Fermenting fruit

[fuzzywolf2]

So I went cherry picking about a month ago and strained out some of the juice to ferment naturally. I checked it recently and a wild yeast colony has established itself making the juice alcoholic. My question is how do I test to make sure the alcohol produced isn't dangerous since I know Methanol can be created by the pectins in fruit sometimes.

 

[BigKahuna]

Methanol will not produce in enough concentration to hurt you without distillation. What exactly do you plan to do with this Alco-Juice concoction?

Is this your first Batch? Are you at all familiar with the principles of wine making? I am sure that this could eventually be turned into something quite good if it's treated right....just let us know where you are as far as skill and knowledge, so we can skip over some of the basics if you already know them.
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Did you take a gravity reading? Did you add any sugars? Did you add any water? How much juice are we talking here?

And Welcome.

 

[fuzzywolf2]

I was thinking of pressing some apple juice and then tossing the, 2 quart bottle of cherry ferment into to make some cider.

I've never really had any experience with this type of brewing before and have only spent time with beer as of this point. No sugar or water was added, but the fruit sugar was high, and no gravity reading as this was an oopse you have wild yeast!

 

[BigKahuna]

I am thinking it would be fun to get some apple juice...or some white Grape Juice....maybe...3 gallons, heat your fun stuff to kill whatever's in it, Hit it with a serious overdose of good wine yeast and some sugar, a little pectic enzyme, and A bit of lime juice (sweet Cherries?)
A quart of juice isn't going to go very far in flavoring 5 gallons of wine, but you might get somewhere with a 3 gallon batch.

 

[Brandon O]

Sour cider sounds bomb!!! maybe make a lambic out of it.

 

[jgln]

My girlfriend is from the Ukraine and makes plum wine from a recipe her grandmother used and she uses fresh plums with a ton of sugar. It comes our very sweet and high in alcohol. Air ferments it. Too sweet for me but she says that is the way it should be. We have some bottles left over 2 years old now and they taste great, but still too sweet for me. One friend recently commented on a bottle we opened that it tasted like vermouth. I tasted it and for some reason that bottle did, it had a very clean taste, less sweet and high in alcohol. Another bottle was much sweeter.

 

[snazzy]

I don't know alot about wild yeast, but was under the impression that they would not take any thing above about 5%. Am I wrong?

 

[Yooper]

I don't know alot about wild yeast, but was under the impression that they would not take any thing above about 5%. Am I wrong?

They'll ferment much more than 5%, depending on what kind it is. Some may not, and some will. Bacteria like lactobacillus will take it down to dry, too. You may have all kinds of different wild yeasts and bacteria, so it may be hard to predict what you'll end up with.

I've never fermented anything with wild yeast, as I'm pretty darn cheap and don't want to experiment with juices and fruits. I always use wine yeasts, so this is interesting to me!

Let us know how this turns out.

 

[fuzzywolf2]

It's been about a year and I've been using this wild cherry yeast strain with much success in both baking and brewing. It currently lives in the back of the fridge in a clear glass half gallon juice jug. The sourdough starter I made imparts a slight cherry flavor to the dough and bakes up well but ultimately needs a longer rise time that commercial yeasts. As for brewing I've only made other ciders and meads with it thus far but they've come out fantastically. It yielded about a 10-14% alcohol by volume so long as the proper amounts of sugars are added. I'm thinking of making a lambic but have no idea where to find good recipes for one. Buying a brewing book isn't optimal since I'm kind making it up as I go along. Not to worry about safety though, I test everything before and afterward for rogue bacterias.