Frozen grapes to start spontaneous fermentation?

RachmaelBenApplebaum · Sep 1, 2013

SO I've been doing some digging on spontaneous fermentation and I have a source for various fruits that would contain native yeasts. However the source is a good ways away and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get what I want in time. I do, however, have some frozen grapes from the same small farm that have been sitting in my freezer for a few weeks. My question is whether or not I could throw some of these grapes into a cooled wort and get anything going, or if the prolonged freeze has potentially killed off anything on the skins or in the grapes themselves? I have done some previous experiments with just letting a half-gallon of cooled wort sit out and it starts fermenting and produces a nice krausen in 3-4 days but I want to culture up something special from the small farm, seeing as the owners will likely be in-laws some day. Any thoughts/previous experience/ etc.?

smokinghole · Sep 1, 2013

I had cherries start to ferment after they thawed and I didn't use the whole bag. The bag almost blew up actually.

RachmaelBenApplebaum · Sep 2, 2013

Sold!

sweetcell · Sep 3, 2013

IMO it might work, it might not. there are probably still some viable bugs on the grapes, the question is how many - and will they be able to take over before other airborne nasties take hold. i'd say it's a gamble. so, are you feeling lucky?

RachmaelBenApplebaum · Sep 4, 2013

I am. Even so, I did a gallon-sized small beer about 2 months ago that I left open to the air in my house in 80 someodd degree heat (60-70 degrees at night) and after a few days it started a nice kreusen (the vessel was clean, mind you). I pulled a sample of the finished product yesterday and it tastes really good. Like US-05 with a teeny tiny twang. I'm actually going to use the cake of it for a "pumpkin" beer (sweet potato probably) this weekend using the culture! So, if the grapes fail SOMETHING in my house will get to it.

TNGabe · Sep 4, 2013

Not frozen, but crushed a pound of fresh Chardonel on Sunday. It's got a bit of a pellicle and smells a little like acetone, but also smells pretty decent in spite of that. I'm not sure what's next, maybe innoculate some wort with it and see how that goes. Toss some brett in after a while and see what that can clean up.