Yeast/Bacteria Contamination

[LittleBearGameFarm]

Good Morning! I am somewhat designing a wine/hobby room in my basement and after reading more, I have a few concerns. In general, the room will be 9' x 8' with a sink and counter on one side and I was going to build a couple insulated closets on the other side. The closets would be 3' wide by 2' deep and the height of the ceiling. Plan is to be able to maintain temp in each closet separately and be ventilated. I was thinking of using one for fermenting and one for secondary, or one for beer and one for wine. The question I have is, if I am fermenting beer with one yeast, can I ferment wine with a different yeast in the same confined area or would I get cross contamination? I also would like to possibly make cheese in the room and I don't know if some of the bacteria used for cheese making could contaminate my other endeavors.

I get bored easily and once winter rolls around, I get antsy. So, I am trying to get everything figured out now and be ready to go. Thanks for any input!

 

[JohnT]

First off, welcome to the forum.

I need a little more info. Do you do kits? Would you be actively fermenting both beer and wine at the same time or will you simply be storring it together?

When it comes to fermenting beer and wine, I do not believe that there is much risk of having any negative "cross contamination".

When in the primary fermenter, the CO2 that is generated creates a positive pressure protective blanket that will inhibit "nasties" from comming in contact with your wine. Once primary is complete and the wine is placed under an airlock, the wine is more or less sealed off.

With Cheese, on the other hand, I might be a little concerned simply because I do not know enough about it. Perhaps one of the cheesemakers could weigh in on this.

 

[robie]

As long as you pitch a packet of yeast to start each fermentation and don't try to rely on native yeast (yeast already in the air), your wine and beer should be fine.

Cheese is another story. I would not try to make cheese in the same room. Similar story for vinegar, except vinegar is even more of a problem.

Make sure you always keep your sulfite levels up where they are supposed to be.

 

[LittleBearGameFarm]

Thanks for the info!