Surprise wild fermentation

[Slaz]

Over the weekend I decided to try out a 5gal Mango and Pineapple cider 30kg of mangos and 10kg of pineapple. Crushed em’ pressed em, and it pretty much turned into 21litres/5gal of juice. I ordered the yeast prior, but it didn’t turn up in time so I just dumped the juice into a snub nose fermenter and sealed it shut to wait for the yeast to turn up.
So Sunday comes around and notice some action in the snub, whhaaaaaat!! It’s starting to ferment. Within a day??!! So today Monday I threw in some boiled up brewers yeast and bingo it’s going ‘off chops’.
Just wondering if anyone has experience with a quick starting wild yeast fermentation?? I think I did the right thing by adding the extra nutrients to get a hard cider. But any advise on not turning into vinegar, or generally messing it up from hear on would be great.

much thanks
Slaz

 

[Maylar]

One day is pretty quick. I've had apple cider start fermenting within 3-4 days. Your nutrient addition is fine. Vinegar requires alcohol, bacteria and oxygen. We usually treat fresh juice with sulfite to kill wild bacteria, but once fermentation is under way that's not recommended. Just keep an airlock on the fermenter so the CO2 displaces any oxygen. When it's done fermenting you can add some sulfite (Potassium Metabisulfite) for protection.

BTW, What country are you in?

 

[Slaz]

I’m in Australia

keeping the oxygen away from it shouldn’t be a problem as I’m using a snub nosed fermenter, and am able to transfer straight to the keg.

it is summer over here, so temps are fairly warm. Do the higher temps tend to lead to more off flavours in the final product, will secondary fix it?

 

[Maylar]

There's no way to predict how that particular wild yeast will behave in warm temps. For wild apple ciders, typically cooler is better and since apple season is late fall the weather supports that.

I asked where you are because in the US and UK "cider" is made from apples and your mango pineapple brew would be considered a wine. In other countries (e.g. Italy) wine is made from grapes and any other fermented fruit is cider.

 

[Slaz]

The original cider yeast I ordered for this brew has turned up this morning. I there any point in pitching this as well? Or is there no point as it’s well into fermentation already?

 

[Maylar]

I'd let it rock as is. Good luck with it.

 

[Slaz]

Cheers mate, I’ll update later

 

[Slaz]

Fermentation finished. Going to cold crash it for a few days and transfer into a keg on Saturday.

 

[doublejef]

I use to make Tepache which only ferment wild with bacteria from pineapple. It generally start very fast (depending of the T° but could be less than 1 day).

 

[Slaz]

Temp was around 22oC/72F,

I tasted it today and it’s super tart. Going to back sweetened with 1/2 cup of Splenda after cold crashing, keg it and sit it for a few months.