What You Need To Know About Contaminants Of Homemade Wine

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.

Surprisingly, it is the mold on cheeses, half-empty pots of meat paste and jam are often yeasts growing there for it is the yeast floating around in the air that ruins the wine you make. In order to treat these yeasts, you must keep the fermenting wines and finished wines covered closely. Such finished wines should be covered under the heading 'storing' and it is important that you keep fermenting wines covered.

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.

If the whole idea in using fermentation locks is to keep airborne diseases from contaminating the wine, make sure that the bung and lock are airtight. If they are not, the gas leaking will prevent air from reaching the wine during the early stages, but as it slows down the outgoing stream of gas through the leakage holes wouldn't be strong enough for this and so the airborne diseases could easily reach the wine.

Having fitted the lock to the bung and jar, remember to run a little sealing wax where the bungs enter the jar and where the lock enters the bung. Actually this precaution may not be necessary, but it's better to be on the safe side. You can now remove one piece of the lock and bung and insert a new bung when fermentation ceased. The wine during this process can then be put away to clear.