JAO and green fruit

[cabeasle]

My last batch of JAO left me with oranges that had become VERY green above the water line, so much so they are almost black. I was afraid this was a real problem (some kind of mold), but when I racked off of the lees/fruit, I did not notice any off smells and the taste was perfectly fine. I went ahead and hit it with stablizers just in case there is the odd bacteria hanging out in there from overly oxidized fruit.

I guess I am wondering, is it oxidation or mold? I'm guessing just oxidation because there is not off smell/taste, but I wanted to make sure I don't ingest anything that could be harmful

[Riverat]

It's probably niether (though you could call yeast a mold I suppose) auusuming you had it under an airlock there sould have been little O2 to begin with and a line I love from a berr brewing book says "nothing that can hurt you can live in beer" and I suspect that holds true for mead as well. An of course "the nose Knows"

[Chevette Girl]

I've never had that happen before. If it didn't smell like mold though, you're probably fine. Did you get a chance to closely inspect the oranges after you'd racked the mead out from under them? Did the green/black rub off or anything? (sorry, due to my lab-rat nature, my tendency is to poke at anything I don't understand)

And oxidation is a primarily chemical process, it doesn't spontaneously breed bacteria.

If I have fruit that's sticking up through the surface of my JAO I do break the warranty and swirl it every few days just to make sure nothing funky happens.

[fatbloke]

The orange can sometimes go dark, almost black, if its got a large airspace. But the fruit will still drop with time, and as yet, I've found no ill effects.......