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WTH is floating in my meade???!?!?!

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virex21

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 6, 2017
6
0
0
Baltimore, MD
First post here, and I have a rather pressing question. The bottle in question came from my 4th batch. I haven't had anything close to this happen with any of my other batches, and the other 20 or so bottles of batch 4 don't appear to have any problems. A little background: I took 3 bottles of this batch to work yesterday to give to some friends. They got a little warm sitting in my car (it was around 80F, and I left my windows cracked). This bottle was probably too full when I corked it, and the heat made the mead expand to the point that it was now touching the bottom of the cork. I took this bottle into a room that was around 68F and left it overnight. When i came into work this morning I found this thing floating at the top of the bottle. Is it possible that it was living in the cork and the mead killed it? And also, has anyone else seen anything like this?

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Is this the beginning of the end for humanity???
 
Last edited:

HeidrunsGift

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 1, 2016
217
3
0
From pictures 2-4, due to the black spore like thing, it looks exactly like mold that grows in my empty carboys when I don't empty all the liquid out after I clean them. It does however take a while for it to grow. My only guess is that this did not grow over night (due to the size), rather it may have been growing a long time on the underside of the cork (whether the infection was inside the cork or not to begin with) and that the mead (when it touched the cork) made it fall off into the liquid.

-What is the ABV of the mead? I would think that if its at least 12% or so the alcohol would kill of any mold.
-How do you store your mead? Does the mead touch the cork? Could the cork have been infected, and then you stored the mead bottles up-right? (In which case, regardless of the ABV, if its not in contact with the infected cork it wouldn't matter)
-Take a look at the other 20 bottles from batch 4 closely. Sometimes due to the shape of the glass or the way the light is hitting it it can be difficult to see the mold if it is stuck to the glass (I know this from having mold fall off carboys when I wash them when I thought they were mold free after inspecting them). Do you see any mold underneath the cork? Bottom of the glass?

I would also re-ask what Squatchy asked, how does it taste? Funky? Sour? You may not want to try it, but if the ABV is over 12%, it wont hurt you (pathogens harmful to humans cannot live in that much alcohol--it obvioulsy can still taste bad though!)
 

virex21

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 6, 2017
6
0
0
Baltimore, MD
From pictures 2-4, due to the black spore like thing, it looks exactly like mold that grows in my empty carboys when I don't empty all the liquid out after I clean them. It does however take a while for it to grow. My only guess is that this did not grow over night (due to the size), rather it may have been growing a long time on the underside of the cork (whether the infection was inside the cork or not to begin with) and that the mead (when it touched the cork) made it fall off into the liquid.

-What is the ABV of the mead? I would think that if its at least 12% or so the alcohol would kill of any mold.
-How do you store your mead? Does the mead touch the cork? Could the cork have been infected, and then you stored the mead bottles up-right? (In which case, regardless of the ABV, if its not in contact with the infected cork it wouldn't matter)
-Take a look at the other 20 bottles from batch 4 closely. Sometimes due to the shape of the glass or the way the light is hitting it it can be difficult to see the mold if it is stuck to the glass (I know this from having mold fall off carboys when I wash them when I thought they were mold free after inspecting them). Do you see any mold underneath the cork? Bottom of the glass?

I would also re-ask what Squatchy asked, how does it taste? Funky? Sour? You may not want to try it, but if the ABV is over 12%, it wont hurt you (pathogens harmful to humans cannot live in that much alcohol--it obvioulsy can still taste bad though!)

It's 14% ABV, but it smelled kinda funky. I was careful to StarSan and brush all the bottles, but I could have easily made an error. When I touched it, it had body integrity and didn't fall apart, which freaked me out.


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virex21

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 6, 2017
6
0
0
Baltimore, MD
FWIW, this was bottled 2 Fridays ago, and the cork didn't have anything out of the ordinary on it when I uncorked it. I've already gone thru/given away 8 other bottles with no issue.


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darigoni

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Jun 4, 2016
945
63
28
Brookline, NH
Looks like the same kind of stuff that was in the bottom of a beer my brother in law brewed. He didn't do a very good check of the bottles after cleaning them. You really need to hold each bottle up to the light, looking at both the sides and the bottom of the bottle.
 

Farmboyc

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 2, 2015
384
0
0
I would agree with darigoni.
I had something similiar in flip top beer bottles once when I got lazy.


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virex21

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 6, 2017
6
0
0
Baltimore, MD
Looks like the same kind of stuff that was in the bottom of a beer my brother in law brewed. He didn't do a very good check of the bottles after cleaning them. You really need to hold each bottle up to the light, looking at both the sides and the bottom of the bottle.

Looks like I need to up my sanitation game.


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Stasis

Honey Master
Registered Member
Jan 10, 2014
1,123
13
38
Malta
Looks like the same kind of stuff that was in the bottom of a beer my brother in law brewed. He didn't do a very good check of the bottles after cleaning them. You really need to hold each bottle up to the light, looking at both the sides and the bottom of the bottle.

I second this
 

darigoni

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Jun 4, 2016
945
63
28
Brookline, NH
Looks like I need to up my sanitation game.

Actually, it's most likely not sanitation, it's the cleaning part. You probably had "sanitized" mold in the bottom of your bottle :)

You have to make sure they are clean before you sanitize, especially if they are bottles you acquired from someone else.

The best time to clean bottles is after you've just emptied one. It's when they sit around, with beer/wine in the bottom, that they start growing crud.
 
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