Viability of fruit must? How long will it keep?

[beano]

I went this past Sunday to my local HBS to pick up some yeast and some additives and found that they were moving and have discontinued their line of line of yeasts and chemicals.
Their primary business is bottled wines. Anyway, no yeasties, no additives!
I had premade my must Saturday night, prior to going to fetch my yeast and , well you can see where that leaves me in a oops situation.
My first thought was to freeze it, but wasn't sure. Luckly I got a hold of a friend that had a envolope of Premier Curvee he was willing to front to me.
So this brings the question of how long is a fruit must, or any must, for that matter, able to stand without pitching yeast? Campden added, sugar added, tannin added, nutrient added, acid blend added, energizer added, fruit added, and pectic enzyme added next day. Any thoughts on the subject, as informational, or otherwise will be great to hear.
I should have had my ducks in a row but I was slack about being prepared and a lesson learned.

 

[Ernest T Bass]

Yeast

Beano, Ernest T. here. I'm new to this wine making also, I've read a lot on the subject of wine making and may understand about 5 or 10% of what I've read.
I have read on this forum that some folks don't even use any yeast on fruit wine, they rely on the yeast that is on the fruit to ferment the must. Unless you have made a pretty good study on yeast and which one to use on which fruit and what you expect from the yeast, I think it's a shot in the dark as to which one to use, just my thoughts. I use mostly 1122 on pretty much all my fruit wines, unless I know (have read) that it's a hard one to ferment, then I will use 1118 or 1116. Most of the folks I know that make wine and aren't on any forum, use Fleishmans and for me, I really can't tell the difference.
Right or Wrong, that's my thoughts.
Semper Fi

 

[beano]

Ernest T., thanks for your response. My real question here is about how long can you leave a must sit, if for some reason you are unable to pitch your yeast, before it spoils and are there any ways to store it? Refridgeration, freezing, etc.
I'm just courious after my recent inability to purchase yeast locally.

Thanks all!

 

[cmason1957]

I have never tried to keep a must for a long time, but I would think of you can get it cold enough, you could keep it a fairly long time. If I were presented with this problem I would certainly get the fruit of of there after a few days, just like it was fermenting.

 

[Tom_S]

I would treat it just as you would any other fruit juice. Either keep it in the fridge if you will get some yeast soon, or stick it in the freezer if you know it will be a while before you'll get some yeast. Either way, make sure the must warms up to room temperature before adding the yeast.

I don't like the idea of allowing wild yeast to ferment must into wine, because you never know what you're going to get. Not all yeast makes good wine, and unless you by chance happen to live somewhere where wine yeast is prevalent in nature, chances are it won't taste as good. We all know that using bread yeast gives wine off flavors, so who knows what wild yeast will do.

 

[beano]

Thank you all for your responses. None of use want to lose a bucket of must, but in my case, a lack of planning....! Sometimes I get ahead of myself and I think we are all probobly guilty of this at some time or other.

So, as I heard (read) Seth say, make a plan and follow the plan. Boy Scout like, Be prepared.

Thanks Ya'll, Joe