Mold on my fermenter (some pics)

CalmYourself · 09-17-2010, 01:49 PM

So I was busy crash cooling, getting ready to gelatin when I took the shirt off my bucket and saw mold all over the lid.

I decided rather not to put gelatin in and cleaned the lid. I did this by pouring basically pure ClO2 on the lid, leaving it for a while, wiping off with a damp cloth.

Then I poured boiling water on the lid and left it for a bit.

Then some more ClO2 and cleaned it off.

Anyway, today comes and I double check and see that there's mold on the side of the bucket (here's where i was on the ball enough to take photos)

I've sprayed the bucket with a pretty strong solution of ClO2. It was around 100ppm and normal sanitizing requires around 4ppm. I'm going to rub it off later with a cloth.

So my question: How can I prevent mold like this from happening again? Primary sits like that for around 3 weeks usually, sometimes longer.

P.S. I'm not worried that it got into the beer, but it is annoying and I dont want to chance it.

Also, it was a brand new fermenter bucket. That's the first batch it's ever had

wyzazz · 09-17-2010, 03:31 PM

Keep the beer in a less damp environment, maybe a dehumidifier?

CalmYourself · 09-17-2010, 03:32 PM

Surely that defeats the point of the swamp cooler thing?

wyzazz · 09-17-2010, 03:37 PM

The the swamp cooler alone isn't what is making your bucket moldy, if you're in a damp room that's what is doing it.

dzlater · 09-18-2010, 12:46 PM

Throw some bleach in the swamp cooler water

**pickles** · 09-18-2010, 12:49 PM

I think your screenname says it all

**passedpawn** · 09-18-2010, 01:36 PM

bleach is a good idea.

Regarding starsan for mold: I don't know how well starsan would work here as mold is a fungus (so is yeast!). While bacteria are killed by starsan's low pH, fungi might not be affected. I'm not sure, so I'd go with the bleach idea.

**Ridonkulous05** · 09-18-2010, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wyzazz

Keep the beer in a less damp environment, maybe a dehumidifier?

I love this forum, but some of the replies you get- you'd think some people were being paid by volume and rate of (irrelevant) one-line replies.

Clearly you are trying to achieve cooler fermentation temperatures by soaking your bucket in water. I note the blue ice units in the water.

A couple of potential solutions: (I acknowledge the bleach recommendations, but I am wary [call me a sissy] of bleach unnecessarily near my beer).

-First, instead of draping the wet shirt (if that is what the green t-shirt is doing there) over the bucket, you may be able to achieve the same overall coollness without it. The mold will have a harder time growing without a wet T-shirt to hide under (and the stagnant air under the T-shirt, to boot).

-I would try thoroughly cleaning the outside of the bucket, and then maybe spraying StarSan over it on a daily basis. I do not think that StarSan could kill a built-up, fuzzy patch of mold, but once the bulk of mold is gone, I think that single spores would have a hard time growing in a StarSan environment. (Yeast [fungi] only can grow in StarSan once it is diluted in wort to a degree that it is no longer deadly to yeast). I would try this solution, because I look at my fermenters every day, and this would give me an extra excuse to do so...

-With the StarSan solution above, you could also orient a box fan at the top part of the bucket. This would evaporate the StarSan solution that you spray on daily (concentrating the acid a bit), but would also dry the bucket (evaporation=cooling a bit) and deny stagnant air for the mold to grow in. You might get a tiny bit more surface evaporation in your "cooler bath" bucket, maybe cooling the entire thing a tiny degree. (With this, if the air in your fermentation room is already saturated, then cracking a window if available/possible may help [if the outdoor air is also not already 100% humidity]).

...I'm no expert or mold biologist... Dang mold- so persistent and prevalent!

Hey! You could just make a 30 gallon starter, or just collect a yeast cake- and put it in a spray bottle... Inoculate the entire room with brewer's yeast so that all of the other microorganisms are crowded out! Man, I might just go into that lucrative, voodoo anti-mold business after all!

**wilserbrewer** · 09-18-2010, 04:47 PM

Try not using the t-shirt, and I like to put just a touch of bleach in the swamp cooler water. Also, FWIW after the first week when fermentation is complete, temps are not as critical and you could do without the swamp cooler perhaps.

With regards to the post above, how the hell would a swamp cooler work in a drier environment? HAH

**bmckee56** · 09-18-2010, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wyzazz

Keep the beer in a less damp environment, maybe a dehumidifier?

The primary is sitting in a tub of water! How on earth can you keep it drier?

I would suggest some bleach in the tub itself would keep mold growth down. Also changing the shirt or cover used over the primary every day or 2 to reduce potential for growth. A fan to move air will also aid in reducing the growth. Mold likes stale moist air I believe.

Salute!