dpile1 said:
I've just started a big ol'batch of this after reading several glowing reports of it. I'll be adding the yeast tomorrow night. :thumb:
When I saw your post my first thought was âwhy hasn't he pitched the yeast yet?â
Then I saw your post on the Harris forum, but didn't have time to come back here to add anything.
Wild yeasties live on fruit skins and flowers. With country wines you will probably notice that most recipes call for campden tablets or boiling water, and this is to kill off the wild yeasts. Over the years, commercial winemakers and brewers have spent a lot of time and money isolating yeasts which do the job that best suits our requirements, work fast, have the right sort of alcohol tolerance and leave clean tastes when they have finished. This is why we want to stop the wild yeasties from taking hold before we add our own out of a sachet or pot.
Supermarket juices have usually been pasteurised and many have been filtered. They shouldn't contain wild yeasts, which is why they can stay on the shelves for weeks or months without starting to ferment inside the cartons.
Therefore, with juice wines, campden tablets aren't needed at the start, you can (and should) get your yeasties pitched straight away.
Like I've said on the Harris thread, no harm done, but get your yeast in ASAP.