Auto fermentation in refrigerator

[emolas]

So, funny story. I mixed up honey water in a bucket to make a gallon of mead and somehow ended up with about a cup and a half of honey water that just didn't fit in my carboy so I put it in a mason jar in the refrigerator intending to use it for backsweetening. I promptly forgot about it and found it 6 months later while cleaning. The top was bowed and there was sediment at the bottom so it looked like it fermented in the refrigerator.

Being the dummy with a cast iron stomach I am, I decided to take a taste and it was actually quite good. Sweet and carbonated and definitely alcoholic.

I didn't pitch the yeast until I got it in the carboy so this jar was nothing but honey and water. Anyone ever had honey water just ferment on its own? I know originally it was made with wild yeast but it seems funny that it was in a sealed jar in the refrigerator and yet life found a way.

 

[Maylar]

I've had apple juice do that, but not mead. Where did you get the honey from?

 

[emolas]

I've had apple juice do that, but not mead. Where did you get the honey from?

Farm stand. That's a good point, it was fresh from the farm. Raw, unfiltered, and unpasteurized so it may have had some yeasts already in it. Cold-friendly ones, apparently.

 

[Kickass]

Most yeast is cold friendly. It just works slower. Much slower.

 

[fluketamer]

almost anything with sugar will turn eventually. thats proly how beer was discovered in the first place. lol

i imagine the long conditoniing time of 6 months cleaned up anything that was off. i wouldnt expect it to wokr so well short term.

once you open it and expose it to air even if it was pasteurized you are introducing airborne bacteria and wild yeast that will turn it. the cold temps in the fridge just delay that long enough for us to eat it before it goes bad ( usually)

preservatives can also delay it but i have found even stuff with preservatives will eventually go bad if kept long enough.