How long does a batch of Zombies keep in the fridge?

This would be the Don the Beachcomber 1950 recipe with pineapple and lemon juice.

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2019-03-18 07:00 ]

Depends how sturdy the lock is and how determined they are to get out.

On 2019-03-18 12:02, canadrian wrote:
Depends how sturdy the lock is and how determined they are to get out.

Ha! Yeah lemme double check that, hope it's not to late! :)

Citrus is best used within a few hours.
After that things will start to oxidize and get bitter rather than sour.

On 2019-03-18 14:47, Sandbartender wrote:
Citrus is best used within a few hours.
After that things will start to oxidize and get bitter rather than sour.

Yikes! Well that kinda sux. I made a a pretty large batch and I guess it's going to have to go down the drain. :(
Live and learn I guess...

Freeze your remainder in plastic bags with as little air as possible. Or, before freezing, flush the air out of your container with nitrogen, as wine drinkers sometimes do before closing a partially-emptied wine bottle. I keep a can of nitrogen from Total Wine at my bar to help maintain freshness of my open bottles of vermouth.

Drink what you can though cuz it’s always at its peak when freshly made. If you do freeze it, then when ready to drink make sure you thaw slowly, like in a water bath. Any warmth or heat will likely increase reactivity and degradation.

I’m guessing you made a gallon or two?

Zombie party at Don's place!!! :lol:

On 2019-03-19 06:54, AceExplorer wrote:
Freeze your remainder in plastic bags with as little air as possible. Or, before freezing, flush the air out of your container with nitrogen, as wine drinkers sometimes do before closing a partially-emptied wine bottle. I keep a can of nitrogen from Total Wine at my bar to help maintain freshness of my open bottles of vermouth.

Drink what you can though cuz it’s always at its peak when freshly made. If you do freeze it, then when ready to drink make sure you thaw slowly, like in a water bath. Any warmth or heat will likely increase reactivity and degradation.

I’m guessing you made a gallon or two?

I made about a half gallon in a large screw top plastic container. Here's the thing, I made it fresh early Sunday afternoon about 1pm...as I write this it's late Tuesday night, so I'd say nearly 60 or so hours have passed since then. Is it too late for the freeze? Actually...quick update: I just took the batch out of the fridge and opened it up. Doesn't seem funked out or smell bad. In fact it smells like Zombies...the drink that is. I just put it in the freezer so I'll give it a go and see what happens. Probably won't thaw it until the weekend. When I do thaw it I'll just switch it back into the fridge and then maybe at room temperature for a bit.

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2019-03-19 19:54 ]

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2019-03-19 20:59 ]

I wonder if adding ascorbic acid (vitamin C) would help preserve your Zombies (in the future, that is). Ascorbic acid is an anti-oxidant and is used in food preservation/canning. Since it is naturally present in citrus, adding more might not have a significant effect on the taste. I've seen it with the canning supplies in stores.
All that said, I would probably figure the total volume of a single Zombie. Then I would freeze multiples of that amount in individual ziploc bags, with the air squeezed out. On occasion, I could then thaw and drink one or two (never more than two!), until they ran out.

Update on the freezing...

When we last left off I put the container in the freezer Tuesday night, it is now late on Thursday night. Took it out to see the progress and to my surprise it was hardly frozen at all, more like a tad bit slushy. I thought I would have a frozen block in there by now. I opened it up and gave it a sniff test...still smelled like the real deal. I'll give this a taste test Friday or Saturday night. Stay tuned...

Personally I have batched several drinks from the various tiki drink recipe books that I have. Usually on weekends I will find a drink I like and usually multiply the ingredients by 4 to 6 times so I don’t have to keep mixing drinks over and over again. If I don’t finish over the weekend, I have found that they keep a few days to even the following weekend with no flavor Degradation. A little trick is just run them through the aerator mixer again with some crushed ice and they taste just like they were mixed fresh.

I once had a huge batch of Witch Doctor (1 or 2 gallons) and some of it was kept 6 or so months in my freezer in smaller containers. I thawed those bad boys one at a time and drank ‘em with friends. (Mostly myself, lol...). They kept very well, minimal to no noticeable degradation. Full containers with little trapped air kept oxidation down to a negligible amount. I was very pleased. Had I kept it in my fridge then it would very likely not have kept well.