Yeast issue

[Johncifelli]

I accidentally used bread yeast in my 50 gallons of must and my screwed or can I save it?

 

[Johnd]

I accidentally used bread yeast in my 50 gallons of must and my screwed or can I save it?

Get a good wine yeast and add it into the must, I'd suspect that it will overtake the bread yeast and complete the ferment. In your spot, I'd probably use EC-1118 just to be safe.

 

[sour_grapes]

I agree with @Johnd on this. I do not think any harm will come from the bread yeast if you provide a good wine yeast, too.

 

[Johncifelli]

I agree with @Johnd on this. I do not think any harm will come from the bread yeast if you provide a good wine yeast, too.

Thank you very much

 

[Johncifelli]

Get a good wine yeast and add it into the must, I'd suspect that it will overtake the bread yeast and complete the ferment. In your spot, I'd probably use EC-1118 just to be safe

 

[Johncifelli]

How much of the new yeast should I use for 20 boxes of grape

 

[Johnd]

How much of the new yeast should I use for 20 boxes of grape

Assuming that your boxes are 36 pounds each, three boxes should yield around 10 gallons of must, so it total, you should have around 70 gallons. The small 5g packets of yeast are right-sized for 6 gallons, so you would need 12 packets.......... It's not an exact science, using too little just results in a longer period of time for the yeast to establish a large enough colony to metabolize the sugar (lag time), using more decreases the lag time to produce a large enough colony.

 

[Johncifelli]

Assuming that your boxes are 36 pounds each, three boxes should yield around 10 gallons of must, so it total, you should have around 70 gallons. The small 5g packets of yeast are right-sized for 6 gallons, so you would need 12 packets.......... It's not an exact science, using too little just results in a longer period of time for the yeast to establish a large enough colony to metabolize the sugar (lag time), using more decreases the lag time to produce a large enough colony.

Excellent thank you very much

 

[Johncifelli]

Excellent thank you very much

What would happen if I just leave it alone? I know dumb question

 

[Johnd]

What would happen if I just leave it alone? I know dumb question

No, it's not a dumb question. If you had put no yeast at all in your must, the wild yeast living on the grapes would have fermented the wine. Problem is, we never know what those yeasts are, nor what their alcohol tolerance is, or whether or not they are capable of fermenting the wine to dry, that's why we add cultured yeasts to our wines, in addition to selecting wine yeasts that enhance specific factors in our wines.
Bread yeast is just that, bread yeast. It may or may not complete fermenting your wine to dry, could get stuck halfway through, and may impart flavors and / or enhance tastes in your wine that aren't desirable. In the end, you're the winemaker and the decisions are yours, and yours alone. Personally, I don't like to spin the wheel..........

 

[BernardSmith]

But bread yeast has not been selected to flocculate. That is to say, it does not gather and then drop out of suspension in a fairly hard packed manner. Rather, bread yeast sorta kinda hangs around , floating all over the place and when it does fall out of solution, it can be very easily disturbed and floats back up through the wine. In other words, if you are looking for a bright , clear wine, bread yeast will not make that an easy job so even if it does ferment the wine dry and even if it does not impart flavors that you don't like and even if it does highlight flavors that you want it is not really a great choice for a wine. That said, I would think that if you did pitch enough wine yeast on top of the bread yeast the wine yeast will quickly dominate and may even consume the bread yeast if the strain you choose is a killer variety.

 

[buzi]

The key is speed. The bread yeast is working now. You need to get the wine yeast in there immediately to have the best possible effect. Good luck! If you need an quality tester just let me know!

 

[NorCal]

Starting with a non-saccharomyces yeast is the trend, maybe you are on to something I would quickly follow with something that will get the job done, before the environment becomes difficult for the new yeast to start. Good luck, it should be fine.

 

[sour_grapes]

Starting with a non-saccharomyces yeast is the trend, maybe you are on to something I would quickly follow with something that will get the job done, before the environment becomes difficult for the new yeast to start. Good luck, it should be fine.

Good advice, but note that bread yeast is a saccharomyces yeast. In fact, it is even S. cerevisiae, i.e., the same species as wine yeast (but different strain). Think schnauzers vs. collies.

 

[Johncifelli]

Good advice, but note that bread yeast is a saccharomyces yeast. In fact, it is even S. cerevisiae, i.e., the same species as wine yeast (but different strain). Think schnauzers vs. collies.

So should I leave it be?

 

[sour_grapes]

No! If I am not mistaken, I think every single person has advised you to quickly inoculate with a wine yeast. I advise EC-1118, and soon.

 

[Johncifelli]

I inoculated with ec1118 unfortunately 5 days later after using bread yeast. Hopefully I'm not too late. I don't have a good feeling about this one

 

[Venatorscribe]

If by chance it turns into a loaf of sour dough bread please take a photo and post on this blog. It would be a miracle of course however all of us on this blog are focussed on turning water into wine - so you never know your luck.

 

[G259]

LOL! Bread yeast, we've all been there! See what you get, move on, and start new batches.

 

[TurkeyHollow]

If you're really curious about how it will turn out, separate out a few gallons to ferment "as-is" then add an appropriate wine yeast to the rest of the must. That will show you how good the same must can be after a correction.