An odd experiment

[Mdrags]

I recently happened upon a container of syrup that was meant to be mixed with co2 and water for a soft drink fountain. I decided the best thing to do with it was turn it into wine. Because of the preservatives in the syrup I added some baking soda to neutralize anything that would harm my yeast. The must was mixed to 1.092, put into a 5 gallon carboy and ec-1118 was pitched. After 2 days with no bubbles I repitched double the amount of yeast, after 2 more days of no bubbles I transferred some of the must into a smaller carboy, diluted with water, and pitched a little more yeast. The next morning both car boys were bubbling away. It has now been 6 days. I am getting some soft vinegar odors from both carboys and it seems that the pigment from the syrup is clumping together out of solution. I have never seen pigment do that in my brews and have never had that vinegar odor, did I do something wrong or is concentrated soda syrup the wrong thing to brew with?

 

[day_trippr]

Might want to find an ingredients list for that soft drink syrup as that's the kind of foodstuff that may be dosed with preservatives and growth inhibitors for molds/bacteria/yeasts...

Cheers!

 

[bernardsmith]

Apologies - coming to your post a wee bit late in the day. You refer to preservatives in the syrup. What kinds of preservatives? If the manufacturer simply adds acids to decrease the pH, that may not be a problem that dousing with baking soda won't resolve - although yeast can happily ferment with a substrate at a pH of around 3.0 If, however, the manufacturer has added sorbates to the syrup, being able to neutralize this is a pain in the neck. You may need to sacrifice SEVERAL (ie four or five) packs of yeast to then pitch a sixth or seventh pack that the cells will no longer have the sorbates latching onto. Most wine makers I know simply avoid sorbated sugars like the plague: the amount of effort you need to apply is rarely if ever worth the benefit. (Note, when a wine maker stabilizes their wines before back sweetening, they add sorbate in tandem with metabisulphate. Together, they guarantee no fermentation will occur after you add sugar to sweeten the wine).