found mold in the air lock

I went to check on my mead after a few months and found a blackish mold/fungus in the airlock. None was inside the air tube and none seems to have gotten near the mead. My question is, should I scrap the whole batch or do you guys think the mead is still good? I tasted the mead and it didn't seem off at all. I'm just a little worried about getting sick if I drink the mead after finding the mold/fungus but I still don't want to needlessly throw away a batch of mead if I don't have to.

The mead should be fine, you should try adding vodka to your airlocks.

Julie said:

The mead should be fine, you should try adding vodka to your airlocks.

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Thank you, that's a great idea, instead of good drinking vodka, I think I might try some rubbing alcohol.

And you shouldn't worry about getting sick. Mead might have a slightly different acid profile, but for wine it is considered fact that nothing harmful can live in the high alcohol high acid environment. Wine can taste bad, but it can't make you sick.

I'm not sure if I would want to use rubbing alcohol. There is always the chance of getting some in your wine, I know it is a small amount but I would rather get a small amount of vodka than rubbing alcohol in my wine. Plus the rubbing alcohol could melt the airlock.

Thanks to everyone that replied and gave me some really great information. You guys are great

Nymathin said:

Thank you, that's a great idea, instead of good drinking vodka, I think I might try some rubbing alcohol.

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If you do this, don't allow a back-suction pull the rubbing alcohol back into your mead. With my S-air-locks, I pull the air-lock then the bung after the air-lock is off. That prevents the back-flow of the fluid that pulling the entire bung first will do.

That said, it's safer to use the vodka. Especially considering you're talking about very little vodka. At extreme max, 1/3 of an once/shot. Well worth it.

Thank you for your concern but I don't think I'll be using rubbing alcohol, I might try some other astringent like Listerine. I am not a wealthy man so I don't have money to throw away on some vodka. To set your mind at ease over the backflow, it would have to be pretty strong backflow to suck anything into my mead as my airlocks are all homemade and have a bent over aquarium tubing inside of a big pill bottle with a hole drilled threw the bottom and aquarium safe sealant to seal it all together. It works.

Nymathin said:

Thank you for your concern but I don't think I'll be using rubbing alcohol, I might try some other astringent like Listerine. I am not a wealthy man so I don't have money to throw away on some vodka. To set your mind at ease over the backflow, it would have to be pretty strong backflow to suck anything into my mead as my airlocks are all homemade and have a bent over aquarium tubing inside of a big pill bottle with a hole drilled threw the bottom and aquarium safe sealant to seal it all together. It works.

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Listerine?

Honey is not the cheapest item around to make a batch of mead. I would absolutely not risk mint flavored anything trying to save a couple bucks.

I assume you used sanitizer, just use that in the airlock. Bankers club vodka is $10 for a plastic handle jug and lasts long time with just airlock duty.

You may not be wealthy but there is a difference between being frugal and being reckless.

I use a few cap fulls of bleach in about a 1/4 of a sink of water as a sanitizer.

You are right btw, I'm reasonably sure I can pick up one of those tiny bottles of vodka for a few bucks. I am going to buy it and add it to the water of my air locks. You have convinced me. Thank you for saving me from myself lol.

This is why I came here to get the wisdom of experienced wine makers.

Nymathin said:

I use a few cap fulls of bleach in about a 1/4 of a sink of water as a sanitizer.

You are right btw, I'm reasonably sure I can pick up one of those tiny bottles of vodka for a few bucks. I am going to buy it and add it to the water of my air locks. You have convinced me. Thank you for saving me from myself lol.

This is why I came here to get the wisdom of experienced wine makers.

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I'd never use bleach on anything to do with my wine.

There is no need to use anything extravagant in the airlock to protect your wine. If cost is an issue just use water. Don't put anything in your airlock that you wouldn't want in your wine. The only reason to use anything other than water is to minimize growth of molds and other organisms if it's going to be sitting around for a long time. Use water, a kmeta solution, vodka or watered down vodka, etc. or just change out the water periodically when you check the wine (you'll need to check to make sure the airlock level is still good anyway, so you can just change out the water).

As others have said, don't use bleach for anything in wine making. It can cause the growth of unwanted organisms that will negatively affect your wine and you will NEVER be able to eradicate from your wine making areas (if they get established).

So you're saying to not use bleach for sterilizing my equipment? I rinse the equipment very well after I sanitize it with a few capfuls of bleach in a sink of water. I have read and watched videos of others who do the same. Are you sure using bleach as a sanitizer can cause negative results?

Bleach makes me so nervous I won't even mention the name while I'm drinking wine.

Nymathin said:

So you're saying to not use bleach for sterilizing my equipment? I rinse the equipment very well after I sanitize it with a few capfuls of bleach in a sink of water. I have read and watched videos of others who do the same. Are you sure using bleach as a sanitizer can cause negative results?

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I use one step. I wouldn't even use Clorox wipes on my counter until my wife proved to me they contained no bleach.

Nymathin said:

So you're saying to not use bleach for sterilizing my equipment? I rinse the equipment very well after I sanitize it with a few capfuls of bleach in a sink of water. I have read and watched videos of others who do the same. Are you sure using bleach as a sanitizer can cause negative results?

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The danger is not one that you would immediately suspect. We are all worried about our wine developing cork taint; chlorine is required for this devastating wine flaw to develop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cork_taint