Strange Yeasty Goo Particles in High Bush Cranberry Mess

Mizamook · Nov 12, 2018

Hello, and Greetings to All.

As my first post, I apologise for starting out with a problem/question. I'll properly introduce myself later today!

I've got something unsettling/weird/maybe kinda gross going on in my first attempt at high bush cranberry wine.

Many problems with this wine ... at least it's fermenting ... it took quite a while (and more yeast/heat than I would have preferred) to get going.

I forgot to add pectic enzyme.

So this picture here (I'm adding it at the end so those of you with delicate constitutions might turn away now), taken today, is showing the results of adding too much yeast (2 packs of supposedly new EC1118, the first one hydrated and fed before pitching (no activity after three days), the second hydrated, some random added sugar, about 1/8 tsp of sodium bicarbonate to raise ph (was pretty darn low .. should NOT have randomly added tartaric acid), then another packet of yeast (Montrachet after reading that such was what people get better results with cranberries) forgetting pectic enzyme, and I'll be darned if my notes don't reveal more of my inadequacy as a budding winemaker ...

But I wonder what to do now? Rack it to secondary with some pectic enzyme and see what happens? I don't want to stir anything in ... I was stirring/aerating to get fermentation going, but it's obviously "going" ...

The smell is not bad ... it's strange, but I expected that, being that it's high bush cranberries ...

I have searched forums and articles, but I might not be asking the right question, so a photo will have to do. Thanks for any input!

Cheers!

Mallerstang · Nov 13, 2018

It looks a little like something from a post a couple of months ago with the title "strange gooey foam" - sorry I don't know how to link to other posts, but you'll find it if you search on those words in this forum.

Someone had clumpy goo in a raspberry wine, and I'd experienced the same thing, which resolved with racking.

They posted some pictures - see if it looks like what you have.

Mizamook · Nov 13, 2018

Oh my ... I can see what they were alluding to "brains ... " and yes, that does look very much like mine - the goo, that is, not my brain : )!

So thanks for leading to that. It makes me a lot more hopeful about this. I'd like to figure out if I can avoid it next time with pectic enzyme, but perhaps it doesn't need to be a worry anyway, if it clears.

I ditched the mesh bag back when the ferment wasn't starting ... and it's fascinating watching the cyclic lava lamp action now of the goo particles and occasional berry bits. The same thing happened in my meads and mixed blueberry/red huckleberry wine ... but never this "goo".

One thing that had me worried is that it seems to be growing. I punch the cap a few times per day, and I've noticed that the surface of the goo/berries is much closer to the top of the fermenter than before.

Mallerstang said:
It looks a little like something from a post a couple of months ago with the title "strange gooey foam" - sorry I don't know how to link to other posts, but you'll find it if you search on those words in this forum.

Someone had clumpy goo in a raspberry wine, and I'd experienced the same thing, which resolved with racking.

They posted some pictures - see if it looks like what you have.

gratus fermentatio · Nov 13, 2018

Looks like pectin to me.
Regards, GF.

Mizamook · Nov 14, 2018

So I racked today, using my Allinone pump system for the first time (which is really cool!) and the yield ended up being about 2 gallons. It is "vaguely" filtered (remember I had my cranberries loose) and it is very hazy currently, which I believe is vacuum-sucked goo particles. Since I added pectic enzyme as I racked (mixed with water, just enough to hydrate, and poured in approximate quantities to equal about 1/4 tsp per gallon) I'm hoping it helps clear it. The flavor is actually reminiscent of watermelon. Will be interesting to see how things turn out.

Mizamook · Oct 3, 2019

Partially as a response to the request on my other thread to follow up, I decided, since I am currently searching about on the 'web to see how I might entice my current new high bush cranberry wine to start fermenting, and ran into my old post, that I should actually report back on this here thread to indicate how it came out.

Well! I certainly could have expressed that better.

But as for the High Bush Cranberry wine mentioned in this thread, I can say that it did, for the most part, come out VERY well. I will specify the exceptions below. But the wine my wife and I sampled was very good, if not a bit "puckery". Of course, we prefer tart to sweet, and in the goal to "capture the essence of the high bush cranberry in a wine" I did very well. I used some of it to augment a kit wine that lacked acid, and it did so very nicely ... the cranberry flavor enhanced the rather insipid, flat, and all-too-young kit wine nicely, and the kit wine provided a nice balance to the cranberry. I will say that I did like the cranberry wine by itself, too though. Quite, dry, tart, and, with regard to the "brains" ... well, racking made them disappear completely, and the final wine was a lovely clear, blush. (I don't clarify with any filtration or additives ... I just rack it a lot and wait)

In fact ... I'll go see if I can rustle up another bottle ... oop, no, sorry ... too bad about small batches ... I only have one more 750ml bottle corked. Saving it.

Anyway - the "exceptions": Remember that I tend to rack to progressively smaller containers, and if the gravity is low enough (and a few times when it wasn't .. sparkling mead geyser surprises anyone?) I put away a 12oz beer bottle or two capped for "testing". In this case I "tested" it on a friend in the post office, who semi-abashedly stated she "backsweetened" it with 7-Up, which I thought was a grand idea (and she said it was good) and also a friend at a local brewery, who, by the time she got to it, found it had lost its tartness and developed a "plasticky flavor". So, while the 12oz bottle that got backsweetened with 7-Up was actually enjoyed, so was not a fail, the "plasticky" report was a bad thing, so I opened my last 12oz bottle (from the final racking) and found it delicious (the prior tasting by myself and Wifey was in a 32oz growler, and was good). So the final 12oz tasting being good had me confused, but at least, for the most part, I can only rack it up to experience and lack of "control" in my production.

So I'm trying it again, because that's what we do when there are berries ripe everywhere!) but with a larger batch (3+ gallon) less uncontrolled free berries (and no seeds), and a different yeast (my first attempt using K1-V1116)

The other difference in the new batch that hasn't started fermenting yet (pitched about this time last night) and POSSIBLY something that could have contributed to the plasticky flavors, is that I am specifically picking my cranberries before a heavy frost, and tasting samples from each bush. There is a specific "gym shoe" funk that happens with these berries ... I sought to avoid it in this current batch, and I know I incorporated it into the previous batch. I literally picked the berries one by one, and sniffed my fingers a lot, so as to avoid "infecting" the crop. Also, I rejected some bushes entirely.

The berries I sampled/picked tasted much like that cranberry sauce you'd find on a traditional US Thanksgiving's Day spread. No, really ... even though they are different berries (high bush cranberries are NOT "cranberries"), that's what they taste like, right off the bush! Also starting a mead which, after it gets its wild fermentation going, I'll add some of those berries to.

Should I have started a specific thread for this last bit of prose?