I am making "wine" for the first time and am getting concerned at the extreme speed of what I assume - and hope - is fermentation. The purpose is to make something I can then distill, although I am looking forward to drinking a bit at the wine stage. Just to be clear, I have told the authorities, and they are officially "relaxed" about it. I wish they took the same approach to my tax paying.
I am 36 hours into fermentation and it has gone completely bananas. The airlock is in continuous motion, the pulp is rising and I keep having to skim off some of it. There is a strong smell of alcohol in the air, which is a source of joy and reassurance. But what to do?
OK, accepting that any experienced home brewer reading this will be horrified and incredulous at my ignorance, this is what I did:
I washed, stoned and blended (keeping the skins) plums, apricots, peaches, nectarines, berries and bananas to yield 10kg of fruit. I boiled this up with 4kg of sugar dissolved in boiling water, let it cool, added a sachet of Connoisseur's Choice Wine Yeast HA1001 to a bowlful and left that overnight. The next morning I added this back to the mother brew, put it into a 20l fermentation bucket, added lukewarm water to bring the volume to 20 l., and sat back. The airlock started bubbling within 30 minutes.
That was 36 hours ago, and as I said, it has gone nuts.
The mixture is about half pulp, and it expands dramatically. The bucket has a capacity of 23 l. and I have twice had to remove around 3 l. of pulp from the top to keep the lid from being pushed off. About 4/5 times a day I stir the mixture thoroughly.
I have been anal about sterilising everything. Oh, and added 200g of concentrated tomato paste as a yeast feed. That's it. I was following a recipe from a distilling website.
I am considering putting the pulp through a sieve, to reduce volume, rather than skimming more. Should I?
Is this manic, insane bubbling normal? Will I actually get an alcohol containing product out of this? Can something ferment so quickly? Have I accidentally discovered a short route to a high alcohol brew? Taste, at this stage, is not my primary concern, although it smells great.
Apologising for my shameful ignorance, I seek reassurance and enlightenment from one of you experienced people, and thank in advance anyone kind enough to offer advice.
I am 36 hours into fermentation and it has gone completely bananas. The airlock is in continuous motion, the pulp is rising and I keep having to skim off some of it. There is a strong smell of alcohol in the air, which is a source of joy and reassurance. But what to do?
OK, accepting that any experienced home brewer reading this will be horrified and incredulous at my ignorance, this is what I did:
I washed, stoned and blended (keeping the skins) plums, apricots, peaches, nectarines, berries and bananas to yield 10kg of fruit. I boiled this up with 4kg of sugar dissolved in boiling water, let it cool, added a sachet of Connoisseur's Choice Wine Yeast HA1001 to a bowlful and left that overnight. The next morning I added this back to the mother brew, put it into a 20l fermentation bucket, added lukewarm water to bring the volume to 20 l., and sat back. The airlock started bubbling within 30 minutes.
That was 36 hours ago, and as I said, it has gone nuts.
The mixture is about half pulp, and it expands dramatically. The bucket has a capacity of 23 l. and I have twice had to remove around 3 l. of pulp from the top to keep the lid from being pushed off. About 4/5 times a day I stir the mixture thoroughly.
I have been anal about sterilising everything. Oh, and added 200g of concentrated tomato paste as a yeast feed. That's it. I was following a recipe from a distilling website.
I am considering putting the pulp through a sieve, to reduce volume, rather than skimming more. Should I?
Is this manic, insane bubbling normal? Will I actually get an alcohol containing product out of this? Can something ferment so quickly? Have I accidentally discovered a short route to a high alcohol brew? Taste, at this stage, is not my primary concern, although it smells great.
Apologising for my shameful ignorance, I seek reassurance and enlightenment from one of you experienced people, and thank in advance anyone kind enough to offer advice.