I made homemade hillbilly wine with a condom...

originally posted by: Lysergic
You mean you guys don't wear a condom when you make wine?

Not since I found out that I was using the wrong single celled organism. lol

a reply to: RAY1990

Ay. Thank you. Any and all information is appreciated at this point, the early days of an interest I think I'll hold onto and delve deep. Going to have to start some small experiments with making yeast me thinks. In the end I'll probably do my first serious fermenting with store bought yeast, but I'll tinker with trying to make my own. Never know what I'll learn if I don't try.

Are there any dangers to producing and using naturally cultivated yeast (instead of store bought)?
Any ways to tell if you've got the wrong or right yeast?

Sorry for all the Q's, doing so much research on the topic, it's nice to have info from someone instead of a page for a change.

Thinking I might make a thread at some point, asking for tips and tricks for noobs like myself... I'll take a look around ATS and see what threads other members have posted.... aaaaand, I'm off

a reply to: Jimjolnir

Honestly it's something I've never tried.

I can imagine a safe way to test would be small scale, a few hundred ml of sugar water and yeast.

Get a hydrometer and learn how to judge what is suspended in the liquid. Chemistry isn't my strong suit but as the yeast eats sugar the water will become "lighter" since the sugar will become carbon dioxide and alcohol.

I guess another test could be capturing the gas that is released from the liquid, using a bung and a bit of syphoning tube you could have the gas be released into another vessel that contains calcium hydroxide (limewater) if the gas being released is carbon dioxide (a by-product of fermentation) the limewater will slowly turn milky, a cloudy white.

Again I hope this helps, if you do get anywhere make a thread I'd be interested in seeing how it goes

a reply to: RAY1990

Woooah!

Thank you for those insights!

I'm no chemist, either, but this bug is biting hard and not letting go!.

I do need to get a hydrometer, amongst other doo-dads, but I'll be looking into that limewater process as soon as I can. That sounds awesome, and simple enough. I think I'll first try it with regular brewers yeast as a control.

I'll report back at some point in the form of a thread if/when I'm successful at cultivating some natural yeasts.

a reply to: Jimjolnir
Whoa Jim lad, you don't need to get a hydrometer. You only need one of those if you want to know the exact alcohol content.
Let me tell you. For a first go all you need is a bowl that holds a gallon, a demi-john that holds just over a gallon and a bung with an airlock. just make a gallon for a start. A nice easy recipe is parsnip. Get 3 lb of parsnips, 1lb of sugar, a handful of raisins and a sachet of dried yeast. Only use half the sachet.
If you haven't got a gallon pan do it in two goes, just split the parsnips, raisins and sugar into two parts. Put the parsnips and raisins into a pan of cold water, boil them for 10 minutes and take off the heat and let it cool down a bit then strain the liquid into your bowl. Now dissolve the water into the liquid. At this stage get a mug of tepid water (just finger warm) add a spoonful of sugar and stir in the yeast. Set that aside as it takes a while to start to brew.
Let your wine mixture cool to finger warmth, by this time your yeast will have a brown scum on the top (this is the yeast working) now stir in the yeast mixture into your wine mixture then transfer the mixture into the demi-john with the airlock in. Then just put it into a warm place to work. When the yeast is working (turning the sugar into alcohol) you will see bubbles coming out of the airlock. Leave it alone. After a few days there will be no more bubbles appearing, that means the yeast has turned all the sugar into alcohol. Some people transfer it then but it's much easier to leave it in the demi-john. You must leave it till it clears, this can take weeks or a couple of months.
When it's cleared syphon it off into bottles. Nows the time to taste it for strength. As I said you do not need a hydrometer as you are making the wine for yourself and you make it as strong as you want. You can drink it straight away but it mellows the longer you leave it.
Just experiment, use whatever ingredients you want, use more sugar if you want a stronger brew. You don't need all the fancy ingredients like pectin etc. and you'll soon get the hang of making a nice drink. Yes, you'll make mistakes but so what as long as you enjoy yourself.
Happy brewing.

a reply to: crayzeed

Man oh man.
I like it a lot! I'm so glad I came to this random thread. This is exactly what I needed. I've googled and explored, and at this point, made a half-a-fail of a batch of malta soda (besides the lack of carbonation, it came out tasting rather nice), but the info shared here is exactly what I was looking for. No bull, from the horses mouth, this-is-what-you-do.

Much appreciated

I'll be trying your recipe very soon! Well, moving to a farm in December, so maybe I'll wait...
I'll take pictures and maybe make a thread as there doesn't seem to be much on ATS about this... I wonder about them T's & C's, however

a reply to: Jimjolnir
If you want the wine to be fizzy try to catch it on the last day of fermenting (you can estimate that by trial and error) so while it's still fermenting a little, bottle it and the remaining bubbles from the fermentation process pressures the bottle and gives the wine fizz.