Mkay, I just bottled off a "brandy" of sorts which consisted of 1
pint apricots, 1 pint peaches, 1 pint strawberries (all prepared,
pitted and chopped, etc.) 4 quartered lemons, and 10 lbs of sugar. I
added the fruit and sugar to the food-grade sanitized fermenter, topped
it with 3 gallons of boiling water, covered and allowed to cool to
pitching temp with the airlock on. Then I pitched in red star champ
yeast, and within a half a day it was off like a mofo. The recipe
called for a stir every day for 7 days, which I thought unorthodox, but
it called for it so I obliged. After the 8th day the recipe called for
me to pitch in 4 lbs of raisins, then allow to go undistrubed for 20
days. After the 20, I racked off into a racking bucket, sanitized the
fermenter, then tossed it back in for like 2 months. I needed a bottle
or two, so I clarified through some coffee filter action and into some
glass screwtop 1 liters then into the fridge. Anyhoo, here's the
problem, I gave a bottle to a guy I knew after pulling it out of the
fridge. He swears that he smelled some sort of possible botulism type
odor coming from it and that it was unsafe to drink. I, personally had
2 of the bottles of the same batch, sanitized in identical fashion, it
was VERY strong, and sweet (meaning the champaign yeast had peaked out
on alcohol tolerence, so around 16-18% abv) Personally, I really kinda
liked it, nice apricot aftertaste. I'm still breathing, so I'm just
wondering, is this guy full of crap, or could stray bacteria survive in
such harsh conditions and produce lingering toxins. The fruit was
douced with boiling water, the sugar desolved into that, the champ
yeast was active as hell, and I added 4 lemons of acid and ended up
with a high ABV?? It seems unlikely, but if it's possible I might need
to step up sanitation 5 notches.

"el Carterro" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Mkay, I just bottled off a "brandy" of sorts which consisted of 1
> pint apricots, 1 pint peaches, 1 pint strawberries (all prepared,
> pitted and chopped, etc.) 4 quartered lemons, and 10 lbs of sugar. I
> added the fruit and sugar to the food-grade sanitized fermenter, topped
> it with 3 gallons of boiling water, covered and allowed to cool to
> pitching temp with the airlock on. Then I pitched in red star champ
> yeast, and within a half a day it was off like a mofo. The recipe
> called for a stir every day for 7 days, which I thought unorthodox, but
> it called for it so I obliged. After the 8th day the recipe called for
> me to pitch in 4 lbs of raisins, then allow to go undistrubed for 20
> days. After the 20, I racked off into a racking bucket, sanitized the
> fermenter, then tossed it back in for like 2 months. I needed a bottle
> or two, so I clarified through some coffee filter action and into some
> glass screwtop 1 liters then into the fridge. Anyhoo, here's the
> problem, I gave a bottle to a guy I knew after pulling it out of the
> fridge. He swears that he smelled some sort of possible botulism type
> odor coming from it and that it was unsafe to drink.

Your friend doesn't have any idea what botulism smells like. IOW, he's FoS.

Botulism grows in neutral pH things like potato soup - but not at all in
wine. In fact _nothing_ that can hurt you will grow in wine. It's simply
too acidic.

Tom S

you guys work WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too hard at this shit.

--
billb
the stock market is one giant electronic chain letter.

"el Carterro" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Mkay, I just bottled off a "brandy" of sorts which consisted of 1
> pint apricots, 1 pint peaches, 1 pint strawberries (all prepared,
> pitted and chopped, etc.) 4 quartered lemons, and 10 lbs of sugar. I
> added the fruit and sugar to the food-grade sanitized fermenter, topped
> it with 3 gallons of boiling water, covered and allowed to cool to
> pitching temp with the airlock on. Then I pitched in red star champ
> yeast, and within a half a day it was off like a mofo. The recipe
> called for a stir every day for 7 days, which I thought unorthodox, but
> it called for it so I obliged. After the 8th day the recipe called for
> me to pitch in 4 lbs of raisins, then allow to go undistrubed for 20
> days. After the 20, I racked off into a racking bucket, sanitized the
> fermenter, then tossed it back in for like 2 months. I needed a bottle
> or two, so I clarified through some coffee filter action and into some
> glass screwtop 1 liters then into the fridge. Anyhoo, here's the
> problem, I gave a bottle to a guy I knew after pulling it out of the
> fridge. He swears that he smelled some sort of possible botulism type
> odor coming from it and that it was unsafe to drink. I, personally had
> 2 of the bottles of the same batch, sanitized in identical fashion, it
> was VERY strong, and sweet (meaning the champaign yeast had peaked out
> on alcohol tolerence, so around 16-18% abv) Personally, I really kinda
> liked it, nice apricot aftertaste. I'm still breathing, so I'm just
> wondering, is this guy full of crap, or could stray bacteria survive in
> such harsh conditions and produce lingering toxins. The fruit was
> douced with boiling water, the sugar desolved into that, the champ
> yeast was active as hell, and I added 4 lemons of acid and ended up
> with a high ABV?? It seems unlikely, but if it's possible I might need
> to step up sanitation 5 notches.
>

el Carterro wrote:
> Mkay, I just bottled off a "brandy" of sorts which consisted of 1
> pint apricots, 1 pint peaches, 1 pint strawberries (all prepared,
> pitted and chopped, etc.) 4 quartered lemons, and 10 lbs of sugar. I
> added the fruit and sugar to the food-grade sanitized fermenter, topped
> it with 3 gallons of boiling water, covered and allowed to cool to
> pitching temp with the airlock on. Then I pitched in red star champ
> yeast, and within a half a day it was off like a mofo. The recipe
> called for a stir every day for 7 days, which I thought unorthodox, but
> it called for it so I obliged. After the 8th day the recipe called for
> me to pitch in 4 lbs of raisins, then allow to go undistrubed for 20
> days. After the 20, I racked off into a racking bucket, sanitized the
> fermenter, then tossed it back in for like 2 months. I needed a bottle
> or two, so I clarified through some coffee filter action and into some
> glass screwtop 1 liters then into the fridge. Anyhoo, here's the
> problem, I gave a bottle to a guy I knew after pulling it out of the
> fridge. He swears that he smelled some sort of possible botulism type
> odor coming from it and that it was unsafe to drink. I, personally had
> 2 of the bottles of the same batch, sanitized in identical fashion, it
> was VERY strong, and sweet (meaning the champaign yeast had peaked out
> on alcohol tolerence, so around 16-18% abv) Personally, I really kinda
> liked it, nice apricot aftertaste. I'm still breathing, so I'm just
> wondering, is this guy full of crap, or could stray bacteria survive in
> such harsh conditions and produce lingering toxins. The fruit was
> douced with boiling water, the sugar desolved into that, the champ
> yeast was active as hell, and I added 4 lemons of acid and ended up
> with a high ABV?? It seems unlikely, but if it's possible I might need
> to step up sanitation 5 notches.
>


Botulism has no discernable odor, even if it could survive in a fruit
juice, which it can't. (That's why people who can fruits don't need to
use a pressure canner - botulism can't survive in the high acid
conditions of fruit, just like the other poster said).

Woods