An Inside Look At The Natural Enemies Of Homemade Wine Making

Airborne yeast and acid loving bacteria are two enemies of wine-making. Most acetic bacteria convert alcohol into acid thereby turning homemade wine to vinegar. Similarly, the yeasts and spores of fungi that turn wine flat or turn it sour are also in the air. If you're using fresh fruit and other ingredients from the garden or shops, these bacteria, yeasts and fungi are also present, but no worries because they are easily destroyed.

Most ingredients used in making wine are supplied in containers and they will not be contaminated by these causes of spoilage. But, the water that you might use can contain harmful bacteria that can spoil the wine or possibly the wild yeast can cause poor ferments and these ferments could give 'off' flavors such as sour tastes.

It is not usually known that the molds on cheese, half-empty pots of meat paste and jam are often yeasts growing there for it is the yeast floating about in the air that ruins the wines that you make. So, in order to beat these souring yeasts, you must keep the fermenting wines and finished wines covered closely. Treatment of such finished wines is covered under the heading 'storing' and it is important that you cover fermenting wines.

As soon as the prepared yeasts have been added to the prepared liquid, the top of the jar should be covered with a piece of polythene and this should be pressed down all around by hand and a strong string should be tied tightly around. Through this you can keep airborne diseases away from the wine. It is also a good idea if you use a Fermentation lock instead of polythene.

Keep in mind that the whole idea in using a fermentation lock is to keep airborne diseases from contaminating the wine, so be sure that the bung and lock are airtight. When these are loose, the gas leaking will prevent air from reaching the wine during the early stages, and it slows down the outgoing stream of gas through the leakage holes which wouldn't be strong enough so the airborne diseases can easily reach the wine.

After fitting the lock to the bung and jar, run a little sealing wax where the bungs enter the jar and where the lock enters the bung. This precaution may not be necessary, but it's better to be safe. Remove one piece of the lock and bung and insert a new one when fermentation stops.