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,
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,