Potential dangers?

I'm new to wine making. My girlfriend won't drink any of my homemade wine because she thinks that there is a possibility that it is either infected with bacteria, or some chemical that will otherwise kill you, methanol maybe? I don't know... Now, I have already drank a good bit of it, and I'm still alive to type this. I'd always heard rumors that homemade wine could hurt you if you did it wrong... but from what I've read that is just a myth... But it did get me thinking. I've read two opposing things... one said bacteria or chemicals aren't enough to hurt you, just give the wine an off taste, and one that said it could potentially make you sick and even kill you in certain concentrations. Which is true? Do I never have to worry when drinking my home wines, or is there always a slight chance?

That, my friend, is complete arse. Unless you're drinking pure sanitizer I'd go ahead and say you're fine. What you're probably thinking of is Distilling, which can be very dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. But it's probably illegal in your state, and besides, it's difficult and pretty hardcore equipment wise. You can counter this statement by telling her that beer was made because it was more sterile than dirty water centuries ago - it may very well be the reason that we're alive today. As Benjamin Franklin said - Beer is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy.

Just use your standard home brewing chemicals and you'll be 100% fine. probably healthier than you are now.

RobWalker said:

As Benjamin Franklin said - Beer is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy.

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Actually, he didn't say that. He did say this though:

Benny F said:

Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine, a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.

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That doesn't fit as well on a t-shirt though.

But, he was talking about wine.

Hahah. We have it on the side of Banks' glasses in particularly good pubs here. If it's wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Read this and replace the word beer with.

The whole history of beer, wine, mead and cider/Fermentation is general is that nothing pathogenic can exist in them They were consumed in places where the water could kill you, or make you sick.

Even slightly fermented beverages were consumed, even by children. Hard ciders were drunk like we drink bottled water.

Why do you think the Catholic Church chose wine as the basis of their sacrament? Because wine was more important to the culture of the desert where Christianity came from than water. Water safe, drinkable water was rare. So wine was the safer, common beverage of the day.

Revvy said:

The whole history of beer, wine, mead and cider/Fermentation is general is that nothing pathogenic can exist in them They were consumed in places where the water could kill you, or make you sick.

Even slightly fermented beverages were consumed, even by children. Hard ciders were drunk like we drink bottled water.

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I told her this... I was pretty sure no pathogens could exist in wine, because it's high alcohol content... I wasn't so sure about beer, which can be 3ish percent or lower and still qualify as "beer". As far as the yeast making other chemicals or other chemicals being produced somehow, I am not sure. I'm too new at this to dispel all her fears. She said yeast can also produce methanol, which I think is a poison... but that doesn't sound right to me.

It won't produce methanol in quantities that will cause you any harm, and the bigger alcohols produced by fermenting too warm will break down with aging. Realy, all your risking as a worst case is a slightly worse hangover...

My brother thought I was crazy when I took a drink of some homemade wine from 1974 that I got at an estate sale...stuff tastes wonderful...

eloro said:

I told her this... I was pretty sure no pathogens could exist in wine, because it's high alcohol content... I wasn't so sure about beer, which can be 3ish percent or lower and still qualify as "beer". As far as the yeast making other chemicals or other chemicals being produced somehow, I am not sure. I'm too new at this to dispel all her fears. She said yeast can also produce methanol, which I think is a poison... but that doesn't sound right to me.

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If she wants to be an idiot who only believes what she wants to believe AND wants to make decisions based on a limited understanding of things, then that means more beer and wine for you and folks who understand or want to understand the truth about things. Not their own unfounded ignorance.

Methanol is produced at an extremely low level, and it will be diluted. Distillation is a concentration of ethanol and methanol, which is why in distillation (including freeze distillation) it is a dangerous factor, but with the dilution in any brewed drink, even up to 18%+abv, it'll be fine. You'd be more likely to have alcohol poisoning before you would have a methanol problem.

It's not an issue due to the low methanol % compared to the much higher ethanol %. Your liver is too busy metabolizing the ethanol, thus allowing the methanol to safely pass through your system.

Distilling completely seperates the methanol from ethanol which is why it becomes a concern. The first X amount out of a still is nearly pure methanol, which gets collected seperately and discarded. It's just that some moonshiners saw that as throwing away profit, and people died as a result.

We make beer, wine mead and cider EXACTLY the same way commercial breweries, wineries, meaderies, etc do, except simply on a smaller scale. We use EXACTLY the same ingredients, and process.

The same yeast as well.

If she's that worried, then she needs to quit drinking booze of ANY kind...because she's running EXACTLY the same risk with her wine coolers and whatever else she likes to drink from the big guys as does with yours. The same amount of methanol in proportion to the size of the batch is produced at Budweiser St. Louis as in your brewery. The same amount is produced proportionally in the vats in Napa Valley or the Rhine region of Germany as is produced in your basement in those 5 gallon buckets of wine.....

*shrug*

Owned.

Does she bake? Then by her own reasoning no one should eat anything she bakes. Does she cook? Ditto. You should only eat at restaurants of a certain size, and only buy bread or baked goods from large corporations. Make nothing of your own is at the logical extreme of this sort of illogical thinking. We all know the various anecdotal things that go into brownies, so you can't trust them unless the USDA-inspected factories make them... wait, what???? Right, trust the government to protect us from ourselves. That makes even less sense.

I'm sure she has no interest in making her own clothing (sewing, knitting, etc.) but by the same token she shouldn't wear anything she makes, either. Is she creative? No one should accept anything she makes because it might have "stuff" in it that could be harmful.

Balderdash! I call shenanigans.

1) Don't distill which is a) illegal in the us, b) concentrates methanol if done improperly. This includes freeze distillation.
2) Don't add bleach or antifreeze in the attempt to extend the quantity of the wine. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_fraud and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifreeze_wine_scandal
3) Pathogens will not be an issue. Any bacterial components are a) noticible b) will cause a souring effect c) will turn your wine into vinegar, so save it for salads or chips.
4) In order for methanol to be an issue with a regular wine, you would likely die of alcohol poisioning due to the quantity of wine ingested.

Thanks guys. Definitely don't plan on making a still. I think I'm going to make her read this thread. Or maybe not... Maybe I'll just drink her share too.

Have her, or better yet, you do a little research on people who have died from their own homebrew, whether it be wine or beer. I haven't looked but, I'll bet you would be hardpressed to find a news article that states that homebrew killed somebody because it was 'poisonous'. Bad behavior, maybe. Bad homebrew, doubt it. Another argument might be that all of the people on this forum, THIS forum, where we gather, in droves, and discuss the various aspects of this awesome hobby, are still alive!

jiggs_casey said:

Have her, or better yet, you do a little research on people who have died from their own homebrew, whether it be wine or beer. I haven't looked but, I'll bet you would be hardpressed to find a news article that states that homebrew killed somebody because it was 'poisonous'. Bad behavior, maybe. Bad homebrew, doubt it. Another argument might be that all of the people on this forum, THIS forum, where we gather, in droves, and discuss the various aspects of this awesome hobby, are still alive!

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I wouldn't have her look...there are instances where "homebrew" has killed. I think there was a case in Korea or somewhere in Africa.

Found one. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...omebrew-laced-with-acid-kills-51-Kenyans.html

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/15332518

It's not what we would consider homebrew...but if she's looking for more ignorant ammunition then she's not going to see the distinction between what we do and what they did....just like she couldn't see the distinction between distilling and everything else we do, nor could she see that there's no distinction between what we do an commercial breweries and wineries do....why give her more fuel, even if it's half assed fuel?

Haha I love the VERY heated reaction to that question every time it gets asked.

brazedowl said:

Haha I love the VERY heated reaction to that question every time it gets asked.

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It's just that there's a lot of folks are so afraid of this homebrewing thing, and I'm not even talking about new brewer who are scared ****less, but folks "out there" who think you can go blind from what we're doing. If they're going to belive something like the homebrewing/winemaking is toxic BS, we really need to understand what the heck we'rer talking about.

That's why a lot of us have done a lot of digging to counter the "i read somewhere" misinformation that get tossed out there, like this.

You have to realize, with the long and twisted history of this hobby being relegalized, FORTY YEARS after prohibition was repealed, we would not be allowed to do this, if it were not 100% safe. If there were one hint of danger from this then we would not be allowed to do this, like with making moonshine for example.


Hell even some cops look on what we're doing with suspicion.

Don't believe me? Check out this Cops episode if you haven't already....look at what "John Law" has to say about our little hobby. "The concotion he was making could be deadly..."



So some of us don't take this stuff lightly.

You should have her call the microbrewery or winery of her choice and ask a Professional brewer about this. Odds are if she doesn't believe her own husband, she isn't going to believe thousands of strangers who obviously have an agenda...

There are books on homebrewing (winemaking) that might actually have that question answered.

I wouldn't worry about it. Thankfully, my wife thinks I'm a genius who can do no wrong.

(I just made myself spit on my monitor!) =8D

Lol! I love this thread. ... almost wish my lady would shy away from my brew. I have her and most of her friends lining up to drink what I make. Gotta hide some bottles so I get some.

On the serious side. Revvy is right. Using modern techniques beer and wine production is safer then cooking a rare steak at home. Maybe you just need to build some trust with her. Also, if you've drank gallons of your brew with not even a tummy ache why would she be worried?

She must have watched that Simpsons episode...

Revvy said:

Hell even some cops look on what we're doing with suspicion.

Don't believe me? Check out this Cops episode if you haven't already....look at what "John Law" has to say about our little hobby. "The concotion he was making could be deadly..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXTqCZi8iOM

So some of us don't take this stuff lightly.

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Ugh... that video. The ignorance is strong with this one...