I have been brewing fruit wine with wild yeast for some time now and one think that is really hard is determining the ABV of the wine. So there is my question, I have a certain mash with a known concentration of sugar, is there a way to estimate the ABV knowing that there will be lactic acid + alcohol fermentation?

I am trying to understand the nature of contamination in beer. I find it difficult to imagine (considering there are wild yeasts and moulds and micro-organisms in the air - aren't there?) a scenario where a beer is 100% free of contamination, or is this normally the case with a properly brewed batch? Or is it a case that when contamination is lower than some threshold we don't notice it and that beer is considered to not be contaminated? I …

This is my second time doing 5 gallons of wild-fermented cider. Both years I used fresh pressed apples from a local orchard. Last year I had no problems. After two or three weeks at room temperature, it bubbled vigorously just as I had hoped. This year, nothing. No bubbling or anything. I have been stirring it everyday two or three times, but it has been two months and nothing has happened. Is there anything I can do to save or …

I've been doing research about making alcohol, and I can't find much involving how much alcohol wild yeast can produce before stopping. I'm just wanting to make pure alcohol and vinegar for chemistry reasons, so I'm not worried about taste. I want to use wild yeast more or less because I want to be able to do it that way. If you have one, please give me a source. Thanks for any help in advance. Also on a side note, …

I have a few fields with different fruits from grapes to dragon fruits, and I am an amateur homebrewer and want to get into wild Fermentation for ciders, fruit wines and later for beer after I learn the tricks of it. All the recipes I found online for guidance are not for beginners, or if they say they are, they are full of unnecessary info. I have a basic knowledge of winemaking and brewing. So the question is are any …

I was wondering whether it would be possible to dehydrate a ginger bug or the yeast part of it. The end goal is to be able to store it in powder form for longer periods of time. I am aware it can be kept in the refrigerator but it would still require feeding. I've bought ginger bug commercially in powder form so I'm sure it can be done. Also, last but not least, is the sediment which forms at the …

This was the first time I primed my cider when bottling for carbonation. I exclusively wild ferment and press my own apples. I added what I think was enough sugar (ca. 120 g for 25 L), and bottles were stored at room temperature (ca. 16ºC) for 3 weeks. Yesterday, I put one bottle in the fridge and left it overnight. I popped it open today and to my surprise, no bubbles. What would you say is the reason for this? …

I have a friend who studies some molecular aspects of probiotic yeasts, some wild ones and also the widespread in medications Saccharomyces boulardii (found in Florastor®, Floratil®, and other commercial names). He ask me if there is any chance on brewing beer with this, and I've searched on the net, and find some information, but I think its good to know if someone here on this house have tried this before. Available information tells about some banana esters, or 'wheat …

I pressed about 40 L worth of apple juice 12 days ago. Sweet cider was put into a carboy and foamed heavily after 3 or 4 days for about a week with consitent airlock activity. In the past two days, the thick foam has gone down to the point where it has disapeared, which I guess is normal in wild fermented cider as it starts secondary fermentation. However, airlock bubbling has stopped, which I'm unsure if it's a normal symptom. …

My wild fermented cider from freshly pressed apples has been on the carboy for almost one and a half months now. Cider is cloudy and there's still some very, VERY occasional airlock activity (once or twice a day?). I assume by now most fermentation has stopped. I've been trying the brew, and it's great. I like the taste it has now and don't think letting it ferment for longer will make a big difference. I would like my cider to …

I have 30L of pressed apples. After getting the wild yeast started in one week, I put an air-lock on. This is how my carboy looked right after that operation: I used organic raw apple cider vinegar as a sanitizing solution in the air-lock. Hope that was a good idea. Anyways, air-lock bubbled for an hour or so right after being set, but after one hour, air-lock activity has stopped. Still, there's a healthy couple fingers of foam on top …

I pressed 35L of apples and the juice was pourred into a clean carboy with a muslin cloth on top, aiming to make wild cider. After 4 days of no action, this is the carboy at 16h in day 4: And 4 hours later, by 20h in day 4: Is my juice infected and if so, can I still save it? Why are the white particles only localized in the middle and not going towards the edges? Is it possible …

I noticed several small pink colonies on the foam of a second stage starter that I made from recovered yeast (originally Gigayeast: GY 054) that was mixed with 25% glycerin and frozen. They were not fuzzy as might be expected for a mold or mycelial species. I've done some research on the Web and PubMed in particular and have found two genera of wild yeast that might be responsible: Rhodotorula and Sporobolomyces. I didn't find any representations that these were …

I have recently started to get my feet wet by making some ginger beers using a ginger bug to start the fermentation. I would like to know the alcohol content of my final product, but as the ginger bug has both bacteria and yeast eating the sugars I can not figure out how I would measure the final alcohol content! 3 questions: Is there a way to figure out how much sugar has been consumed by either the yeast or …

I've just pitched K1-V116 into a batch of rosehip wine. As I finished, thoughts of one kind of yeast led to another and I went to feed my sourdough starter - and stopped. K1-V1116 is a killer strain which secretes toxic polypeptides able to kill other strains and species. I have heard that even minute levels of yeast contamination (such as from having previously made a sourdough in the same room - even many months previously) can completely prevent establishing …

I brewed a belgian triple last week. I was making a starter using white labs trapist yeast, but it didn't take off; must have been a bad vial. So, I picked up a packet of wyeast trapist yeast and pitched that into the same starter to get it going. In the meantime the batch was sitting in the carboy waiting for yeast. Problem is: while the starter was getting going, and before I pitched any yeast into the carboy, the …

Recipes for spontaneous (wild) ginger ale sometimes refer to the starter as the "ginger bug". What is the ginger bug? Is it just an ordinary lactobacillus; is it a type of yeast? Is it something that is all around us, or something that is found specifically on the ginger? What role does the ginger play: is it simply a flavouring agent, does it act as a preservative, or is it something special (for instance, a carrier of important microörganisms that …

Can anyone describe the general process you manage the levels of wild yeast in air? I'm thinking have a maltose solution exposed and measure the change in specific gravity of it over time while opening/closing airflow from your vents and changing the settings on those large air filters for people with allergies

Here's a question... I have made a cider with wild yeast (whatever was on those apples), and after fermenting it out, I used the same yeast to ferment a session mead (OG~1.060, FG~1.004, ABV~7.3%). It gave a really cool and interesting touch to the mead (much better then original cider). So, after that I've been thinking, about making a stronger mead. Just out of curiosity, what could be the tolerance of those wild yeasts? I kinda can guess, that it …

I'm interested in learning about brewing using wild yeast, but I wonder what is the best method to catch a strain that would produce good results in homebrewing. And of course how to ensure that it wins over all the other wild microorganisms. No need to explain how to keep it going, as that shouldn't be different from store bought yeast. I 've baked bread with wild yeast before, but one thing I learned is that it turns sour very …