Best guess what happened to this?

[MightyMosin]

OK!!!

Looking for ideas on what was the cause of this.

I'll answer questions as best as I can.

 

[Dan O]

It looks like it got melted.
Anywhere near a heat source?
Maybe just faulty material, like a bad batch.
I had a couple of double bubble airlocks that went completely white, as if the alcohol in the mead had eaten away @ the plastic, but this is silicone or rubber, correct?

 

[MightyMosin]

Silicone or rubber... not near any heat sources at all. It was a batch started in June 2022 using a Kviek yeast that has mostly just sat around.

For the record, the mead tastes fine. Not like this was 120 proof.

 

[skunkape]

Silicone or rubber... not near any heat sources at all. It was a batch started in June 2022 using a Kviek yeast that has mostly just sat around.

For the record, the mead tastes fine. Not like this was 120 proof.

Whoa! That's gotta be good stuff! The mighty Bung Melter Mead.

Whoa again! Talk about a great band name...

 

[CKuhns]

It almost looks like the start of a lacto colony. Did it clean up/ wipe off? Kind of wierd it would stay or on the bung only.

Just a guess...

 

[MightyMosin]

The deformation is with the bung itself. I cleaned it and didn't see anything come off.

I'm getting rid of it. I don't know what happened, but if there is anything funky on the bung itself I don't want it going forward to other meads in the future,

 

[Broken Crow]

I've seen a similar reaction in some automotive hose exposed to acetone.... Just curious; Where did you get this particular bung, and what ingredients or sanitizer has it been exposed to?

 

[SimPilot]

If this is the only one of it's kind in your inventory, I would throw it away and stay away from this brand. That doesn't look right at all.

 

[MaxStout]

Get some lab-grade stoppers.

 

[MightyMosin]

These are from the Vintage Shop, purchased through a local supply shop. I have others and they are all OK.
https://www.thevintageshop.ca/products/bungs-stoppers.html
The only sanitizers it would have been exposed to are Star-San or Iodopher. This one would have been Star-San as Iodophor would have turned the color brown-ish.

Any other ingredients would have been normal mead items.

 

[Austin Willoughby]

So reading the star san label it does say it breaks down plastic over long periods. I experienced my hoses and some of my bungs getting a film on them from leaving them in star san for a month or 2. The film seemed to be a layer of the material being melted away. Maybe if it was suspended for a long time in star san then used right away with a very active yeast they could have caused a chemical reaction to the material? Idk I'm just speculating here

 

[Elk479]

I did some internet sleuthing on this because it seemed familiar and it was. Someone posted to Reddit's r/kombucha of a situation very similar but they were using different fermentables. It looks like they got the same product from the vintage shop.. so could be defective.

Link to Reddit post.

 

[Austin Willoughby]

I did some internet sleuthing on this because it seemed familiar and it was. Someone posted to Reddit's r/kombucha of a situation very similar but they were using different fermentables. It looks like they got the same product from the vintage shop.. so could be defective.

Link to Reddit post.

Interesting

 

[IslandLizard]

Never seen one like that before...
[EDIT] I would contact the place where you bought them (The Vintage Shop?). Send them those 2 pictures.
Their bungs should be meant to be used in fermentations, and for much longer than a single use.
Ask them what material it is, so you can stay well away from it.

I have bungs from 2008-2017. Most still look and work as they did then.
Now 2 of the solid, drilled ones started to look dried out after a few year of incidental use: the surface looking dried out, reticulated. They still work, though. And they look nothing like a cauliflower, unlike yours.

 

[MightyMosin]

I did some internet sleuthing on this because it seemed familiar and it was. Someone posted to Reddit's r/kombucha of a situation very similar but they were using different fermentables. It looks like they got the same product from the vintage shop.. so could be defective.

Link to Reddit post.

Great find.