I found a pot of open custard hidden at the back of the shelf while I was at work, it smelt very much like Bailey's... Looking at the sugar concentration it would've been around 6-7% alcohol.
This makes me wonder if you could ferment custard? I can imagine it would just separate out though? 😅
I'm also guessing it could be a pretty explosive fermentation as I've probably added 10x the yeast I usually would and I've heard that dead yeast can be used as a nutrient.
I'm gutted as the fresh lalvin 71b yeast I just ordered probably won't be here soon enough as I'm suspecting if I wait any longer there's a chance the unfermented sugary grape juice may start to spoil.
It's been 5 days and there's still no activity. I'm guessing since oxygen got into the 35g packet I have (dated may 2024) the yeast may have oxidized or something... I put the dried yeast straight into the wine. A couple days later I added some to 38°c water and let it hydrate and then added it...
Not sure if anybody is interested but this wine was absolutely amazing, it's the best I've ever made. I took the last bottle to my sister's on boxing Day and everybody loved it. If anybody has ever tried it it tasted a bit like kumulas special reserve pinotage. I think the concord grape juice...
I've had a mead fermenting for about 3 months and it has stalled around 1.03 and ideally I'd like to get it to 1.015 as I find anything above is much too sweet... Currently it is dropping about 0.002 points per month which means it's going to take about 7 months to complete at the current rate...
Urgh.... I can't believe how slow mead is xD.... Nearly a month later (30/4 - 26/5) and it's at 1.046 or about 9.45%... I might need to add more nutrient as it hasn't looked that active for the last week although this is the first reading I've taken since I took the OG. I expected the reading...
The only thing less yeast does is cause it to take a little longer to start fermenting. In the past I've taken samples of wine with yeast I've run out of, poured the sample into what I want to ferment and a day or two later it was fermenting. You only need enough yeast to outpace any possible...
It's finally done at 13.3%, I literally just poured it through a sieve into a bottle xD, it already tastes better then the bottle I tried from Morrisons, I don't really care that I has a haze to it as I'm more interested testing if this is something I'd enjoy brewing and drinking in the future...
The black forest fruit wine is finally bottled. I got 5 bottles and 3/4. The smell is amazing and it tastes almost as good. There's a mild acidity but it's nothing too overpowering. The wine finished at 1.004 and is about 14.7% but it doesn't taste that strong alcohol wise.
I can't wait to see...
I backsweetened it to 1.014 and it has dropped to 1.01 in 5 days. It still looks active though and is producing 1 bubble every 20 seconds. I calculate it to currently be at 13.9% and the yeast claims upto 14% tolerance.
The sugar I said I added on the previous comment was actually sugar/water...
Is Wilko's yeast nutrient acceptable? I added 1/4 teaspoon. I haven't tested it since but it's certainly producing more gas now.
Also, I did actually add the skins... The skin on top is actually from a bit of banana I couldn't resist eating xD