I'm sure someone has at least tried, but I'm curious if it's possable to start a mead simply with the natural yeasts that collect on grapes? I assume at the very least to get it to work I'd need vineyard grapes and not supermarket (*shudder*).
natural yeasts...
- Thread starter Ibiduin
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I've never done this, but it should work well enough -- though I'd think you'd need to be making a pyment in order to get enough yeast at the start (unless you culture it at home).
-David
-David
It would most definitely work. I've made cyser using only the yeast that rode in on the cider apples. Keep in mind that there are always risks involved with this. Namely stuck fermentations, off flavors, vinegar, or worse. Its interesting and fun to try, but you really don’t have much control over the situation.
I agree with JoeM.
Something to think about is that when you decide where to get your grapes it's a good idea to take a look at the condition of the vineyard and the winery/cellar. A good healthy vineyard and well maintained winery inspire more confidence than those that are less well maintained. During the crush wineries are pretty busy and there'a lot of fruit laying around in crates and such so pick a grape or two and taste them. If you like them and they're not nasty looking go for it.
Also, consider the surrounding area of the vinyards and winery. If they're close to big highways, factories, nasty green looking ponds etc. I'd move on to the ones that are in areas further off from civilization. This in no way guarantees anything, but, the less nasty stuff blowing around the vineyards the better in my book since it will ultimately settle on the grape, soil, etc.
Hope that helps,
Oskaar
Something to think about is that when you decide where to get your grapes it's a good idea to take a look at the condition of the vineyard and the winery/cellar. A good healthy vineyard and well maintained winery inspire more confidence than those that are less well maintained. During the crush wineries are pretty busy and there'a lot of fruit laying around in crates and such so pick a grape or two and taste them. If you like them and they're not nasty looking go for it.
Also, consider the surrounding area of the vinyards and winery. If they're close to big highways, factories, nasty green looking ponds etc. I'd move on to the ones that are in areas further off from civilization. This in no way guarantees anything, but, the less nasty stuff blowing around the vineyards the better in my book since it will ultimately settle on the grape, soil, etc.
Hope that helps,
Oskaar
It's possible to make it work, but you might want to take a look at this URL:
http://www.honeycreek.us/wildyeast.html
http://www.honeycreek.us/wildyeast.html
