Got lucky on my first batch...but want to improve !

[CobraGT40]

Hey all

I'm pretty new to all of this and I must say it's quite addicting ! I made my first batch of peach wine (possibly brandy ?) from a friend's old family recipe. I followed the recipe to the letter and I must say it turned out great, everything worked out exactly as it should...even all my friends were lining up to to get a pint to take home.

However, I think I over-extended myself on my second batch...well, second, third, and fourth batches. I think I made a mistake on taking on 3 batches at one time ! I've been plagued with problems that didn't surface til about the 4th week... fruit flies ! Turns out I used the wrong kind of cheesecloth to cover my 5 gal. buckets and the little bastards were able to wriggle into the buckets... At least the apple and pear batches...they don't seem to like the peach at all ! I'm hoping like hell that they didn't ruin the batches. They were only able to walk around on top of the fruit and had no access to the liquid beneath. I'll be straining out the fruit on Thursday, so we'll see...

My first batch was "bottled" in nothing but mason jars, but as I said before...it turned out great! These batches, I plan to rack properly and actually bottle in wine bottles this time. I spent a little $ and got a corker, bottle washer, drying tree, proper siphon stuff, etc.

I really want to be able to make this stuff with a long shelf life...Any and all help you all can offer I would greatly appreciate...this is a fun and addicting hobby and I look forward to perfecting my processes

Thanks !

Scott

 

[Rossnaree]

Yikes.... fruit flies carry aceto-bacter (bacteria that turn fruit juices into acetic acid, or vinegar) on the feet/legs. Use a towel or something that is going to keep them out. I know that it's difficult to keep them away, especially when you're punching down the cap. Try using fruit fly traps and anything else you can think of. I know the traps aren't 100% effective (or anything close to it) but they help.

That said, some friends of mine came from a wine-producing area of Spain, and they claim that the wines were fermented in large outdoor pools and that they never gave any thought to the "sanitation" methods that we employ. They say that even the birds would throng around the pools... I've never bothered to find out if it's true or not, and since I really enjoy good Spanish wines, I'm not going to.

Anyways, be a sanitation nut and you'll never have to become an expert on how to fix problems from fruit flies or bird doo or floating mice or anything else. Also, you didn't state it but I'll presume that you're using a secondary fermentor with an airlock after the primary fermentation is complete, right?

BTW, my younger brother lived in Aurora for a few years.

Good luck, I hope you'll get good wine from your efforts!

 

[CobraGT40]

I hope it'll turn out okey...I strained all the fruit/rasins out of the mix a day and a half early transferred the contenets to fresh/sterilized buckets because of fruitfly paranoia. At this point in the brew the batches are to be transferred to 1gal jugs to sit for another week before bottling. The recipe I have is actually supposed to be a type of brandy ? ingredients are water, fruit, sugar, white rasins, lemons, and yeast. The last batch I did was great, and at this point actually tased wonderful ! this batch...not so much...the apple and pear batches taste nothing like apple or pear...in fact, they're kinda sour. the peace is actually pretty good though. The flys didnt like the peach, apparently and didn't touch it.

Well, we'll see, but I think the apple and pear batches are wrecked. :-(

 

[Justibone]

If they are infected with aceto-bacter, can't they still be used as a high-quality vinegar?

I'd say don't pitch them unless they are gross and totally unusable. Even the worst sow's ear can be made into a silk purse much of the time... so don't give up on your brewing efforts until you know you absolutely have to.