kcpup

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Been brewing 2 years, no infections, etc. Here's the situation:

On 8/3 I brewed and transferred to my plastic carboy once down to pitching temp. I was waiting for yeast starter to get at the "right" point for pitching that evening, then bam! Had to leave town for business unexpectedly, then surgery (I'm ok now).

...fast forward to Sunday 8/14. Back on my feet, ready to go. I roused the yeast on the stirplate, went to pitch yeast, and bam! There's a big floatie of mold on my unfermented wort that's been in the basement in the carboy for 2 weeks.

I've read some threads on this topic on HBT, but frankly most have been where the mold appears after fermentation has started.

This is a witbier. I rebrewed another batch of the wit last night, so dumping the moldy wort was what I was planning to do. I have enough yeast saved that I could ferment mold-o-rama one, too. However, I don't want to get sick, and don't want to waste too much time, etc.

What are y'alls thoughts? Ideas on what to do? Try to ferment anyway?
Do I also discard the Better Bottle now that it has an infection?
Thanks for your thoughts. Should have had my sweetheart pitch the yeast when I had to head out of town....

Rip

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I highly doubt that you have mold on that wert (but then again I didn't see it). Chances are it's probably a pellicle* that was forming. This could have been caused by bacteria and/or wild yeast... Now the question remains, should you ferment it? I don't know, because that's a personal choice. Me? personally? I'd ferment that thing simply for the learning experience. You might end up with a bretty-wild-sour witbeir, that sounds yummy to me.

RE the better bottle: Soak it overnight in some hot soapy water (PBW, Oxiclean, etc) Then rinse and soak in a strong bleach solution for another day - that should kill just about anything. Make sure you rinse out all of bleach when done. And maybe clean/wash again before sanitizing it for your next brew day. Equipment doesn't 'get infected'. It can only harbor pathogens on the surface. So: Wash, wash, wash!

*Pellicle photo's: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/pellicle-photo-collection-174033/

- M

Fantastical

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Often mold will just grow on the krausen and not in the beer itself due to the alcohol content. You could try skimming the mold off and seeing what happens.

TopherM

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The OP stated that this was unfermented wort. There is no alcohol content yet.

Anyway, your carboy is not completely free of oxygen, and is not 100% airtight. You basically just took a bunch of sugar water and let it sit out at room temp for 11 days. Do that with a cup of apple juice or a coke, and of course mold is going to get in there. Wort is no different.

I know you probably didn't see this situation coming, but next time, you could have avoided this by refrigerating the carboy or purging the O2 out of it and making it airtight (if you have the equip. to do so).

At this point, the best advise I can give is that plenty of people have skimmed off the mold, fermented as normal, and turned out fine. Once your yeast start to add alcohol to the solution, that will kill off many types of molds and fungi. If you ferment this for 2-3 weeks and the mold has grown back, then you might want to think about dumping it with lesson learned, and all you've lost is some yeast and a bit of time.

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kcpup

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Attached is a photo. Sorry, only had my phone handy. The bright upper left is the reflection of my flashlight.

This doesn't "exactly" look like the photos in the link you shared above. I pulled off the top and smelled...smells fine - like unfermented witbier - not funky.

Let me know if this changes anything.

Thanks - should have posted a photo at the beginning.

Attached Images

 

kcpup

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That's what I figured.

Yep, I have room in a basement fridge that I could have put it, too...I got so distracted and forgot to ask my sweetheart to move it to the fridge. Oh well.

I'll fish the mold out and go ahead and pitch some yeast. Thanks for the advice!

Lost

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I say sample it and if it tastes ok then rack it to a new vessel leaving the mold behind. Then pitch the yeast. The mold grows on the surface, not 'in' the beer.

If the mold is just the tiny patch in the picture then I don't think it's a problem at all. I would be more worried that other things (i.e. bacteria or wild yeast) have gotten in there and done their thing which you wouldn't be able to see easily but you would be able to test. Plus the beer has been sitting exposed to the oxygen in the carboy for the last 2 weeks, that can't be good either.

While I haven't had moldy beer I have experienced moldy sour cream. I scoop out the bit that molded and eat the still good stuff underneath. Same principle with beer.

Hurry up too, before the mold situation gets worse!

Rip

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+1 Yup. That's mold. A green center with white outline is the #1 clue.

Still: I'd rack, smell/sample and then pitch based on whether or not the sample has any moldy characters. A moldy funky smell never leaves once it's in there.

- M

kcpup

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As recommended, I carefully racked on the 18th and left the top layer of mold behind. I took a small sample of racked wort - smelled just fine, so took a taste. Tasted fine, too. Worked up a big WLP400 starter on stirplate, and pitched. Fermenting happily.

I'll take hydrometer reading tomorrow and taste sample. Thanks for feedback and I'll udpate the thread.

ChillWill

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Could you not have removed the mold, then boiled the wort for 15 mins, add a small dose of finishing hops and then chilled and pitched as normal?