Can I use beer yeast to make wine?

[John506]

Yesterday I bought 10packs of frozen summer fruit, and mixed it all together with 18litres of Ocean spray cranberry and blackcurrant juice.

I boiled the juice for 10minutes to kill off any preservatives (I don't think there were any tbh) and let it all stew for 24hours, I have just removed and squeezed most of the fruit mush that was in there and added just over 3kg of sugar, which gets it smidgies below 1.090 on the hydrometer.

At the shop there was only beer yeast and no wine yeast I bought some just on the off chance it will be ok, so just trying to find out now.

I've had a quick google but I can only find "Can I use wine yeast for making beer?" and my question is the other way round.

Could I put the beer yeast in tonight along with some nutrient and then just put another pack of propper wine yeast in tomorrow, or should I just be patient and wait until I get propper wine yeast tomorrow?

Thanks!

 

[PD]

beer yeasts will not work with the alcohol expected in wines it will kill it off and you will end up with a weak wine

 

[Moley]

Ocean Spray doesn't contain preservatives so you didn't need to boil. Some other juice drinks might, so always read the labels.

OG 1.090 gives you a potential alcohol content of around 13.5% abv. I've no idea what sort of flavours they might contribute but beer yeasts won't be able to cope with this.

You shouldn't have mixed things up if you didn't already have the correct yeast in hand, but keep the lid on for now and get some wine yeast pitched as early tomorrow as you can get some.

 

[John506]

Ok guys thanks for the replies. hope nothing happens to my batch! I'm one eager beaver haha.

I'm partly gutted though

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

I once did a TC with S-04, fermented out to around 8% o.k but for me there was a faint underlying ale taste that I didn't like in TC.

 

[John506]

God don't want it to taste like ale. I had a sip of the mix when I was adding the sugar and it tastes dammnnnnnn goood, and want it to stay that way once fermented! :)

Do you think my mix is at risk in the 25l bucket with a lid firmly on without the yeast? Wont be able to get any in until about 3:30pm when I finish work

 

[Moley]

Do you think my mix is at risk in the 25l bucket with a lid firmly on without the yeast?

Yes, very much so, you have a bucket full of sweet, fruity liquid which is screaming out for infection.

When using fruits you either pour boiling water over them to kill wild yeasts or other spoilage organisms, or dose the cold mix with Campden tablets to do the same.

Were your juices still hot when poured over the fruits, and were they defrosted or still frozen?

If the juices had been allowed to cool, and depending upon how those fruits had been processed, you could find fermentation has already started.

 

[John506]

I initially bought 2litres of the juice and boiled it up and poured it over the frozen fruit and mashed it all up, (I thought I would be able to top it up with water but then soon realised it only made like 5litres and I wanted 25 so it would have just been a watery wine.

The next day I bought another 18litres of the juice, boiled it all up and poured it onto the fruit (hopefully would have killed anything bad) which made it up to 23 litres.

I removed alot of the fruit mush and adjusted the sugar content.

I then had to wait another 21hours before I could pitch the yeast due to buying the wrong one!

I've got it all going now and it's fermenting well, already smells really alcoholic and only pitched it about 20 hours ago!

I hope my brew survives, if not I guess it's just a £40 lesson learnt Next one I think I will just use the carton juice and not add in any fruit, just for simplicity and cost!

 

[Moley]

boiled it all up and poured it onto the fruit (hopefully would have killed anything bad)

You didn't need to boil it, but in hindsight that was probably a good thing and I would expect you've got away with the delay in pitching.

Forty Quid ?!?!? :shock:

Shop around for your juices and take full advantage of any offers, I don't think I've ever used anything which cost more than a quid a litre, and usually much less. In comparison, five gallons of WOW should come in around fourTEEN quid.

 

[kRooGa]

I only had Wilkos english ale yeast in the cupboard when I started my WOW and my Ribena wine. Both are still bubbling along fine after 2 weeks and the WOW is down to 1.006 from 1.095. Hopefully it should be ok. Maybe the drop in temperature coupled with the fact that swmbo still won't let me put the heating on, has kept it slow and steady.

Got a tub of Vinclasse wine yeast in the cupboard now tho :thumb:

 

[Molineux]

Forty quid is a lot to spend mate! Like Moley said, shop around. I brought a load of tropical juice from Tescos a couple of months ago at 62p per L.

Either that or go scrumping!