Why did Cobra stop making mead?
Good question and one that has been pondered.
I believe it is a myriad of factors.
1. His mead was never alcoholic.
Due to impatience, non-sterile equipment/handling and procedure and a horrible overuse of ingredients the yeast likely never took hold and would instead cohabitate with various bacteria or otherwise be rendered useless by processed chemicals, preservatives or extreme Ph swings - sugar is acidic. (Note the adding of vodka to give it a “kick”)
2. His mead was fucking disgusting.
Even to him, we never saw him finish a bottle. I think he claimed to have finished one of the Apple silk meads which is plausible as this was early on before he started adding Reese’s pieces, etc. he would end up dumping bottle after bottle down the drain (once he had performatively sipped on a cup to own the trolls). The mead saga ended when a batch went “sour”.
3. High effort, low reward.
To our boy, the simple act of combining yeast and sugar was in itself a task. Combined (fuck sickos) with adding loads of extra shit, it became time consuming - not to mention the long wait for the mixture to mature. On top of this, various utensils and containers would need to be cleaned thoroughly between each batch, we saw a clean jar at least once however we know his utensils get dropped on the floor, licked and left out on the counter to dry. Refer back to point 1, bacteria.
4. Sickness.
Shortly after the final homeboy mead creation, about a week later, Josh mentioned having a stomach bug. This happened at least once during the whole saga and again towards the end. He denied any correlation but it’s safe to assume he got some sort of fungal and/or bacterial infection from drinking it. It’s hard to drink when you feel sick, so this could not continue lest cobra be subject to bouts of sobriety to recover.
5. Better not make mead, boy!
NAL was supportive of his mead making and bought him some larger jars to make bigger batches. Never tell Josh what to do. I vaguely remember Josh mentioning that Clint was also supportive of his new hobby at some point, this is also likely a contributing factor to him quitting. If everyone told him to stop he may have continued, but the support from family, at the time girlfriend, and other followers potentially backfired into nobody tells me what to do territory.
And finally,
6. Financial.
The cost of pounds of sugar, entire bags of Reese’s, share bags of skittles, juice and cordial, specialized yeast, fruit, vegetables (he used carrots at one point right?) eventually outweighs just buying a 6 pack of bud light and ranting about Dylan Mulvaney.
It was never going to last, it was funny, scary at times and gave some good content however he overcomplicated it, had no respect for the craft or his own body and ultimately failed in a final blaze of sour banana peanut butter mead glory.
In summary:
“Get your asshole blown out by habanero peach mead” - NAL
