Lemon Wine

[insane_rosenberg]

Good Evening AHB's,

I recently had a six-month hiatus from brewing. But as every all-grain brewer knows, unless you actually do a full mash etc. it's not brewing.

Anyway, someone brought in a bag of lemons to work, so I decided to make lemon wine.

So I made up the recipe and scaled it up to 15L. Dumped in a packet of Lalvin EC-1118 - Saccharomyces bayanus (Champagne), and let it go for a few months (three-ish?).

Two weeks ago I bottled it off and I noticed a slight metho undertone. As this is my first non-malt concoction and I've never used this yeast before, I'm not sure if that's normal? I asked Google but didn't come back with anything. I hope the non-beer AHB's can help me out?

I'm halfway though my first glass and the smell isn't bothering me so much. I hope I didn't brain my damage.

Also poured some from the bottle and took a hydro measurement. It only got down to 1.070 so I better get through these bottles quick! h34r:

 

[sp0rk]

So it's basically Kilju?
yeah, i've made 3 batches of Kilju now, and they all have a nasty metho undertone
this is what happens when you're basically making a spirit mash with lemons added

 

[kirem]

Although it can come from other sources, methanol is most likely the product of enzymatic breakdown of pectin from the lemons, during fermentation.

You need to manage pectinase activity.

In a homebrew world, pectin is not going to cause you much concern, so make an effort to protect the pectin from enzymatic breakdown and it should reduce the methanol levels.

View attachment 49985

 

[drsmurto]

You sure it's metho and not nail polish remover?

Ethyl acetate (nail polish remover) is quite a common fault from fermentations due to acetobacter.

 

[dent]

Methylated spirits in Australia generally no longer contains any methanol, despite the name - the metho smell is just ethanol, hallmark of cheap booze.

Only reason you can't drink metho (apart from the strength) is that they add a foul tasting agent.

 

[Parks]

methylated has nothing to do with methanol, it basically means 'make smell bad so you don't want to drink it'

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wikipedia.org

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I'd agree with Smurto. I had a ginger beer once that fermented hot in the garage. I opened it up and BOOM - acetone out the whoo-haa. It was revolting.