Fruit Flies

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

tndave

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2009
Messages
85
Reaction score
0
Location
Cleveland, TN
I was going to keg a batch of my Spring Ale this morning and there was 4 or 5 dead fruit flies in the air lock. It was filled with vodka and I didn't notice them until I dumped the vodka into the mason jar that I store it in (I reuse it)...ruining the vodka that was already in there. Anyway when I opened the ale pail it had an odd smell to me, my wife said it smelled ok to her though. So instead of kegging it I racked it into a carboy. I didn't see any fruit flies in the beer, so I guess they squeezed thru those tiny holes in the top of the three piece air lock. I have it chilling in the keg now.

Has anybody else seen something like this before?
 
It's ruined. Horribly. You probably wouldn't even want to taint your drain with it. Send it my way and I'll dispose of it properly for you though.:mug:
 
Hmmm...I would not drink that vodka. Otherwise, you should be OK. Never happened to me but fruit flies are clever little guys.
 
I always keep a fruit fly trap sitting around my brew room. Take a bowl of water, mix in sugar and fruit juice, add a drop of soap to break the surface tension. Works like a charm and they seem to prefer it to trying to get into my meads since it's out in the open...and all their buddies are floating around in it...
 
Ok, thanks. I figured it was ok, but just needed some reassurance. Can’t help but freak a little. My sinuses/allergies are bad right now so my sniffer isn’t up to par at the moment. I had a wit sitting right next to it and there don’t appear to be any in that air lock. The spring ale was brewed on 4/24 and the wit on 5/6. So I guess we had more fruit flies in between those dates than now, or maybe they just like the SA better…

It’s amazing those little dudes can squeeze thru those tiny holes in the air lock top. They look too big when they're bloated with cheap vodka lol
 
BTW, SWIMBO uses a little coffee cup and puts some apple cider vinegar in it with a drop or two of dish detergent and that works great for the kitchen. Guess I'll start doing the same around my fermenters.
 
I asked the same question about a month ago....

here's a pic of my captured critters in the air lock...

fruitfly.jpg


I was using star san, put out traps and switched to rum (no vodka in the house) btw they didn't like the rum....
 
The whole reason for using airlocks is to stop fruit flies from getting in your brew. It sounds like your airlock did exactly what it was designed to do. :p
 
It's just a little extra protein. Sure they're tart, but they make for a quick pick-me-up in a pinch.

Wait...wha?
 
I had fruit flies last summer, how do fruit flies get in the house? Are they really transmitted by buying fruit with them/eggs in it?

They also hitchhike from produce you buy at he grocery store. They love alcohol. I've seen one of the dive bars down here change out all their auto-pour bottle jiggers because they had fruit flies trapped in them on more than one occasion. Good thing I stick to the bottled beer.
 
Quote from the article cited above:
And once they're established in your house, they can sustain themselves on an impressive range of nutrients. They can live on the slime inside a sink drain. They can flourish on a sour mop. They'll eat damp flour or food fermenting quietly in a crack in the floor. They've even proven capable of existing on a diet of alcohol fumes, their bodies deploying a special chemical that converts the alcohol to nourishment before it can poison them.

They certainly are resourceful little bastards!!
 
"They've even proven capable of existing on a diet of alcohol fumes, their bodies deploying a special chemical that converts the alcohol to nourishment before it can poison them."

Think of the advantages of incorporating some of that 'speical chemical' fruit fly metabolism into our own.....vitamins instead of hangovers!

Fruit flies you will always have with you......unless you take scrupulous measures to eliminate all fermentation, not just your beer. Anywhere there are carbohydrates or their residues around, any form of garbage, even a slight dried spill of soda pop, etc., it's going to ferment, and that will draw the fruit flies and the sweet-eating ants, and they reproduce......like bugs......and so it goes. In our hundred-year-old farmhouse, I'm actually a lot more concerned about the ants. We haven't had ants in the house for many years, because I am very, very careful in this regard. Therefore, it was no real change of habits for me to be very, very careful with my brewing activities. I've never found a dead fruit fly in an airlock, although I've found a few dead ones on primary fermenter bucket lids.
 
I'm having this problem right now. They aren't in my airlocks yet, but it sure makes the idea of taking a hydrometer sample a bit more scary. I've sprayed my fermenters with a starsan solution each day and covered them with boxes, but alas, the fruit flies are partying on my airlocks and carboy lids when I lift the boxes off.

This is why I like the fall and winter...
 
BTW, SWIMBO uses a little coffee cup and puts some apple cider vinegar in it with a drop or two of dish detergent and that works great for the kitchen. Guess I'll start doing the same around my fermenters.

I use a half pint mason jar with four nail holes punched in the lid. Fill half way with apple cider vinegar and set them around areas the fruit flies are frequenting. You'll be amazed how many you catch.
 
From one batch of alcoholic lemonade half the bottles are clear and the rest either have a slimy substance within or what appear to be eggs clinging to the walls of the bottles. When I open these ones a sample neither smells or tastes bad yet it looks like Armageddon in my bottle. Help!
 
I have fruit flies just now buzzing around my airlock. I'm doing the vinegar/drop of dishsoap trick, but because I'm skittish about my beer I put a spare hop bag that has a very fine mesh over my airlock and carboy neck, and then secured it around the neck with a rubber band. There's no way the little buggers will be able to get through that AND the airlock.
 
Back
Top