Fermentation Question

[Encryptic]

I'm in the habit of making myself a fruit smoothie for breakfast a couple times a week. I pour it into a container and take it with me when I leave for work in the morning so I can drink it on the way. I managed to leave the container in the car under the seat for about a week, being the forgetful type that I am.

When I finally remembered the container yesterday and pulled it out of the car, I brought it inside to rinse it out and throw it in the dishwasher. Mind you, the lid screws on very tightly so it didn't make a mess, thankfully. I noticed that some gas escaped when I opened the lid and the sludge from the remnants of the fruit smoothie that had been happily fermenting smelled like beer.

Which brings me to the question at hand: I've been told that pretty much anything with sugar content can ferment and produce alcohol. Obviously, the fruit provided a source of sugar for this purpose. The fruit in question was a mix of pineapple, banana and orange, with a splash of fruit juice and water.

Not that I want to try it, but I'm just idly curious if the stuff that fermented in the container would/could have produced a significant amount of alcohol by this time? (It was sitting for about a week and the car had to have gotten pretty warm sitting in the sun every day)

Would the alcohol content be significant or more along the lines of your average beer?

Would it taste terrible or would it taste pretty good?

 

[tweakmm]

What did you make the smoothie with?

 

[Encryptic]

Originally posted by: tweakmm
What did you make the smoothie with?

Pineapple, banana and orange. I put this in the original post, BTW.

 

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: Encryptic

Originally posted by: tweakmm
What did you make the smoothie with?

Pineapple, banana and orange. I put this in the original post, BTW.

Indeed, I'm blind.

 

[SacrosanctFiend]

I was under the impression that a nitrogenous body had to be present for fermentation.

 

[Descartes]

Yes, it's true that yeast will ferment any monosaccharide; namely, fructose and glucose. The rate of fermentation increases as the temperature increases, but there is a point where the yeast can no longer ferment (it depends on the yeast). If it was warm you likely increased the rate to a rather prodigous level in that amount of time, but I couldn't calculate the amount of alcohol without knowing the amount of sugar originally in the container, the actual temperature, etc. For what it's worth, I can ferment my wines and beer almost completely in that amount of time with proper yeast nutrition, temperature, etc. So, it really dependins on the OG (original gravity--how much sugar was present in the container).

It would likely taste terrible, because if you were able to have an environment conducive to spontaneous fermentation, then it was also likely conducive to microbial spoilage as well. Drink it and see

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: SacrosanctFiend
I was under the impression that a nitrogenous body had to be present for fermentation.

Well, yes, but if a given environment is deficient in NO2 the yeast will start to produce noxious gases like H2S, and others that I can't remember. Nutritional deficiencies, namely NO2, is a key problem in fermentations if not controlled. Having said that, there was likely a suitable level of NO2 present in the fruit to produce an initial environment conducive to fermentation.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

sounds like you made some pruno (or is it prudo?) otherwise known as jailhouse wine.

it was probably very alcoholic, and it was also probably very foul tasting.

Wild yeasts contribute very wierd and unpleasant flavors (usually) and are controlled by all brewers (included trappists who want a very limited proportion of wild things in their beers).

 

[Encryptic]

Interesting info. Thanks, guys.

/sound of brain expanding to accommodate even more "useless information" (as my wife likes to call it)

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: Encryptic
Interesting info. Thanks, guys.

/sound of brain expanding to accommodate even more "useless information" (as my wife likes to call it)

Hardly useless unless you consider microbiology to be of little value. Understanding, even a little, has application in many disciplines. Of course, it will help should you ever decide to inject some control into your "process" and create a suitable wine

 

[bigdog1218]

Yeast will ferment and reproduce until the ethanol levels are too toxic and they can no longer survive the environment. Also, we always made our wine without yeast and at about 70F, and it would ferment in about a week and it always comes out great, but we have tried making small batches of wine from grapes we actually grew ourselves, and ran into problems with the small scale fermentation.

 

[Encryptic]

Originally posted by: Descartes

Originally posted by: Encryptic
Interesting info. Thanks, guys.

/sound of brain expanding to accommodate even more "useless information" (as my wife likes to call it)

Hardly useless unless you consider microbiology to be of little value. Understanding, even a little, has application in many disciplines. Of course, it will help should you ever decide to inject some control into your "process" and create a suitable wine

My wife calls it "useless information" as a joke because I'm constantly pulling trivia about anything and everything out of my ass when we get to talking about something.

I'll definitely remember this stuff when I convert my car into a brewery.....

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Originally posted by: Encryptic

Originally posted by: Descartes

Originally posted by: Encryptic
Interesting info. Thanks, guys.

/sound of brain expanding to accommodate even more "useless information" (as my wife likes to call it)

Hardly useless unless you consider microbiology to be of little value. Understanding, even a little, has application in many disciplines. Of course, it will help should you ever decide to inject some control into your "process" and create a suitable wine

My wife calls it "useless information" as a joke because I'm constantly pulling trivia about anything and everything out of my ass when we get to talking about something.

I'll definitely remember this stuff when I convert my car into a brewery.....

not a bad idea. with a midsized car, you would probably have enough room to build a 1/2 barrel brewing system, giving you an annual output of upto about 150 gallons of beer, 300/year if you put a second fermentation vessal on the roof.