Hygienic horror stories?

I'm a newb starting with cider and mead because they are so easy, and really small batches in case I screw it up, but will work my way up to a grain eventually. My first blackberry crush came out surprisingly strong and whiney once I racked off the raspberry purre' and back filled with some granulated.

For my next experiment I'd like to try some mead in an a really solid champagne swingtop salvaged from the new year.
Do I really need to sterilize everything? I have a little packet of ex-1118 which worked out well but am curious if the yeast remaining in the bottle might be worth a shot. I searched infection and linked over to some crazy sour beer posts and learned about the pellicle and even some bacterial disease of the gut that converts carbs into alcohol. I realize that this would be as improbable as it would be devastating, but are there other consequences that I should keep an eye out for if I don't boil the honey or wash the bottle? or even add the packaged yeast? I was thinkin I might put only a single grain of the packaged yeast to give the bottle yeast a chance. How common is wild yeast in the honey itself if I only warm it up to dissolve? I always heard honey was sterile.

One question not related to infections. What is a good honey water ratio for going straight to the bottle. This swing top is pretty strong, so I could repeatedly burp sniff sample and backfill with hot honey water?

 

I may have answered one of my questions by reading the bottle. Contains sulfite a probably means the champagne was sterilized to preserve and I should definitely add yeast, right?

 

No idea about the honey to water ratio, but have some serious concerns about trying to use yeast in a bottle of champagne which has been sitting around empty for 3 months...

How did you "salvage" the bottle? There was yeast in the wine, but hopefully not enough to leave behind a layer like one would collect from bottle conditioned/carbonated beers. I would be very wary about the high chance (certainty?) that there are other wild yeast/bugs in the bottle.

 

Not necessarily, sulfites are a natural byproduct of the wine making process. Wines have to be labeled as such if they contain a certain level

 

If it contains over 10ppm of sulfites the label must indicate that it contains sulfites.

Sulfites don't effect yeast growth as much as other microorganisms that can spoil your beer/wine/mead. It is correct that they are a natural byproduct of the wine making process however additional sulfites are usually added to reach the levels needed to produce these inhibitory effects.

 

If you haven't tried it yet, I would highly recommend Apfelwein.
I just bottled my first batch and it is incredibly good, and very easy to make.

 

I forgot deoderant one day, and ended up having to actually break a sweat. Smelled like an onion truck.

 

Now that's a Hygienic horror story.

 

I think you should definitely pour some honey water in a 3 month old empty bottle. Come back in a few months and tell us how it went.

 

Well, staying true to the thread's title I kept Checking for signs of fermentation and didn't see any for a couple days until I noticed that the bottle was a little sticky and that it bubbled out a few inches. Fortunately we already have a roach problem from the elderly hoarder that we share a wall with, so they can clean up for me.
I guess that's why nobody goes straight to the bottle. I kept the wire off the swing top so it could vent and wouldn't pop.. Not a very good long term plan because I don't have a hydrometer and if I did it would be too small a batch to sample. I do have a couple glass jugs and some bubblers and thinking about getting a 5 or 6 gallon carboy or two. I am catching the bug pretty quick. Everyone says the mead and cider really need some time to get better. Is there a downside to aging in a carboy as long as you rack when things get too clutered at the bottom? I'll probably prime w honey back into a plastic bottle for while for General consumption until I can some more of these swing tops.

 

I hear dry hopped smegma ale is fantastic.


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I really think you should buy a jug, a stopper and an airlock before trying anything. If you forget to off gas your wine bottle it could be very bad.

 

Yes I have a couple jugs and bubblers (stoppers and air locks) and I'll stick to those as my primary fermenters until I can spring/find a glass carboy. I'll let this bottle ride out for now with the swing top open but the stopper closed. I'd rather have a bottle of vinegar than a sticky cabinet in the basement full of glass.

 

Well I noticed that the bottle was oozing honey through an invisible crack in the glass. I decided to give it a tast and it was fizzy and sweet but not super sweet, but had a peroxide finish. The top of the bottle popped off when I opened it so experiment over and I dumped the rest. A couple follow up questions.

For the swing tops and other glass bottles, is pouring boiling water into them likely to crack them due to the temp change? I guess I need to bring them up to temp gradually or use starsan.

What is the deal with a peroxide finish. I know that I taste that sometimes on commercial brews as well. When I was in Brasil I had some Itaipava beers from a can and I noticed the peroxide finish, but can find hardly any references to the fault using google.

I have a few more cider batches bubbling away although the last one I tasted was quite tart and dry. I wonder if a melolactic inoculation could help out with the tartness?

I've also purchased a 6G glass carboy and some hop rhizomes and am looking forward to future experimentations even though this one did not pan out.