Hubs is a trumper and thinks that COVID is just a different flu. Needless to say, he has taken no protections during this whole thing.
Hubs is also a hobby brewer. On Saturday, he bottled 5 gallons of beer which will finish fermenting in 2 weeks. On Sunday, he cooked 5 gallons to go into the fermenter, which will stay there for at least a week. He also went to town and got honey to start a gallon of mead. That’s a 2 month process at room temp before bottling.
Today he is running a high fever, has slept most of the day and is trying to cough up a lung. While there is no way to know if he has COVID without a test and there is no way that he will get one voluntarily, but it looks very likely to me.
So, here’s my question. Do you folks think the beer and mead will be safe to drink once its ready? My friends are all vaccinated, his are not. I don’t want to be handing out plague beer and have been contemplating popping a few fuses to allow everything to get too hot and spoil.
It’ll depend on a lot of things in theory the last step of the cook is the boil which, among other things, is meant to sterilize the beer. From there most home brewers will use a wort chiller to drop the beer down to a safe pitch temperature before transferring from the cooker to a glass carboy where an air lock is put in place to seal the beer from any pathogens.
Depending on how well your husband followed safety proticalls the only stage where he could contaminate the beer is during the cooling process prior to sealing the carboy. I don’t remember how well the virus does away from the human body so I’ll leave that to others. If your husband is like a lot of home brewers and drops in his cold finger, turns on the water and then walks off to do other things before coming back to transfer to the carboy the beer is probably safe. If he stands over the beer stiring it to cool it faster and hovers there is a potential some viral particles made it into the latest batch.
Mead is normally not boiled and so would have a greater chance of contamination but meads are also a tough environment for a lot of pathogens so again I’d difer to others.
My beer consumption has remained pretty steady throughout the pandemic. Local breweries have offered curb service, etc at various times and outdoor seating has become the norm.
I’ve never heard any mention of beer becoming “infected” (other than bacterial contamination that can occur).
The whole process of alcoholic fermentation and the time elapsed should have killed the virus, but in case of doubt and to be absolutely sure you can increase the alcohol concentration to disinfect it, what in some regions of Germany, mostly Hannover, is called a lüttje Lage. There is a Wikipedia page about this custom, but only in German.
I hope he recovers quickly and completely in time for the degustation of this brew. I suggest he labels it the vaccinated beer. Have you noticed the similarity between the cap and the usual depiction of the virus?
I’ve been to quite a few sports bars that are microbreweries/brewpubs during the pandemic, and so have a lot of other people. I haven’t heard of a single case of COVID-19 that has been linked to the beer being made and served in any of the many establishments around. I’m sure there would be something in the news about even a suspicion of such an occurrence.
“Beer is typically considered a safe product to consume since no known pathogens can survive in a typical full-strength beer.”
I’ve brewed beer and mead for years and that’s always been true. Yes, beer can get contaminated with things that don’t taste good, but none of that bacteria is actually harmful.
I have no idea whether or not the virus can survive in beer, or for how long. I would be suspicious of anyone who claimed to know the answer who didn’t reference extensive testing.
That said, I doubt there is a significant danger of spreading Covid in homebrewed beer. There have been studies on how long the virus can survive outside a host and I believe that was reported in hours. You are talking weeks. The environment in beer, pH around 5.0, alcohol around 5%, is probably rather hostile to the virus, at least for the long term. Finally, the most common route for infection is inhalation, not consumption. I suspect the likelihood of becoming infected by eating or drinking contaminated food or drink is extremely low (or we would have heard cautions about it).
So, outside of extensive testing, I think all you can do is either assume it is tainted and dispose of it, or assume that it is OK. If your husband is a member of a homebrew club, I am sure there are plenty of folks around that would be glad to help you dispose of it (particularly if it is good, but these guys have been known to take one for the team, when needed). I am a member of such a club and we have had members come down with Covid pretty bad, but they have all been isolated cases. I have not heard of any tales of people becoming infected by tainted homebrew.
Thank you everyone for your replies. I am feeling better about his beer being safe enough to serve to people I like. I also haven’t heard of anyone catching COVID through ingestion but I am not an expert.
I guess I was concerned that he was giving the virus a nice warm, nutrient bath to grow in for months. I forgot that the virus really doesn’t like alcohol and his beer is full strength.
He makes the best beer I’ve ever had, so it would have been a shame to have had to waste it. Maybe, just out of an abundance of caution, I should be the only one to drink the virus beer because I am fully vaccinated. Wouldn’t want to risk my friends’ health, after all!.
Viruses require living cells to grow. They are not like bacteria which just need nutrient sources. Any issue wouldn’t be the virus growing and multiplying, but the virus surviving long enough on an object (door knob, cell phone, hands, beer vat etc) that the next person can pick it up.
Most cold viruses and flu viruses survive a long time in surfaces. Other viruses, like HIV, don’t survive long at all.
The COVID virus does not survive long, and the brewing process would make its survival even less likely.
Covid is not at all related to flu. It is a coronavirus, not influenza. Corona viruses can cause common cold, but also cause severe illness like SARS. You husband is mistaken in his knowledge of virology.
Because you haven’t had mine. 
Thank you! This is what I wasn’t understanding. I now have zero reservations about anyone consuming the finished product.
Covid is not at all related to flu. It is a coronavirus, not influenza. Corona viruses can cause common cold, but also cause severe illness like SARS. You husband is mistaken in his knowledge of virology.
I am so shocked.
I haven’t heard of any cases of anyone catching Covid from contaminated food or drink, have you? From everything I’ve heard, you catch it from what you breathe, not from what you ingest.
Thanks, I’ve got it now.
@kayaker I’m going to enjoy one of last month’s brew in a few minutes. It tastes of grapefruit and good, top shelf, piney weed. Pair it with a few hits of the fun stuff and its a nice evening 
I thought this would be about everyone starting sourdough cultures last year.
It will be fine, here’s a look into it surviving water, and ferments are considerably more hostile to germs.
Important question: what kind of mead? I started a cyser the other day.
Delivered beer. Wow! Think of the drop in DWIs!
Long story just because…before the world ended, I bought a bottle of coffee mead brewed by a meadery in Flagstaff at a semi-local liquor store. It was really good stuff, not too sweet and a lovely Kona coffee flavor. When we were stocking up for the shutdown, I bought another bottle at the liquor store. (The hell with toilet paper, we bought booze and weed.) While the meadery is still open, the liquor store isn’t carrying it anymore.
So…hubs thinks that it will be cheaper for him to come up with his own recipe for coffee mead than to drive to Flagstaff and pay 15 a pint. You can stop laughing now!
So far, its been interesting and no attempt has been horrible.
How tart is your cyser? Do you think it would be a good base for coffee mead? I’ve had it in the past and it has a lovely mouth feel, but has always been just a little too sweet for my tastes.
ITD is correct. But I’ll piggy-back on her post to note that you don’t actually know your husband’s cough was COVID. Bacterial infections can cause a fever and cough as well.
This doesn’t change my advice, which would be to drink up and not worry. As stated above, beer isn’t a good environment for human pathogens. But if you want to consider all the risks, COVID isn’t the only one.
I’m not sure, I only started it like 4 days ago, but fermenting quick. I don’t like oversweet, previously I was using EC-1118 yeast which hammers the sugar hard and usually ends up higher alcohol and less sweet. But I’m trying a new yeast. I’d think coffee would come through whenever you put it in, but if he wants a stronger coffee taste can experiment with secondary vs. primary.
The mead subreddit has a lot of examples of coffee mead
I’m an avid homebrewer and usually have a batch of cyser going at all times.
- As mentioned above, Covid virus doesn’t seem to live on surfaces for long. In fact, in the US it seems like there are few to no credible examples of covid being passed through surface contact.
(In fact, except for the Chinese conspiracy theory that covid was actually transmitted from abroad through frozen seafood, notwithstanding that none of the seafood preparers seem to have had an outbreak, it doesn’t appear that covid is easily transmitted on surfaces)
- Covid does not seem to be able to live for the extended time it takes to bottle or keg
- PH levels of beer might kill off covid
Tell hubby after he’s recovered that he can do mead experiments with Costco 5# mead at about $10/bottle. It’s pure honey and good for experimenting. Frankly, if you’re gonna add coffee, it will overpower and be a waste of the expensive as silver craft honey. he can prolly do a couple of gallons of coffee mead for $20 once he gets the hang of it.
My standard cyser is 5# costco honey, 2 gallons Costco apple juice, 2 gallons water and some yeast. Makes a 8% alcohol drink. I usually start drinking a glass or three from the fermenter when it’s 80% fermented, so still pretty sweet. Drink a bit as it dries out. Apple jack a gallon or two that I usually give away. Hubby can play with how to do the coffee, and there ya go!
I would also recommend hubby check out Ask the Meadmaker (groennfell.com). Ricky the Meadmaker has a ton of open source recipes, videos, and will answer emails about meadmaking. Ricky isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I find him pretty amusing. He’s also a really nice guy at least from my emails and the two times I’ve actually ordered mead from Groenfell.
@thelurkinghorror I have typically used Nottingham yeast for my cysers. [/cue stealth brag] A couple weeks ago I visited the White Labs tasting room in San Diego. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any of the vault strains of yeast available, but I did pick up their seasonal release of WLP775 English Cider. [/uncue stealth brag] You can still probably find it as should be available thru the end of June. I’ve done my first cyser with it. The first time I’ve done a cyser/mead that’s had a good 1/2" of foam at the start of fermentation (usually a few bubbles at best). It’s fermented quickly (~2 weeks from OG1065, added a can of blackberry concentrate after the initial fermentation, and now at FG1000) and pretty good residual sweetness/mouthfeel. You might want to check it out. (I’ve tried quite a few different yeasties for the cysers, and I think moving forward it will be WLP775 as my go to cyser yeast)
Edited to add. Any yeast is going to take the FG down to 1.000 or even 0.098. The only sweetness left will the residual…aka imaginary as all the sugar is fermented out. But some yeasts have a lot more imaginary sweetness than others.
