Kombucha Infected Mead

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Shoe_Dude

New Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2013
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
I've been brewing mead for about half a year now, and my first batch came out wonderful. In this first post I would like to personally thank homebrewtalk, for providing a great discussion and informative tool concerning home-brewing.

Anyways,

Okay, so about three months ago, I was brewing in my dorm closet, and I had Kombucha, a sack Mead, and a wine all fermenting in the same place. I'm pretty much 100% sure that my kombucha infected my mead, because of improper sanitation (Never gonna do that again!). I threw out the wine long ago because there was a strange substance growing that was white but a similar shape to the way a SCOBY grows. I held onto the mead in hopes the preservative effects of honey would prevent infection.

So i let it sit for three months, and when I came back from break to see and taste it, it was still cloudy with yeast suspended in it. There were little white bead/ bubble looking things on the top. I swirled it around and the bubbles dissolved while the little particles swirled around, taking just a bit longer to dissolve. I tried it, and it didn't really taste bad. It was actually kind of good, but had a light sour kind of note. It was really sweet but had a taste of only a little bit of alcohol. It was maybe at most 4% i imagine. I dont have a hydrometer.

I held on to the hope that maybe it was just a stuck fermentation. So i added some sugar, and it instantly began fermenting. I decided to add some apple sauce to get some nutrients and such (i didnt have raisins or teanor nutrient). Then I comeback the following day, and WHAT? It's completely clear, and all the yeast/ particles fell to the bottom. WTF happened, I have no understanding how it could become completely clear after that. Ther still seemed to be some unusually large bubbles on top for wine. I smelled it and it seemed the same as yesterday. I have yet to taste it, but im sure itll taste the same as yesterday.

So these are my questions:

Does it sound infected?

Is it safe to drink either way? I mean it taste pretty good anyways, very sweet, but seems to have almost no alcohol. At the same time though, I don't think the bacteria in kombucha is harmful at all.

Should I try to bring the alcohol content up by adding sugar?

Or should I just throw it out?

Thanks for reading,
 
It didnt start to immediately referment, the sugar gave the gas nucleation points and it degassed itself and the yeast fell out of suspension. WTF GET A HYDROMETER :) WVMJ
 
Back
Top