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.