Help, added yeast by mistake to finished wine

[dennisonthomas]

I have a setup where I am brewing wine and beer and storing both in kegs with taps. This has been working great for me, no problems, however my latest beer I left too long to ferment and the addition of priming sugar whilst transferring to a pressure barrel did nothing. No problem, I activated a small amount of yeast, about half a teaspoon full in around 30g sugar/water and left for a couple of nights. At this point I added it to my beer hoping for carbonation. The problem is, as I was adding this yeast/sugar mix I accidentally added it to a finished wine (cleared and degassed etc) by mistake, without thinking.

I realised in a second what I had done and so added a generous amount of stabiliser to stop the yeast in its tracks, which I have successfully done and there is no change in taste, so crisis averted. I am now worried however that with the wine sitting in the barrel for several months, which is my intention, that eventually this yeast will decompose and produce off flavours. Of course, I can always wait a week or so and rack off again, however I was wondering if this is necessary or if my fears are unfounded. Please let me know your thoughts.

 

[solbes]

Welcome to the forums first of all!

I really don't think 1/2 tsp of yeast (which probably doubled with the sugar) is enough to cause any issues of decomposition flavors. Think about the clearing process, there's ~ 30-50x that in secondary and still 10x that in tertiary. If anything you might have to wait for this to fully clear from your wine, but I wouldn't expect off flavors.

 

[madscientist451]

I'd get it cold, let it sit a week or so and rack it off and see what you've got.
It should be ok.

 

[marco5150]

if the wine was finished and dry,,, the yeast should not do much but sit there,,, get it to die off ,like chilling, and settle and rack it off,,

 

[dennisonthomas]

Thanks for all the advice, think I will risk it and see. Apologies for the very slow reply.

I have another question, although Im not sure whether I need to open a new thread, but here goes...


So I have been storing the finished wine in barrels and pouring out from a tap - eventually the vacuum stops the wine from pouring and I need to release the lid ever so slightly to get it pouring again. Obviously this is not ideal. I have been thinking of perhaps fitting a valve lid and then injecting nitrogen in order to give the wine some pressure, without oxidising and as an alternative to co2. So my question is, is this possible and would this be a good idea? Please note that I am storing the wine in fermenting barrels, not pressure barrels, so the lid is larger than a pressure barrel lid, which I know are very easy to get valves for.

 

[solbes]

Sounds like you are using the barrel tap to dispense into your wine glasses? If so then I would think either a very low pressure N2 or CO2 (2 psi or so) that is opened only when you are dispensing, then closed again.

If you are talking about opening the tap to fill wine bottles, then I would go the route of traditional racking cane with bottle filler wand to minimize ong term oxidation.

 

[dennisonthomas]

yeah, just to dispense into a glass - I have gone for the laziest approach. Will look into N2, hoping a single canister will suffice for a single keg, once the pressure drops low. Thanks for the help