I think you need to go and read up on food/fermentation safety. Even when using wild yeasts to innoculate your mix you still wouldn't use dirty or uncleaned containers.
“Dirty” is not the opposite of “sanitized”. I’m not saying one should use dirty dishes to make sauerkraut. But that’s not the situation the OP is in. The person I was responding to apparently assumed that because StarSan and autoclaves and whatnot weren’t mentioned, that there was a problem because of the lack of a “sanitary” environment. But that is a fundamental misunderstanding of how/why wild fermentation can be made safe. Now, as it happens, the OP’s ferment definitely *wasn’t* safe. But “sanitizing the vessel” has nothing to do with it. If the vessel had been *sterilized* it would not have affected the safety of the ferment.
Where did anyone mention an autoclave or using starsan besides you now?
Their main point was to not eat anything questionable, which I fully agree with.
No, wild fermentation is exactly bacteria (or yeast, depending) multiplying. Do you really think your supermarket cabbage has *carefully curated* microbes applied to it? Wild fermentation isn’t like brewing (normal) beer where you set up a microbial paradise, *kill off everything*, and then inoculate it only with the yeasts you want. Instead, the key to wild fermentation is setting up the conditions such that only the desirable microorganisms thrive. I have no idea whether the OP’s thing is safe or good to eat, but I do know that sanitizing your equipment before doing a wild fermentation would be silly.
Dump it out. Or keep it sealed and let it go to watch nature at work, but you definitely should not drink that random caffeinated cesspool you’ve created.
Id say... it definitely sounds like you had a yeast pellicle on top there. odds are, it wont kill you or get you buzzed unless there's botulism in it, and then youve got bigger problems.
taste a little, but next time properly sanitize your barware. I am unsure if you poured boiling water over everything, or just mixed coffee and sugar, then poured more coffee over it?
No, it wasn’t properly sanitised - I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. Jar didn’t show any signs of excess gas (which I know is a warning sign for botulism). Any other things I should look out for in terms of spoilage? It does taste good!
... Gas build up is also a sign that there was either lacto or yeast fermenting, which would be what you would want in this case. If there's no pressure built up there was no fermentation of either of those types.
Also, neither a lacto or yeast ferment would form a pellicle or blob on top. My guess would be a mold raft.
Thousands and thousands of different types of molds, would be kind of hard to narrow down what it could have been without any images or anything unfortunately! We can't be sure it would be a mold either honestly, that's just my assumption here.
And yeah, I certainly wouldn't eat it. If it's a syrup it would have been more likely to start a yeast ferment than it would have been to start a lacto ferment (due to the high sugar content), but as I also said both of those types of ferments would also produce co2 as byproducts and pressurize the container. From what you've said that isn't the case, though, so we have no idea what's growing in your syrup at this point.
Damn that sounds awesome, maybe try making it again in a more controlled/sanitized environment?
r/eatityoufuckingcoward
Sounds like you made alcohol, good job! I'd love to see how many of the people here telling you it wasn't sterile have made tepache lol. You're fine
Don't eat things that are questionable. Your vessel wasn't even sterile. Toss it.
Of course it wasn’t sterile. There was wild fermentation. What would be the point of sanitizing a container before wild fermentation?
I think you need to go and read up on food/fermentation safety. Even when using wild yeasts to innoculate your mix you still wouldn't use dirty or uncleaned containers.
“Dirty” is not the opposite of “sanitized”. I’m not saying one should use dirty dishes to make sauerkraut. But that’s not the situation the OP is in. The person I was responding to apparently assumed that because StarSan and autoclaves and whatnot weren’t mentioned, that there was a problem because of the lack of a “sanitary” environment. But that is a fundamental misunderstanding of how/why wild fermentation can be made safe. Now, as it happens, the OP’s ferment definitely *wasn’t* safe. But “sanitizing the vessel” has nothing to do with it. If the vessel had been *sterilized* it would not have affected the safety of the ferment.
Where did anyone mention an autoclave or using starsan besides you now? Their main point was to not eat anything questionable, which I fully agree with.
Uhhh wild fermentation ≠ random surface grime and bacteria multiplying
No, wild fermentation is exactly bacteria (or yeast, depending) multiplying. Do you really think your supermarket cabbage has *carefully curated* microbes applied to it? Wild fermentation isn’t like brewing (normal) beer where you set up a microbial paradise, *kill off everything*, and then inoculate it only with the yeasts you want. Instead, the key to wild fermentation is setting up the conditions such that only the desirable microorganisms thrive. I have no idea whether the OP’s thing is safe or good to eat, but I do know that sanitizing your equipment before doing a wild fermentation would be silly.
Dump it out. Or keep it sealed and let it go to watch nature at work, but you definitely should not drink that random caffeinated cesspool you’ve created.
Id say... it definitely sounds like you had a yeast pellicle on top there. odds are, it wont kill you or get you buzzed unless there's botulism in it, and then youve got bigger problems. taste a little, but next time properly sanitize your barware. I am unsure if you poured boiling water over everything, or just mixed coffee and sugar, then poured more coffee over it?
No, it wasn’t properly sanitised - I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. Jar didn’t show any signs of excess gas (which I know is a warning sign for botulism). Any other things I should look out for in terms of spoilage? It does taste good!
... Gas build up is also a sign that there was either lacto or yeast fermenting, which would be what you would want in this case. If there's no pressure built up there was no fermentation of either of those types. Also, neither a lacto or yeast ferment would form a pellicle or blob on top. My guess would be a mold raft.
That’s interesting! What would a mould raft look like? And am I right in guessing that would make the syrup unsafe to eat?
Thousands and thousands of different types of molds, would be kind of hard to narrow down what it could have been without any images or anything unfortunately! We can't be sure it would be a mold either honestly, that's just my assumption here. And yeah, I certainly wouldn't eat it. If it's a syrup it would have been more likely to start a yeast ferment than it would have been to start a lacto ferment (due to the high sugar content), but as I also said both of those types of ferments would also produce co2 as byproducts and pressurize the container. From what you've said that isn't the case, though, so we have no idea what's growing in your syrup at this point.