So I'm making wine in my dorm dresser out of Minute Maid products(please don't ask me if I'm selling any or if I am what the money's for). I currently have 11 gallon-sized water jugs which have been fermenting for 13 days today. 4 are filled with Tropical Punch, 4 with regular Fruit Punch, and 3 with Lemonade. All jugs have been sanitized with bleach and rinsed out very thoroughly prior to beginning. I am using bakers yeast, as no other type is available. All jugs are sealed with plastic bag pieces rubber-banded over top. Since my budget is limited, all ingredients and equipment excluding the yeast were purchased at the Appalachian State University markets with my account card.
I call my creation "Minute Wine" since I use Minute Maid juice and cause it takes a short time to make compared to professional quality wine. I already drank one of the lemonades(I had 4 to start out with) for a frat party on Friday, though it certainly wasn't close to finished.
First some background: my initial experiment was with just 1 gallon of tropical punch. I let it ferment for 6 days before trying it. Realizing that it had an effect similar in strength to strong beer, I considered the experiment a success and drank it all by the next day, so I never figured out how long it would go till it finished. I began my first big batch directly after the RAs Health and Safety inspection was done. They didn't even look in my dresser, so I'm not worried. And even if perchance some authority figure does look in there, all they'll see is bubbling fruit juice and unless they have some knowledge of alcohol production, they won't know anything. As far as I can tell, I'm the first to have this idea though I know I couldn't really be.
For the big batch I have going on now, I added a little sugar to each jug before the juice went in, using a half-pound divided evenly between them. I tasted the Tropical Punch today and it has an effect like regular wine, though not the same kick. Only the Fruit Punch smells and tastes like real wine, though it doesn't have much of a kick yet either.
My questions are: When should fermentation be done for each of them? I'm pretty sure the yeast will die from the alcohol content(at around 12%) before they run out of sugar or nutrients. It's worth noting that the Tropical Punch started bubbling days before the others, so that's likely all I'll use from now on. Also, should I wait until it's done bubbling or will this eventually cause it to go bad? Most jugs have had some exposure to air, for periodic tasting and to fill them closer to the top after the initial burst of fermentation, but not before having enough alcohol content as far as I know to kill foreign bacteria.
Any other tips/suggestions are certainly welcome, just keep in mind my budget witch is extremely limited for now. I don't want to siphon these to remove the dead yeast, but I'll probably run them through some type of filter before returning them to their original containers.
I call my creation "Minute Wine" since I use Minute Maid juice and cause it takes a short time to make compared to professional quality wine. I already drank one of the lemonades(I had 4 to start out with) for a frat party on Friday, though it certainly wasn't close to finished.
First some background: my initial experiment was with just 1 gallon of tropical punch. I let it ferment for 6 days before trying it. Realizing that it had an effect similar in strength to strong beer, I considered the experiment a success and drank it all by the next day, so I never figured out how long it would go till it finished. I began my first big batch directly after the RAs Health and Safety inspection was done. They didn't even look in my dresser, so I'm not worried. And even if perchance some authority figure does look in there, all they'll see is bubbling fruit juice and unless they have some knowledge of alcohol production, they won't know anything. As far as I can tell, I'm the first to have this idea though I know I couldn't really be.
For the big batch I have going on now, I added a little sugar to each jug before the juice went in, using a half-pound divided evenly between them. I tasted the Tropical Punch today and it has an effect like regular wine, though not the same kick. Only the Fruit Punch smells and tastes like real wine, though it doesn't have much of a kick yet either.
My questions are: When should fermentation be done for each of them? I'm pretty sure the yeast will die from the alcohol content(at around 12%) before they run out of sugar or nutrients. It's worth noting that the Tropical Punch started bubbling days before the others, so that's likely all I'll use from now on. Also, should I wait until it's done bubbling or will this eventually cause it to go bad? Most jugs have had some exposure to air, for periodic tasting and to fill them closer to the top after the initial burst of fermentation, but not before having enough alcohol content as far as I know to kill foreign bacteria.
Any other tips/suggestions are certainly welcome, just keep in mind my budget witch is extremely limited for now. I don't want to siphon these to remove the dead yeast, but I'll probably run them through some type of filter before returning them to their original containers.