10/07/2026
Star-Crossed Lovers
In wild fermentation, lactic acid bacteria build a tolerance to the ethanol produced by yeast by turning on repair genes, shifting metabolism, and adding fats to their membranes. They in turn produce organic acids that make it hard for anything to survive, including themselves (against all rules of thermodynamics). These bacteria have to waste loads of ATP energy to push hydrogen protons out of their cells with ATPase - but it adds to this inhospitable environment, helping to co-select for only the hardiest fermenting strains amd up their odds of being the last strain standing.
Yeasts build a tolerance to organic acids and ethanol by scavenging oxygen from the environment to build sterols (steroids for yeast!) to tighten the cell membrane. This literally prevents their insides from leaking out! By stirring wild mead every day we help to foster this co-selective fermentation habitat. All other species die off somewhere between 4-11% abv (hoping to start a research project on this soon with App State when our grant gets funding!) but the most acid and ethanol tolerant of them all, likely some killer strain of Lactobacillus and an efficient cell wall building Saccharomyces or Hanseniaspora survive together on the environmental extremes of their own making.
The more we stir, the higher the alcohol tolerance these species can get, meaning they will have even less competitors able to hold on – allowing for a total monopoly on the microbiome. This allows a unique stability and predictability (to a point) of our meads. Spoilage microorganisms, who would love to have their way with our meads like they often do with w**es found at natural w**e shops, get pushed out by the hurdles created by this inhospitable environment. Our meads therefore utilize the simple human intervention of stirring to control the chaos of a wild microbiome to create the first commercial mead with the potential for national distribution. We are excited to trailblaze wild meadmaking using both ancient history and modern science as our guides.
Every mead made at Stardust Cellars contains a near infonite and random assortment of yeasts and bacteria who have had some impact on the sensory profile of our mead. Only a few of them make it all the way to the end of fermentation.
Its funny what stardust starts to do after a while...
