So let’s say you start the old fashioned way, by boiling or pasteurizing one gallon of honey with one gallon of water. Don't ask why, you just do it this way because you don't know better at the time. You add that to the primary fermentation bucket, then pour in four gallons of cold water. You add in the appropriate amount of yeast nutrition and stir it up with a sanitized spoon. The mix is at about 110 degrees Fahrenheit, so you pitch your yeast, seal the lid, prime the airlock with sanitized water solution, and jam it in the hole. The airlock is a tight fit, and as you are pushing it in, the rubber gasket that forms the seal between the airlock and the hole in the lid pops off and falls into your must. You panic. You pop open the lid, and the gasket is nowhere to be seen. You grab a sanitized metal spoon and start fishing around for the gasket, blind. You accidentally drop the spoon, and watch it vanish in the must as well. You panic again. You make the tough decision, not knowing what else to do, and scrub the hell out of your arm, from the finger tips up to the elbow, with antibacterial soap for a good minute, and rinse like crazy. Then, quickly, you reach into the must and, perhaps guided by the force, find the rubber gasket at the bottom right away, and you grab the spoon too. You put the lid back on, reinsert the rubber gasket, and (this time) CAREFULLY stick the airlock in. You hope that you haven't contaminated the mead.
A week passes, almost, and everything seems fine. The smell is not sour. Smells faintly like really good bread dough coming from the airlock, but very faintly.
Is the mead contaminated?
Does it need to be tossed out?
A week passes, almost, and everything seems fine. The smell is not sour. Smells faintly like really good bread dough coming from the airlock, but very faintly.
Is the mead contaminated?
Does it need to be tossed out?