4 ms·

You have to boil the water which does in order to make beer and wine (and spirits).

• samatman 6y ago
  Beer (wort, at this stage) is heated before fermentation, normally not boiled but enough to kill bacteria. Wine is normally made from pure juice, and isn't heated at any point in the process. But again, it's made from pure juice: the inside of a grape is not a usual place to find dangerous bacteria, and on the outside one would normally find only the yeasts which produce the fermentation. Modern wine-making washes the grapes thoroughly and adds yeast, the old-school method was simply to crush, and rely on the surface bloom and residual yeast in the vessel to do the work. Which lead to rather more vinegar than the modern vintner would tolerate.
  • peapicker 6y ago
    As one who has brewed beer for 27 years now, wort is definitely brought to a boil at the beginning of a brew to cause the ‘hot break’ proteins to coagulate. The wort is then held at a low boil or near boiling for 45-60 min after the bittering hops are added as those temperatures most efficiently allow the alpha acids from the lupulin glands of the hops to enter solution. Grape juice for wine, as it can’t be heated without ruining it, is usually lightly sulphited for a day or three before adding yeast, which kills the bacteria present in the juice.
• ta988 6y ago
  If you boil the water then you can just use your boiled water... I hope your wine isn't made with added water though.
  • yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
    That's obvious now, but was it obvious then? I'm pretty sure even germ theory is a "recent" discovery.