Is This alcohol???

a while back i was experimenting with making soft drinks out of unusual ingredients. Probably the worst tasting was the one i made out of herbs i bought at a shop. Anyway, it turns out i left a small amount of this Concoction in an airtight bottle in a drawer in my room. I opened it a couple of days ago and was quite suprised when it fizzed up (the bottle was only about 1/5 full but the froth went up to about 2/3 of the bottle!) it doesn't smell alcoholic, but it does appear that something has been fermented.

What i did:

Boil herbs for 7 minutes in water

strain the herbs out (poorly)

add 2 teabags (remove after 3 minutes)

add sugar (plenty of it)

add robinsons fruit and barley squash

leave for months on end

enjoy (i only drunk a tiny bit to see if i could taste any alcohol)



It just hit me as i was writing this that the fruit and barly squash could actually be quite an important ingredient (1% barley flour) but i'm not sure... Can anyone tell me what this brew is? (and if i should drink any of it)

thanks

ChadMan said:

Can anyone tell me what this brew is? (and if i should drink any of it)

Click to expand...

Vinegar (no).

lol! hmm you could be right you know- although i can't taste any vinegar but i think thats because there's so many other flavours in it

Another recipe for Hooch?

The tea and herbs could act like Hops, and prevent general infections. Some wild yeasts could have ridden in on the fruit and squash, making beer? You didn't say anything about your sanitisation, maybe yeast from a previous use of the bottle?

I wonder if the fermentation is done, or if pressure killed the yeast? How long are you planning for your secondary?

acetic fermentation is aerobic.
So if this developed in an air tight container, it should not vinegar.

you have c02 for sure... alcohol? I don't know.

I don't think you should drink this... some coliforms and sporulated may ferment producing c02 but also toxins...

be careful

yeah, this is most likely a bacterial culture, not a yeast one. i wouldn't recommend drinking it.

the bottle used was an empty fanta fruit twist bottle (plastic). sanitation wasn't controlled at the time because i wasn't intending to produce a brew- although i did wash it out with water... so i don't think there was any yeast in the bottle. there was a lot of pressure in the bottle and i'm surprised it didn't blow up! i haven't planned a secondary yet.

yeah- its definitely CO2 because i breathed some in and it made me gasp for air. and i've diecided i won't drink anymore until i know what it is i'm drinking! (hehe)

hmm- this bacteria theory makes a lot of sense... there was lots of sugar for them to feed on in the bottle- and not anything substantial that could ferment to produce so much carbon dioxide.

a point tho- it doesn't really smell, and you can noramlly smell if a bottle is full of bacteria. (though it could just be that the smell of fruit and barley is masking it)

thanks everybody for your knowldege and guidance (i was just going to down the bottle!!!)