Yeast Exposure Question [Urgent]

[The_Conisseur]

I've just recently started my first wine making attempt, and this is more of just a experimental attempt than anything, but I'm afraid I messed up. I started out with a big sealable bag last night since I didn't have anything I could properly keep the fruit, yeast, and sugar mix in, and I was going to head to the store this morning to pick up some supplies. I woke up and I went to check the bag, touched it, and it popped open. Luckily I had it in a garbage bag, but it was exposed over 15-20 minutes. Is this going to be harmful this early in the process?

 

[ColoHox]

Oxidation is probably not too much of a concern at this point, although contamination would be. The sooner you can get it into a fermenter of some type, with an airlock, the better off you will be.

 

[TexasWine]

My opinion? Throw it out and start over.

One other thing. Don't use a sealed zip top bag to ferment. If you're looking for cheap you'd be much better off using an old plastic orange juice jug with a balloon stretched over the top and a pin hole in the tip. Maybe you could even spring for a one gallon glass jug of apple cider. Drink the cider and voilà, a free carboy.

 

[stpug]

I agree that you're probably fine at this point in the fermentation but it sounds like a REALLY ghetto-style fermenting setup you're working with. There's nothing wrong with starting a wine fermentation in a regular stock pot draped with a towel over the top and, IMO, that's a lot better than in a plastic bag (that has the potential to POP upon touching). You WILL eventually need to get your wine/brew into a container where you can feel confident it's not exposed to oxygen.

 

[Kdog22]

Air/oxygen exposure in that short time period won't hurt the wine that early on in fermentation. Oxygen is good in the first days of a ferment. If you don't have any carboys and airlocks, run to the grocery store and buy a water jug and some balloons as suggested. After poking a few pin holes in the tip of the balloon, not the sides, stretch it over top the jug and secure the base of the balloon with a couple rubber bands to prevent the possibility of it popping off. This allows the CO2 to escape during fermentation but not allow any oxygen to enter.

Call me cheap, but I did this numerous times before I invested in airlocks. lol.