Something I have wondered why for some time now. And I will go into detail about that, in a moment.
But are there any sugar-filled liquids that simply cannot be fermented, and turned into alcohol?
I know there are probably some that shouldn’t. I was into fermenting liquids of various kinds, about 20 years ago. And I found that out the hard way. But are there any sugar-filled liquids, that for simply chemical and/or biological reasons, cannot be turned into alcohol?
Oh, and by the way, the reason why. Ever since I was a child, I wondered if you could ferment orange juice. It just seems to me it would taste great if you could. Yet no one ever does. And c. 20 years ago, when I was really into it, I never got the nerve to do that. Too bad, I suppose. But I guess that is part of my question: And can you ferment orange juice?
Fermentation is caused by bacteria eating the sugar and whizzing out alcohol. If you mix the sugar into something that the bacteria can’t live in, then there will be no fermentation.
Prisoners do. It’s one of the common ingredients in pruno. The existence of which also answers your question - if there is, the people who make pruno haven’t discovered it, and if there’s anyone who would, it’s them.
In my (unintentional) experience, you can, but it ends up tasting very bitter and—I don’t know if this is the right word for it, but it’s the only one I can think of—gamey.
Plus, it gets fizzy and plays all sorts of hell with your bowels.
So I honestly can’t recommend it—sorry.
Another thing I discovered can ferment is maple syrup. I had a small jug of it (capped!) fizz and spill all over the inside of my fridge once. I also had a larger jug ($40 worth in 1995 or '96) develop mold inside my pantry. Both lots went right down the drain. :mad:
For something a bit less extreme than peroxide, you could use alcohol itself. Past about 20% or so, you’re not going to get any more alcoholic, no matter how much sugar is left, because the yeast will all die off. To make anything stronger, you have to distill it.
You also won’t ferment anything that’s too concentrated, like honey in its natural state. But that’s easily fixed by dilution.
Years ago I discovered a bottle of orange juice that had been forgotten in the back of the refrigerator. I opened it and sniffed cautiously. OJ for sure but there was another olfactory note I couldn’t quite place. I took a tiny sip and it struck me; it was like hard cider only – of course – orange instead of apple. The right kind of yeast had fallen into the jar.
Like an idiot I quaffed the whole thing instead of saving some to use as a starter for another batch. :smack:
I have accidentally fermented OJ as well. It was back in my single days.
I went to the fridge to see what I had, spotted a carton of orange juice, and grabbed it and took a big swig right from the carton. Just then, I realized how long it had been since I’d bought orange juice. And indeed, it was fizzy. I don’t remember the taste, because I promptly spit it out, rinsed my mouth out, and dumped the rest.
Typically anything sugary will ferment, unless some combination of too much sugar, too much salt, or the pH is too far from the norm. Really acidic or really sugary/salty solutions won’t ferment because yeast can’t live in those conditions. (which is one reason why we use salt, sugar and acid to preserve things!)
I guess there could be other chemicals present in natural sugary liquids that could kill or inhibit yeast, but I’m not familiar with any.
Typically anything sugary will ferment, unless some combination of too much sugar, too much salt, or the pH is too far from the norm. Really acidic or really sugary/salty solutions won’t ferment because yeast can’t live in those conditions. (which is one reason why we use salt, sugar and acid to preserve things!)
I guess there could be other chemicals present in natural sugary liquids that could kill or inhibit yeast, but I’m not familiar with any.
Although you can dilute honey with water to make a base that will ferment to make Mead (or mix with fruit juices to produce the base for Metheglin and other fun stuff), honey itself won’t ferment, despite being mostly invert sugar. That’s because the bees mix in glucose oxidase, which creates hydrogen peroxide and gluconic acid, making the honey too acidic to support bacteria. Presumably diluting it reduces the effectiveness of this, allowing mead to ferment.
The answer has pretty much been covered but one other answer depends on the type of sugar. It is very hard to ferment lactose since the typically baker and ale yeasts can’t metabolize it. There are other yeast strains that can convert lactose to alcohol but generally speaking the milk in your fridge will turn before it turns to booze.
Temperature also will kill yeast if it is too hot or too cold fermentation becomes difficult. Typically over 110 F yeast start to die. On the cold end of the spectrum the yeast go into hibernation and can come back and ferment once the temperature warms up some lager strains prefer it cold but still stop working below about 50F.
For pH the best place to make booze is between about 4.8 & 5.3 but you can even get slightly over 6 and things will still hum along.
Some weird things that can stop the yeast from doing their thing is a high ash content over 10% (a possibility in rum washes) too much osmotic pressure (tall skinny fermenters) though you will still get fermentation at the top it will just be much slower and prob ably not go to completion. As mentioned high sugar content and high alcohol content though you can work your ABV up close to 30% by doing a stepped process but it really doesn’t taste good.
Back in the day we fermented the various Cran-whatever drinks into light summer quaffs. Did it right in the jugs, too. Just poured a little out, added some sugar and yeast, slap on an airlock and wait a few days. Quick and easy Panty-Dropper Specials (which were so named by the one married female in our brewing group, so back off! ).
Dave Arnold likes to clarify the orange juice in a centrifuge before pitching the yeast. Most of the nasty tastes are from the suspended solids, so removing them is key to a tasty product.
I have successfully fermented commercial soft drinks into alcoholic beverages, including Coca-Cola containing sodium benzoate. (I’m not sure if the root beer I fermented used the preservative.) It may interfere in some cases, but it clearly doesn’t entirely prevent fermentation.
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