Safe to drink?

[kirr45]

Hey guys

Just made my first ever homebrew wine. Very very basic. I bought the following:

-Ocean Spray cranberry juice (but it was a mix of cranberry, apple, grape, etc..) it was also the 50 calorie version with sucralose.
-Table Sugar
-Bread Yeast

I did a simple mix of the ingredients and about a cup of sugar in straight into the plastic bottle the cranberry juice came in. shook it up and burned a hole into the cap and stuck my airlock into the cap. It wasn't a clean hole so during its fermenting I could smell the alcohol even though the cap was closed. So there wasn't a perfect seal on it.

It was fermenting normally for a week then kinda just stopped. Do you think its safe to drink? I started reading about all these cases of botulism. How can you tell if its safe or not? Also, I know for spirits you can burn it to tell between ethanol and methanol, but what about for lower alcohol beverages?

To be honest I tried about half a glass last night. Tasted real good but not sure if I should worry.

 

[Anon111]

Hey guys

Just made my first ever homebrew wine. Very very basic. I bought the following:

-Ocean Spray cranberry juice (but it was a mix of cranberry, apple, grape, etc..) it was also the 50 calorie version with sucralose.
-Table Sugar
-Bread Yeast

I did a simple mix of the ingredients and about a cup of sugar in straight into the plastic bottle the cranberry juice came in. shook it up and burned a hole into the cap and stuck my airlock into the cap. It wasn't a clean hole so during its fermenting I could smell the alcohol even though the cap was closed. So there wasn't a perfect seal on it.

It was fermenting normally for a week then kinda just stopped. Do you think its safe to drink? I started reading about all these cases of botulism. How can you tell if its safe or not? Also, I know for spirits you can burn it to tell between ethanol and methanol, but what about for lower alcohol beverages?

To be honest I tried about half a glass last night. Tasted real good but not sure if I should worry.

Now there's ethanol and methanol, and one is the drinking alcohol and the other is going-blind-in-3-days-and-dying alcohol. Erm, botulism? Yeah it's nasty but unless you had unprotected sex with a dead duck I wouldn't worry, for now...
Anyway, what you did should work. It's brutal, it's nasty, but it should work. Did you use a balloon as airlock?

$70 should get you a good complete cider kit, for a gallon. Shop around and assemble something that will give you 4 gallons for that same amount. Please.

 

[jgmillr1]

Yes, your brew is safe to drink. Botulism is only a risk when the pH is above 4, so since wine's pH is between 3-4 then you are fine with your acidic cranberry mix. This is why the health departments give wineries a much wider berth for food safety than dairies.

However, that doesn't mean that it is safe from strains of bacteria that will turn the wine to vinegar.

So, if you are going to make even basic batches of wine, you should use campden tablets (sulfites) to protect your wine from oxidation and wild bacteria/yeast. You should also use wine yeast since that will actually ferment the brew mostly dry. Beer or bread yeast strains will not be able to achieve wine-type alcohol levels and leave your brew sweet, if that is not what you want.

Welcome to wine making! Pick up a set of wine making supplies from your local home brew store and you will be quite happy with your next batches of wine. The wine kits are a great way to start to making wines.