Beer Forum

After listening to a recent Sunday Show, I am excited about the idea of using some of the plums from my tree in a future wild ale. They will be free from pesticides, naturally ripened, and covered in local wild yeast. Is there a risk of botulism when using wild fruit like this? I work as an ICU/Trauma Nurse and a couple years back we had several prisoners that ended up on ventilators paralyzed from the neck down after consuming their Pruno, an alcoholic drink they make by throwing fruit and bread in a trash bag with some water and letting it sit out in the sun for some time. My first thought is that because everything else will be clean and I will also be using yeast these deadly bugs will be kept at bay. What do you think? Im not intending on washing the fruit, because I want to capture the wild yeast. I will crush it and add it to the wort about halfway through ferment.

You have far more medical training than I. that said, I'd be willing to bet (have on a regular basys actually) that it wasn't the fruit that made those guys sick. more likely the trash bag, the bread, or just ewwww.

once a beer is done fermenting, even more so with a wild beer, the pH will be too low for Botulism bacteria to grow and produce toxin. If this were a real risk all wine would be suspect as none of that is heat treated and cetainly not to 240+ degrees F.

additionally what's the pH of the plums? if it's below (I think, check on your own) 3.7 or so again, the botulism bacteria won't grow in it.

Clostridium botulinum is an obligate anaerobe. That basically means that, as long as there is any oxygen, there is no botulism.

The prisoners were probably too stupid to aerate their hooch and the bacteria got to it before the yeast could. If you do an open air inoculation (carboy with tin foil over the top or w/e) as opposed to a sealed garbage bag then you shouldn't be at any risk from botulism.

Damn, I wanted to try the trash bag on the roof...oh well.

Thanks!

So I'm sure about botulinum but I have no idea if Fusarium could grow in it. Just in case you die and someone tries to sue me.

If you add the rinsed macerated fruit to the fermentation after it starts to slew down then there should be no worries. I do it all the time when using fresh fruit.

brewinhard wrote:If you add the rinsed macerated fruit to the fermentation after it starts to slew down then there should be no worries. I do it all the time when using fresh fruit.

Seconded, we're all probably really good at macerating.

brewinhard wrote:If you add the rinsed macerated fruit to the fermentation after it starts to slew down then there should be no worries. I do it all the time when using fresh fruit.

Does that remove the wild yeast from the surface? Thx!