Spontaneously fermented juice?

I was making a white grape peach wine a while back and when pouring in the 1/2 gallon bottles of Welches White grape peach juice in the carboy I found I had just a little too much. I had about 1/3rd of the last bottle of juice left. This juice did have about 1cup of sugar dissolved in it when the volume was at about 2/3rds full. I figured I would use this to top off after racking but was lazy and it got left and forgotten by the carboy with the cap firmly on it. Weeks later I went to check on the wine and after looking at this leftover juice it looked like the bottle was bowing out. I slowly opened the lid and a gush of CO2 come gasping out. It smelled a little sour and kind of like bad yogurt. That is a similar smell I have had with some ferments in the past. Now there are actual lees on the bottom of the bottle.

I have heard of people saying for a good hard apple cider you just put the bottle in a dark warm closet with a paper towel rubber band to the top and let it sit naturally. My father in law used to do this many years back. But I never really tried it or actually thought it could be done so easily. Does anyone have any experience with this spontaneous fermentation? Would the product I have be worth a sip at all? Would it be worth to be used to top off my wine if a bit low? Should I keep the lees, feed it & farm it to be used in other recopies and compare to normal wine yeasts? lol :cross:

Any thought are welcome
Happy brewing

I wouldn't use it to top off my wine. If it's contaminated by wild yeast and/or bacteria, you could easily lose the whole batch of wine. It might be drinkable- the only way to know is to try it and see!

Yooper said:

I wouldn't use it to top off my wine.

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That question was more for fun to see what others think. I am extremly questionable about this. But I thought it would be fun to see if there is anyone out there that has actual success with this methode.

Arpolis said:

That question was more for fun to see what others think. I am extremly questionable about this. But I thought it would be fun to see if there is anyone out there that has actual success with this methode.

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I don't know about "success" but if you've ever left a gallon of milk or orange juice out on the counter overnight, you've experienced spontaneous fermentation. Sometimes it works ok, but most times not.

There are some areas where the wild yeast and bacteria cause good flavors, and some people have had success with fermentation there (Belgian Farmhouse Ales come to mind). But most often, wild yeast and bacteria are spoilage organisms. "Sours" can be made, but even then the fermentation tends to be because a particular organism was added like pediococcus or lactobacillus or brettanomyces. Wild fermentations are usually not going to give good results.

I agree with Yooper, probably not gonna be good.

Good cider would probably not be pasteurized so it would have the yeast from the apples on it. I've heard that they are more likely to be good yeast than spoilage organisms.

OK fun stuff. I expected this response and am just more interested in the product from sheer curiosity of the science rather than wanting to drink the stuff. Funny thing is that since this has been capped. It is highly carbonated right now. Every little shake of the bottle has a mountain of bubbles from the small amount of liquid.

Conpewter: Good point about the natural yeasts normally on the apples rather than something that wandered in on the ride to bottling. That makes sence to me.

Still worth tasting unless you can't get past the smell, could be good I once had a gallon of milk actually curd up and seemed to turn into cheese accidentally (Ok... i didn't actually taste it, but it smelled good) so there's always a chance

I've got an spontaneous ferment of apple juice that I bottled a while ago. Deciding if I should let it age or try it now. It didn't smell too bad so I let it rid under airlock. It's carbed now and in the fridge. :/

Let us know how it turns out.

cyberlord said:

I've got an spontaneous ferment of apple juice that I bottled a while ago. Deciding if I should let it age or try it now. It didn't smell too bad so I let it rid under airlock. It's carbed now and in the fridge. :/

Let us know how it turns out.

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ok will let you know. It is about 22 days old now so I will let her go another couple of weeks, rack and once clear try it out.
It would be funny if it competes with the actual grape peach wine I spent time and technique on.

In a thread just below this one now I was told to give my spontaneously fermented juice a try. It smelled of alcohol in a very raw nature. So not real pleasant on the nose but still smelled of just a strong alcohol. I took a small steal with my wine theif and ......... OMG! This has to be the absolute best wine I have ever..... And I mean ever had! It is fruity, easy on the pallet with only a background taste of alcohol. Sooooo good. I then became curious and had to try a sip of my white grape peach wine that was the cause of this accidental wine. It was much much dryer and I am sad to say that I like the accidental one better lol. The latter wine still needs to be racked and back sweetened so it has hope. But OMG who would have thought this bastard of a wine would taste so good.

Well, it was worth the try, right??!!

novalou said:

Well, it was worth the try, right??!!

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Lol in this case way worth it. I am contemplating using the 1/3 gal of wild wine/yeast cake as a starter to throw into a 3 gallon batch. But if this wild yeast strain has a real low alcohol tolerance then they may have killed themselfes. This wine is not dry and has plenty of sugar so I think they pooped out.

I'm glad yours turned out. While mine wasn't a spoilage it didn't taste very good even aged this far. It was not something I would make again.

Another method I've heard of, if a wild yeast strain is found, the spent fruit was spread around the farm to encourage the good wild yeast to take over.

There are several regions in the world where wild fermentation is used with great success. The Austrian variety of apfelwein is made using wild fermentation, making it more akin to hard cider. It ferments out extremely dry and has a very distinct acidity to it, probably due to a lactic fermentation that also takes place. Various beers are also made this way, as yooper already mentioned. I think in terms of making a pretty rustic product with ties back to the beginnings of winemaking, trying a batch or two of wild brew should be in every brewer's/vintner's portfolio - try the outcomes and decide if you like it or not.

Its funny you posted this because i just had something happen to me somewhat similar...

This weekend I put in my carboy all my juice, i knew something was wierd because the level was so low in the carboy from where i would expect it. But had already thrown the yeast in, then the next day i realized, the cranberry juice cartons i got were 3/4ths of a gallon not a full gallon, so i went and bought another gallon of apple juice, started a siphon on it into another jug, and pinched it off up high, then stuck the sanitized racking cane about the middle of the carboy and let go and slowly siphoned the juice into the rest of it without introducing any air(as best i can tell), overall i was pretty pleased with my solution.

Problem was, somehow some yeast got into the jug, how i am really not sure, i can only assume some rode on the racking cane when i pulled it out and put it in the gallon jug. I just set the half empty gallon jug on my kitchen table and capped it and forgot about it, today i went out and saw it and tried taking a drink and immediately noticed something off with the smell of it...so i capped it and turned it over because i saw some debris at the bottom(as if it was a store bought apple cider). Bad idea...there was yeast or some sediment at the bottom and as soon as i turned it over it started to foam up like crazy, within seconds i heard the plastic bottle pop/crack under the pressure, and i threw it onto the table, and freaked out as i didnt want it to explode i quickly twisted the top off and it shot off like a rocket and apple juice coated my kitchen.

Not what i was hoping to clean up at midnight ...all i wanted was some apple juice before bed...

Im gonna have to clean my kitchen super well tomorrow as i have a feeling everything is going to be super sticky...

Ha ha ha. Sorry for the mess but that was funny. Those plastic bottles can usually take over 100psi before popping. I think actual soda bottles are tested at 150psi. So like mine I never cared if preside built or not. I just let it.

Arpolis said:

Ha ha ha. Sorry for the mess but that was funny. Those plastic bottles can usually take over 100psi before popping. I think actual soda bottles are tested at 150psi. So like mine I never cared if preside built or not. I just let it.

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No biggie, i laughed about it immediately because i have no idea WTF happened ..it literally all happened in the span of about 5 seconds....turn over..crack, bulging container, pop lid ...30 mins of cleaning.