Is this still safe to drink?

[splatfreak]

Hello everyone,

I found a case of 750ml bottle of mead I made and forgot about. It's got to be at least 5 years old. The age isn't the issue but the sentiment has some dark spots in it. They look like brown lumps. To drink or not to drink that is the question.

 

[AkTom]

Drink. If I lived closer, I’d come steal them... I mean taste test them all.

 

[Chris_The_Rogue]

As I understand it, anything that could make you sick gets killed off at about 4% ABV. I would be more worried about something changing the flavor of the mead or turning it into vinegar. Either way you should be able to tell once you open it and can give it a smell.

 

[S-Met]

Either way you should be able to tell once you open it and can give it a smell.

Even if it smells bad, I'd probably still taste it. If nothing else than as a palate training tool to help recognize off flavors.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

I thought honey didn't spoil?

 

[Blacksmith1]

Honey doesn't. Mead, however, is not honey. The alcohol should protect it though.

 

[Seamonkey84]

I thought honey didn't spoil?

Honey needs to be less than 20% moisture to keep from spoiling. If it wasn’t then it wouldn’t be a fermentable sugar.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Was this bottle carbonated? Why so much sediment?

The only potentially harmful thing would be mold, which as far as I know would not fall to the bottom.

That still leaves the question of what that is and I have no idea. Sure it's not on the outside of the bottle?

 

[Bobby J]

I wonder if it is residual sugar from the small amount of unfermented honey recrystallizing at the bottom of the jar. Additionally, the reason it would be in multiple spots rather than one large one is due to very small imperfection in the glass (on the inside) that are unnoticeable to us, but give the perfect place for small amounts of crystals to begin accumulating and growing. Just a thought?

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

I wonder if it is residual sugar from the small amount of unfermented honey recrystallizing at the bottom of the jar. Additionally, the reason it would be in multiple spots rather than one large one is due to very small imperfection in the glass (on the inside) that are unnoticeable to us, but give the perfect place for small amounts of crystals to begin accumulating and growing. Just a thought?

That shouldn't be possible; In order for any sugar to crystallize in the bottle, the mead would have to be a saturated solution, and that would be some amazingly sweet mead. It's probably something growing on the sediment. It might be turning to vinegar.

 

[RPh_Guy]

That shouldn't be possible; In order for any sugar to crystallize in the bottle, the mead would have to be a saturated solution, and that would be some amazingly sweet mead. It's probably something growing on the sediment. It might be turning to vinegar.

Yeah, sugar is soluble up to 70% or more (way more than would be in a mead). Maybe other stuff could crystalize though; we don't know the recipe. I don't think it's microbes.

 

[Beernik]

A couple things I think it could be:
1. If you didn’t filter, it could be yeast that has settled over time.
2. If you corked the bottles, it could be bits of cork from cork-rot or cork-taint.

There probably isn’t anything in it that could make you ill, but if it’s corked it won’t taste good.

 

[BruceH]

Just taste it!

 

[AkTom]

Already!!!