Long Fermenters

[grownathome]

Hi all,

Been a long time since I've been on here. Life and work has kept me busy. Still brewing a few batches here and there. Have a question though. My father got me into homebrew about a year ago.

Last year (2014) he wanted me to help him bottle his Tea wine. Will say he let it ferment, without touching it, moving it, anything, for right at a year. Smelling it you could tell there was alcohol in it. However, there was absolutely no taste of the alcohol, nor the effects alcohol would give you. I did notice that ground started to swirl a little bit and my whole body felt really good. Like it was in the right state of 'being.'

Right after we bottled that batch he started another batch, this time of cranberry Juice. Yes, might seem cringe worthy to some people, but he used 100% Cranberry juice NO SUGAR ADDED in it. He added his own supply of sugar from the local store. Fast forward 17 months and a few days (damn near 1.5 years!!!) later, having that be today (4/6/15/) he asked if I would bottle the Cranberry, since I've been doing batches on my own he had faith in me!!!

Again, after taking the airlock off, you could smell the alcohol in there. This time it was a little sweeter than the Tea, but still had zero trace of alcohol taste in it. My body and head felt pretty good after taking a few big swigs, but still felt NO effects of alcohol!!!!

This has me confused and a little flustered as to what it may be, since it smells like alcohol abut doesn't taste or give the effects of it. I have a 1 gallon batch of=/Mango (with a few other fruits in there) going for a little over 7 months now and waiting to cap it off and another of Cranberry Apple (Juice with NO sugar added) going for almost a month now.

Sorry for the long post/rant. But does anyone on here know what it might be?!?! I'm pretty new to wine making still and my dad's been doing it for 10 or so years now...mom doesn't think it's alcohol either and swears not to drink it. Any help or comments would be grately appreciated.

Until then, Happy Brewing

 

[Arne]

If you didn't add any sugar to the cranberry juice the yeast just fermented the sugars out of the juice. Probably not very much sugar so not too much alcohol. That is when you should of used the hydrometer, tells you how much alcohol you can get up front and how much sugar you want to add to get the alcohol up to where you want it. Arne.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Arne
Note that he mentioned this -
100% Cranberry juice NO SUGAR ADDED in it. He added his own supply of sugar from the local store

Yes I agree with arne - it would be nice to get a hydrometer readings
How was this sealed for that length of time ?

I believe that the alcohol and water will separate a bit over time - when and how did you do your sample test ?

Bottom line is you need to know your hydrometer reading from the beginning - I am assuming that your father did not put that much of sugar in the cranberry vs the tea and that is why it is not as strong -

 

[salcoco]

alcohol is a burning sensation in your throat after the tasting. Did this occur?
the smell may be or not be alcohol but just the aroma of the wine or other aromas.

 

[Arne]

Gotcha, Steve. For some reason I read it as he didn't add any sugar. Next thing, did he add any yeast? Arne.

 

[JohnT]

I guess what everyone is saying here is that we need more info. How much sugar did you add to how much volume of wine?? does it taste sweet and , if so, how sweet does it taste.

Assuming that it actually is alcohol that you smell, you have no way of know just how much alcohol is in there. My thinking is that it could be as low as 3% before you can sense the aroma...

 

[grownathome]

He added 2lbs/1 US gallon, I think, which is pretty standard in wine making, could've been more or less memory isn't the best. He lost his hydrometer during the move to our new house and mine ended up breaking awhile back. The people I let try the Tea wine said that it didn't make them feel really drunk but made them have an overall good feeling left in the body. Same goes for the Cranberry, I'm the only one that's tried it yet.

It does taste pretty sweet and you can feel a bit of a burning sensation as it goes down and once it hits your stomach, almost like a whiskey. And yes he used a Red Star yeast packet in it so it DOES have some yeast. After bottling, there was 0 leftover sugars and yeasties left at the bottom of the 5 gallon carboy.

Will also say, last year (this is really irresponsible of me, probably) drank 4-5 8oz glasses of the Tea wine and took 5 (I think) 500mg Vitamin C tablets after drinking. Felt fine for awhile, then I started throwing up quite a bit, went to lay down and it felt like I had some of the best CEVs (Closed Eye Visuals), hence why I said the ground started to swirl after taking the first big gulp of Tea wine when bottling.

Thank you for your guys' input. Hope this helps you guys in helping me!!

Happy Brewing!!