Fruit flies in dandelion wine

[tkantro]

Hi! I’m new here, first time making wine.
We picked the dandelions in may, added everything and the airlock, and I just strained it all out. There must have been a couple fruit flies that got in in the few days between adding the initial ingredients and putting the airlock on the carboy.
They must have been in there for months, and obviously they are strained out now. Is there any danger in drinking this wine? Is it absolutely not able to be consumed, or is it okay? It smells like it’s alcoholic and worked and I’d rather not throw it away but I will if people recommend it.
I also did not strain out the raisins or oranges until now (6 months later), is that okay? Definitely bothers me less than the flies but thought I’d ask.
Thanks for any insight and I’m aware this is probably a very silly question.

 

[day_trippr]

Fruit flies wrt brewing are associated with acetobacter infections, which typically turn everything into vinegar.
Other than that I don't think actual physical harm is involved...

 

[MaxStout]

No such thing as silly questions here.

Don't borrow trouble. You wine might turn out OK. Don't give up until you've had a chance to taste the finished product.

 

[tkantro]

Fruit flies wrt brewing are associated with acetobacter infections, which typically turn everything into vinegar.
Other than that I don't think actual physical harm is involved...

Is there a way to know if acetobacter is present? It doesn’t smell/taste like vineger

 

[tkantro]

No such thing as silly questions here.

Don't borrow trouble. You wine might turn out OK. Don't give up until you've had a chance to taste the finished product.

I gave it a tiny taste and it’s good, I’m more worried that there could be something unsafe to drink in it, is there any way of knowing?

 

[PCABrewing]

I gave it a tiny taste and it’s good, I’m more worried that there could be something unsafe to drink in it, is there any way of knowing?

Maybe I should worry more but I eat plenty of bugs when I'm riding my bike through the woods so-far so-good. It's annoying but I don't sweat it.
You have probably eaten 100 times what you're looking at now and never knew it.
Your wine may be just fine, if not chalk it up to experience.

In the grand scheme, fruit flies are a much bigger threat to agriculture than individual humans. And they may be responsible for the original inoculation that created what we now call wine.

 

[Rish]

I gave it a tiny taste and it’s good, I’m more worried that there could be something unsafe to drink in it, is there any way of knowing?

If it tastes and smells good, I would drink it without hesitation. The alcohol will prevent things that might cause you problems. As stated earlier, fruit flies might introduce acetobacter which won't hurt you but will make wine vinegar. You'd know it if it did. Drink up!

 

[bernardsmith]

Given the probable pH of most wines (around 3.5) and given the fact that wine (wine, not say, beer or cider) has enough alcohol to kill just about any pathogen that is likely to treat the wine as a source of food, I would not be concerned by any fruit fly with regard to health issues. Fruit flies carry aceto-bacteria which in alcohol in the presence of oxygen will transform alcohol into vinegar (although for the aceto bacteria to really thrive the amount of alcohol in solution needs to be lower than 12 -13% ABV.