This wine is going to be arguably the easiest wine I have made yet, because I cheated, lol! I bought a gallon of Organic Apple Juice from the grocery store on sale for I think $6. As a fan of Sandor Katz Wild Fermentation, I decided to try his spontaneous apple cider, only I wanted to give it a little boost. SO...
I poured most of that gallon of apple juice into a gallon-sized glass jar, added raisins from a previous batch of Dandelion Wine, and then added a handful or two of fresh organic raisins. The reason I added raisins when the recipe basically calls for me to just set the juice out on the counter and let it sit for a while is because I know I have a bunch of wild mold in my house, and I wanted to give the apple juice a good culture to ensure that it didn't get moldy before it started to ferment.
I started it about a week ago now, and have been tasting and smelling it every day. I've also had to scoop small patches of mold off, but yes, it has started to ferment, and already tastes like it'll be an interesting wine. (Note, I am not posting a picture because it has a layer of Kahm yeast on top which doesn't look pretty, but is harmless and possibly beneficial.)
The benefits of starting with juice is that I don't have to worry about filtering it later on. The down side is that even though it is organic juice, there's still preservatives in it, not to mention that it has been pasteurized and also condensed and reconstituted to a standard sweetness.
Even so, I'm excited to see how this particular wine experiment turns out :-D
Surely the preservatives would kill the good bacteria/yeasts that you want to grow?!?!?!?
ReplyDeleteApparently not :-) It's coming along pretty well, and since it is organic, I'm not entirely sure there are preservatives in it, I just assume that there are, lol!
DeleteDo organic products have unlabelled preservatives where you are?
DeleteI really don't know, but it would not surprise me!
DeleteNote: this wine doesn't taste very good. Not really sure why, but I think there may be a nearly invisible or white mold tainting it. I can see the expected brownish guck that is the yeast culture from the raisins, and the white Kahm yeast that is harmless and hasn't hurt any of my previous batches of wine, but this wine does appear to have a slightly fuzzy appearance to it and an off taste that makes me glad I did not spend a lot to make it. I do plan to keep an eye on it and see if maybe it is just going through an awkward phase and will turn out okay after all :-)
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, the slightly fuzzy look and the white kahm yeast have completely disappeared. The brown guck that is the yeast from the raisins needed to make the wine has proliferated and apparently gotten rid of its competitors. The taste of the wine is slightly better. All of this in just one day! Glad I didn't give up on it, lol!
ReplyDeleteAnd now I have apple cider vinegar, lol!
ReplyDelete