Floaters...

So I have 2 batches in the secondary right now, one has been there for 2 weeks and the other one has been there for just one. The one that has been sitting for a week is alot lighter and there appears to be little bits of something floating in it, kind of looks like mold.... Is it ok? Its only been sitting for a week, so I was planning on letting it sit for at least another week. Will the floaters eventually sink? My real concern is the one that has been sitting for 2 weeks. I was hoping to bottle today, but don't know if I should because that one may have floaters too, it's too dark to really see.... Any thoughts? These are my first two batches... so I don't know what to expect... Thanks!

If your floaters look fuzzy, then it may be mold, but more than likely it is yeast. Don't worry.

A picture would be nice though, just to be sure.

It's probably not mold...it takes a long time for mold to grow in beer and it grows on the surface...plus it's really hard to ruin beer...

It is most likely a combination of hop pieces and Irish moss kicked up. It still needs a couple more weeks and it will settle down...You probably even racked to soon, which kicked up fermentation and co2 which kicked up the gunk from the bottom...

Give it time...or do a search on "finnings" "gelatin" and "Cold crashing."

Next time, double-flush.

I took some pictures, but can't figure out how to post them. I think it could be mold though... If it is, then what? Is all hope lost? Anything I can do?

Evan! said:

Next time, double-flush.

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"Once for the bulk, and again for the remainder!"

Like Revvy said

It's probably not mold...it takes a long time for mold to grow in beer and it grows on the surface

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It's fine....relax....the beer is making you crazy...........

I dont know... I've been pretty crazy for awhile... and most of this is on top, but I'll wait it out. Just out of curiosity though... What usually causes mold and is there anything that can be done?

IcaBrew said:

I dont know... I've been pretty crazy for awhile... and most of this is on top, but I'll wait it out. Just out of curiosity though... What usually causes mold and is there anything that can be done?

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There's wild yeast and bacteria on EVERYTHING...your skin...the dust particles in the air...it's all over the place and you cannot escape it. What "causes" beer infection (it's not "mold", btw, it's bacteria) typically is poor sanitation practices.

If you do get infected accidentally, the only real thing to do, once you're sure it's actually infected, is to dump it. By the way, here's what a true (intended) infection looks like:


It's a flanders red that I'm fermenting with bugs (bacteria), and will one day be a sour beer. But don't think that you can just accidentally infect your porter and have a lambic...doesn't work that way.

You have n00bitus, that is all....your beer would haveto have been sitting still for several months for moldspores to have developed in there....and you would have had to have compromised the integrity of the fermenter and forgotten to sanitize the fermenter to begin with.....3 weeks is not enough time, it's floaties

put your picts on photobucket or another web hosting site, then use the [ img ] and [ / img ] to post them (minus the spaces)....And we'll more than likely continue to say everything's fine....

Almost all n00bs are convinced their beer is infected...and 99.999 times it ain't.

Evan! said:

There's wild yeast and bacteria on EVERYTHING...your skin...the dust particles in the air...it's all over the place and you cannot escape it. What "causes" beer infection (it's not "mold", btw, it's bacteria) typically is poor sanitation practices.

If you do get infected accidentally, the only real thing to do, once you're sure it's actually infected, is to dump it. By the way, here's what a true (intended) infection looks like:

It's a flanders red that I'm fermenting with bugs (bacteria), and will one day be a sour beer. But don't think that you can just accidentally infect your porter and have a lambic...doesn't work that way.

Click to expand...

And it took how long to get that there infection Evan?