Old batches of Joe's ancient orange

I made some batches of ancient orange about 2 years ago and forgot about them. I recently found them, still with the oranges in the fermenter and am not sure if I should bottle and drink the mead. Any suggestions?

Yes! Try some and see how it is. With that high of an alcohol content, you have nothing to worry about in terms of health.

I'd drink it...may taste like oxidized crap and have a few bugs in it from a dried airlock...but man up and take a swig.

Drink it, I bet its pretty good

Repeat after me: Nothing. Dangerous. Can. Grow. In. Mead. (or beer, or wine...) Bottom line is it won't make you sick...It may or may not taste good, but it will not hurt you, so you have nothing to loose giving it a try! Please report back....(with pics and tasting notes if possible!)

biochemedic said:

Repeat after me: Nothing. Dangerous. Can. Grow. In. Mead. (or beer, or wine...) Bottom line is it won't make you sick...It may or may not taste good, but it will not hurt you, so you have nothing to loose giving it a try! Please report back....(with pics and tasting notes if possible!)

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+1 to this. Lets see this stuff!

That means we want pictures too!

Atek said:

That means we want pictures too!

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Agreed. Now it really is ancient. Buh dump

OK, Call me crazy but, I'm such a fan of JAOM that I've been known to rack (just before bottling) and then drink the 1-2 icnches of stuff left behind. It tastes great and I've never felt any ill effects. Don't ask my wife to confirm that though.

I've never left it going for 2 years but I'm sticking with the motto of: "If it's JAOM and you made it right, I'll drink it. Bugs and anything else that may have crawled into it"

Hey milborn, how did you make out? Did you drink it, save it, toss it? Name it and claim it as a dependant on your taxes?

Thanks for the help, I'll bottle in next few weeks and try to post pictures.

Cool...looking forward to that. Give it a taste and let us know.

If it's a worse case scenario, I've heard of folks cooking with it, Baked Ham, Glazed Carotts, etc...I'm not 100% sure but you might even be able to use it for making a strange batch of Skeeter Pee but maybe others can confirm or give a reason why it wouldn't work.

I´m very curious about this one!! two years fogotten is like you find a treasure! Please share the results with us!!!

I am very curious to see how this tastes! Though.. I think most of us in this thread want you to tell us how disgusting it was. xD

I have a feeling the top most portion will be significantly oxidized, but perhaps you can siphon off some from the middle layer and see if that's any better.

If he dies off how should we split up his brewing gear?

jak1010 said:

Cool...looking forward to that. Give it a taste and let us know.

If it's a worse case scenario, I've heard of folks cooking with it, Baked Ham, Glazed Carotts, etc...I'm not 100% sure but you might even be able to use it for making a strange batch of Skeeter Pee but maybe others can confirm or give a reason why it wouldn't work.

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LOL I don't think that yeast cake would be good for toss all.

I had a gallon of hard cider that I had sitting in the secondary for 8 months and I think the yeast bed started to decompose or something because it had and initial delicious dry cider taste...but then an aftertaste of rotting disgustingness. And that is why we rack as wines drop lees.

This is Autólises... When all the nutrientes are depleted the yeast start to eat thenselves and liberate some nasty flavors... we must avoid that

I've heard that some people actually enjoy the flavor of autolysis, but I can't say I find it appealing in the slightest.

mezmiro said:

I've heard that some people actually enjoy the flavor of autolysis, but I can't say I find it appealing in the slightest.

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If that was the flavor of my old cider I'd venture to say anyone that likes that flavor should try dog excrement as I'm pretty sure they are similar.

milborn said:

thanks for the help, i'll bottle in next few weeks and try to post pictures.

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in!!!!

This whole thread makes me want to create a mead time capsule. Bury a bottle from each batch and forget about them for a dozen years.

Then dig up some buried treasures later.

biochemedic said:

Repeat after me: Nothing. Dangerous. Can. Grow. In. Mead. (or beer, or wine...) Bottom line is it won't make you sick...It may or may not taste good, but it will not hurt you, so you have nothing to loose giving it a try! Please report back....(with pics and tasting notes if possible!)

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Dangerous things can grow in mead. But if they do the mead will taste like it has dangerous things in it.

What things?

stevo4361 said:

What things?

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Zombies

Haha gonna have to keep the 870 close by when uncorking my mead then, freakin zombies

Might want to keep a flamethrower close by as well. I hear the only way to deal with zombies is burn em.

Can I somehow weaponize my banjo burner? Flamethrowers are so hard to find and I can't find the mystery box...

BobTheAverage said:

Dangerous things can grow in mead. But if they do the mead will taste like it has dangerous things in it.

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Yes, please, what things?....repeat after me: Nothing. Pathologic. Can. Grow. In. Beer. (Or. Mead...)

We're not talking about taking fresh must/wort and pitching it with a fresh turd...If you actually put brewing yeast in it at the start, nothing disease causing can grow in the very rapidly developing acidic/alcoholic environment...

Let's not hijack the thread; OP, please bottle and taste your JAOM, and post pics and tasting notes!

I particular don´t like the autolysis flavor. For me tastes like dead blood. I had that in a strawberry melomel of mine...

Nitack: that´s a great ideia! Buring some bottles may be the only way to resist drinking it soon!

Old thread but I'm curious. OP, did you try the mead? How was it?

Turns out he must have tried it and it did have something growing in it and he hasnt been heard from since. Remember that guy who made the pokeweed mead, never heard from him again either. WVMJ

Lol

WVMJ said:

Turns out he must have tried it and it did have something growing in it and he hasnt been heard from since. Remember that guy who made the pokeweed mead, never heard from him again either. WVMJ

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Or the fella who dared make Durian Cider. He had a hellova beard, but it wasn't enough to save him I guess...

StoneArcher said:

Or the fella who dared make Durian Cider. He had a hellova beard, but it wasn't enough to save him I guess...

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HAHAHAHA!!! Fermented durian product. That's awesome. I'll have to get my in-laws to whip up a batch next time I go to the Philippines. One way or another, that stuff is going to offend people!