am doing!)

[lirpa11]

Hi! I am a newbie to all of this, trying to figure my way around things!

So I have made a very basic muscadine wine. I found a recipe online as I had so many muscadine grapes. The recipe said to ferment the wine in bottles with cheese cloth over the tops. I had it in the laundry but the fruit flies drove me crazy as I was constantly battling them.

I moved the wine to a closet and now there are fruit flies in there AND some are in my wine bottles, floating...

I was going to throw it all out and call it quits. Hubby said no he wants to at least try some before we scratch it all.

Is my wine done for? How can I keep the pesky things out!?!

Also I have the wine in a closet as it is getting colder outside and I thought that might slow the fermenting process.

FYI, as stated I am trying this on a very basic level! no testing or anything has been done. I'll be reading up on here in case I give it another try to see what I need to do/buy.

 

[ibglowin]

You can catch the fruit fly's in a small cup/bowl if you fill it with Apple cider vinegar and then a squirt of dish soap. Just leave it out and all the fruit fly's will be drawn to it by the vinegar and the soap will drown them in it.

 

[lirpa11]

Thanks, I will do that and put it in the closet tomorrow.

Is a closet ok for fermenting? We have a old musty basement area, but its quite cold down there.

 

[ibglowin]

Warmer is better than colder!

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to winemaking! Battling fruit flies is something we all commiserate on!

Another thing to do is this. You have your wine in a rather confined space. your can take a vacuum cleaner and suck them right out of the air. With a little practice, you can get quite a few of them.

Definitely set out a trap. you can take a 2 liter soda bottle, cut off the top third to form a "funnel", then insert the funnel (upside down) into the bottom third of the bottle. fill with about 1 inch of wine and a drop of liquid soap. The flies fly in, can not get out, then drown.

Between the vacuum and the trap you should get the flies under control.

 

[Runningwolf]

I agree with the shop vac!

 

[grapeman]

At the least you should have started in gallon jugs so you could add a $2 stopper with a $1 airlock to keep them out. Wine bottles are not a good choice to ferment in.

 

[Larryh86GT]

Hi! I am a newbie to all of this, trying to figure my way around things!

Even some of us that have been making wine for some time are still trying to figure our way around things! I have fruit fly traps all around my house.
Larry

 

[woodlan]

I keep a few of these traps around the winery all the the time just in case

 

[montanaWineGuy]

Welcome to winemaking! Battling fruit flies is something we all commiserate on!

Another thing to do is this. You have your wine in a rather confined space. your can take a vacuum cleaner and suck them right out of the air. With a little practice, you can get quite a few of them.

Definitely set out a trap. you can take a 2 liter soda bottle, cut off the top third to form a "funnel", then insert the funnel (upside down) into the bottom third of the bottle. fill with about 1 inch of wine and a drop of liquid soap. The flies fly in, can not get out, then drown.

Between the vacuum and the trap you should get the flies under control.

Sounds like a good plan to also deal with Yellow Jackets.

 

[Floandgary]

Leave no container/vessel open for insects/debris to get in. Cheesecloth, loose lids, airlocks, and shop-vac will keep the little moochers out!

 

[JohnT]

Sounds like a good plan to also deal with Yellow Jackets.

the only thing i hate more than fruit flies is yellow jackets!

 

[sour_grapes]

the only thing i hate more than fruit flies is y̶e̶l̶l̶o̶w̶ ̶j̶a̶c̶k̶e̶t̶s̶ empty carboys and wineglasses!

There, I fixed it for you!

 

[lirpa11]

Thanks everyone! I was going to throw it all out, but hubby wanted to taste it.

It tastes ok, but the fruit fly issue grosses me out.

As for my recipe, it was very very basic and found on the internet. I figured I have nothing to lose, so why not try it. The recipe said to wash the grapes, mix with distilled water, sugar, yeast, then put into containers (gallon jugs) with cheesecloth covers. Then after 9 weeks once fermenting stopped, to bottle it.

Problems I found were fruit flies got inside the cheesecloths, and some containers had the dreaded white film over the wine. I now know this is from a bacterial growth from too much headspace/airspace.

I do not have any winemaking kits or supplies, but guess I will be looking into them as I want to try this again!

Just wondering, does the wine always taste sweet or can it be dry? I'll look into it on here anyhow, but just wondering.

 

[wineforfun]

Thanks everyone! I was going to throw it all out, but hubby wanted to taste it.

It tastes ok, but the fruit fly issue grosses me out.

As for my recipe, it was very very basic and found on the internet. I figured I have nothing to lose, so why not try it. The recipe said to wash the grapes, mix with distilled water, sugar, yeast, then put into containers (gallon jugs) with cheesecloth covers. Then after 9 weeks once fermenting stopped, to bottle it.

Problems I found were fruit flies got inside the cheesecloths, and some containers had the dreaded white film over the wine. I now know this is from a bacterial growth from too much headspace/airspace.

I do not have any winemaking kits or supplies, but guess I will be looking into them as I want to try this again!

Just wondering, does the wine always taste sweet or can it be dry? I'll look into it on here anyhow, but just wondering.

Not nearly enough info here to make a decent guess as to things.

Few thoughts:
a. don't worry about the fruit fly(flies). We ingest much worse throughout the day and don't even know it.
b. you REALLY need to at least get a hydrometer(very inexpensive) so you can calculate ABV and know when your wine is done fermenting.
c. I paid $60 for my 1 gal. winemaking kit, that came with chemicals too. It was what I started with so I could learn the process(es).
d. normally you would ferment your wine dry, then add some sugar back to the level of sweetness you are looking for.

 

[lirpa11]

Not nearly enough info here to make a decent guess as to things.

Few thoughts:
a. don't worry about the fruit fly(flies). We ingest much worse throughout the day and don't even know it.
b. you REALLY need to at least get a hydrometer(very inexpensive) so you can calculate ABV and know when your wine is done fermenting.
c. I paid $60 for my 1 gal. winemaking kit, that came with chemicals too. It was what I started with so I could learn the process(es).
d. normally you would ferment your wine dry, then add some sugar back to the level of sweetness you are looking for.

Thank you! I am looking at wine making kits now. I'll get one for my next batch and I'll find a hydrometer to calculate the ABV. I'm not worried about high alcohol content, more about it tasting nice. I like red, so will try that soon.

The muscadine recipe called for sugar to be added before fermenting the wine.

 

[wineforfun]

That was probably to get the SG up to a decent starting point. Most recipes will have you adding sugar to the desired SG.
Most kits (especially higher end) will not need sugar additions up front.