I had made some lemonade for a party and now having some leftovers sitting on a counter for a few days it has started to ferment. The containers were all sterilized with bleach, produce was washed and water was boiled. It tastes totally fine. Would this be safe?
5 gallon water
1 c honey
1 c sugar
2 c fresh lemon juice
3 c barley
Lemon zest
Mint leaves
Add barley and honey/sugar to water, boil for 10 min
Remove barley
Steep lemon zest and mint leaves in the lemonade
Once cooled down, add lemon juice
Best Answer
Accidental fermentation is never safe. You have bacteria growing in your food, and you don't know which bacteria they are. Fermentation is only safe if you use a process which has been tested to only allow the growth of benign bacteria.
This is irrelevant. It is only good to ensure that you won't be starting with an unusually high load of random bacteria - because if you had such a contamination, the food could start spoiling before its usual storage lifetime has been reached. But once you either 1) reach the end of the storage lifetime (which is 4 hours on the counter, as for any prepared food) or have visible signs of spoiling (and fermentation is one of them), hygiene precautions stop mattering and your food is unsafe.