Quick question for wine making experts.

I've got a whole load of grapes in the garden which I'm going to attempt to turn into wine.

But I've just realised I've got no sachets of wine making yeast. All I've got is:

– one last bottle of "live" elderflower champagne, made with wine yeast. Could stick some of that in?

– bread yeast ?

– whatever yeast is kicking around on the skin of the grapes?

All advice gratefully received.

Ta!
Luke

I don't think you'll get far with any of the above. Of the 3 options the wild yeasts on the skins are the only possibility but you'll be lucky if there is enough to do the job. Bread yeast is a different strain so no good, and you need the right amount so pouring some random liquid in would not be a good idea, never mind the effect of the elderflower on the final product.

If I were you I'd just wait and get some of the proper stuff so you don't end up wasting your crop. Good luck!

Second what foggy says – get the right stuff or you’ll end up with vinegar if you’re lucky

Plenty of good home brew supplies on the net or even flea bay

Ok, I’ll order some proper stuff and chuck it when it arrives.

That worked fine for the elderflower, where I gave the natural yeast 3 days to get going and then chucked in the wine yeast.

I have got a mountain of grapes though. Who’d have thought one tiny plant could go quite so berserk?

Wild yeast will do fine, if a little slow starting. We let a couple of batches go every year at work.
The yeast in the elderflower will probably be all dead by now.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the same yeast used in bread & wine, so it will do the trick. A wild ferment starts with other strains, but only Saccharomyces cerevisiae can tolerate alcohol over about 5%.
Vinegar is usually a caused by a lack in cleanliness or not keeping your vessels full & sealed after ferment.

Vinegar is usually a caused by a lack in cleanliness or not keeping your vessels full & sealed after ferment.

Yup, that was the problem – it was only about a third full. Newbie error.

EDIT: btw, I’m guessing you’re not an IT manager…. ?

Er… no. Winemaker in Tassie.
So feel free to ask away. In the morning as it’s bedtime down here.

Well, it’s started fizzing.

But it smells of pear drops. Probably v. toxic.

Good luck

Well, for the benefit of anyone trying the same thing…

The natural yeast got going pretty quickly and was happily fizzing away, but the smell was not right at all. Possibly there was nothing wrong – I don’t know – but not wanting to end up with 20 litres of chain degreaser I chucked in some campden tablets, which slowed it down a bit.

Some packets of yeast arrived on Tuesday, so I put one of those in. It now smells a lot more sensible. A sort of yeasty, slightly alcoholic grapey smell.

I chucked in some more grapes that I found on the vine, which is why it looks like alien brains.

Erm? You probably should have tried to squeeze all the juice out of the grapes before ferment. Leaving the juice to settle overnight would leave nice clear juice on top.
But anyway, it should be alright if a little bitter.
I’d go easy on the camped tablets at this stage as well, you could kill the yeast.

Yes, most of the grapes did get the squeezing treatment. Just the few leftovers I found afterwards got chucked in skin, tannin and all.

They’re pretty sweet anyway tbh. I think they’re actually regular dessert grapes.

I’d go easy on the camped tablets at this stage as well, you could kill the yeast.

I think I’m finding wine making is actually more complicated than bike maintenance….

basic yeast guide for home use below. never been keen on the wild yeast thing myself as too many variables but it’s OK when it works out.

http://www.winemakermag.com/guide/yeast

glad it’s all happening now. let us know how it turns out!

Bottled it.

Started at around 1080 (bit low I now realise) and finished a bit below 1020. So I guess it’ll come out weak and sour, just like …

Anyway, it’s still live. Amazing stuff is yeast. We’ll see what it’s like in a month or so.

It’s a bit cloudy. 🙄

Yes, it is isn’t it. I guess I should have put some random chemicals to clear it, although I would have thought it ought to clear somewhat anyway. The elderflower certainly did.

Worst case, I’ll distill it 🙂

The easiest way to clear it is just letting it stand somewhere cold for as long as you can. Then just siphon off the clear wine & leave the crap.

It’s started exploding. Better drink the rest quick.

is it still fermenting?

How long has it been going?

Well, it’s been bottled around a week. It should have carried on fermenting in the bottle.

Looks like the smaller 1L bottles were OK, but the larger, 2L ones (which were previously just ordinary coke bottles) were not up to tje job.

Tastes kind of OK actually, although a bit sludgy from being shaken up.

I’ll just go and check on the taste again, just to make sure.