IPA gone wrong-- I think it's got mold. Salvageable?

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AndyC

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Hi guys, I've been brewing an IPA and went to bottle it today. However, when I opened it up, I saw a white/green growth on the top. Assuming it is mold-- this batch probably has to be tossed, eh? Here's what it looked like, after I skimmed it off-- it held together essentially as one piece.
IMG_3595.jpg
 
NOT GOOD! NOT GOOD AT ALL. I've never seen that color or consistancy of stuff in my fermenter and hope to never see it in real life.

I've heard some people say to skim the mold off, let the batch finish fermenting, bottle it and hope for the best. I don't think I could drink a beer that had that kind of contamination though.
 
I'd definately be a little skeptical of that...it looks like latex paint! I'd taste the beer and if its good then maybe give it another week, if nothing else grows you could try to bottle it just beware of bottle bombs if it is infected.
 
Never actually had mold at the top of my batch, but I've heard it can happen from time to time. I have also heard that mold really won't kill your beer as long as it is skimmed from the top. I'm sure others will chime in on this, but I personally wouldn't just pitch the whole batch.
 
Wow. I saw the picture and thought it was a wadded up towel you used to clean something with. Then I read your post and realized it WAS the thing cleaned itself. Hopefully someone else will chime in, but that doesn't look good to me. If it were me, I'd still try bottling it and seeing how it turns out. But I'd also be willing to part ways with those bottles permanantly--I wouldn't reuse them again--I'm just sort of paranoid like that.

Did you taste it yet?
 
+1 on the bottle bombs thought above. I'd put any bottles in a rubbermaid bin or something to contain the carnage just in case (see my note above about paranoia).
 
Whoa cool, you removed a pellicle intact!

What does the beer smell like and what does it taste like? I'd put the lid back on it and let it sit for a few more months.
 
I'd definately be a little skeptical of that...it looks like latex paint! I'd taste the beer and if its good then maybe give it another week, if nothing else grows you could try to bottle it just beware of bottle bombs if it is infected.

I agree. Don't go and throw away the entire batch just yet. Give it some more time, and if nothing else grows then you may have dodged a bullet directed at your beer. But the more time you give it, you can check if there is any further infection, therefore avoiding bottle bombs as well. Good Luck.
 
Hi guys, I've been brewing an IPA and went to bottle it today. However, when I opened it up, I saw a white/green growth on the top. Assuming it is mold-- this batch probably has to be tossed, eh? Here's what it looked like, after I skimmed it off-- it held together essentially as one piece.

How long was it in the primary? Is this your first brew?

white could = krausen
green could = hop particles

especially if it wasn't done fermenting yet.

EDIT: is that stuff in the middle of your picture that looks like a wadded up cloth, a wadded up cloth? Or is that what you skimmed?
 
How long was it in the primary? Is this your first brew?

white could = krausen
green could = hop particles

especially if it wasn't done fermenting yet.

EDIT: is that stuff in the middle of your picture that looks like a wadded up cloth, a wadded up cloth? Or is that what you skimmed?

THat's what I skimmed. It was in the primary for about a month. I moved it into the secondary for another month or so, and I just broke it open today. It didn't have any of this stuff in it the primary-- so something must have gotten in in between.

This was my third brew-- and I've made wine quite a few times before. I was heartbroken, needless to say.
 
There is no way I would drink or even risk tasting a beer that had that growing on it. Throw it away and make a new batch. It looks like your sterilization procedures may need a bit of a review.

Tom
 
I thought it was a wadded up piece of cloth that you skimmed the surface with. But, that is the mold! You wouldn't catch me drinking it!
 
I'd rather not chance it. I wasn't really planning on it-- but I thought I'd get a second opinion first. I'm not sure what happened-- it had been fine during primary fermentation. My only guess is that maybe before I transferred it something brushed against something with the spores. Ugh. What a sad, sad thing-- to see all of that beer go to waste.
 
There is no way I would drink or even risk tasting a beer that had that growing on it. Throw it away and make a new batch. It looks like your sterilization procedures may need a bit of a review.

Tom

LOL... plenty of cheese makers rely on that green goodness to deliver flavor!

Sanitation, not sterilization.

That is a pretty thick looking bed of mold. If it were me I'd add some campden tabs and then force carb. I don't know if you could bottle after using campden, I think it kills the yeast you need to carb.
 
Also, I'm moving in 3 weeks so I can't really have it sitting around for another month-- it just ain't happenin'.
 
Dude, what are you scared of in drinking it? DONT DUMP IT UNLESS IT TASTES LIKE GOAT BALLS!

I would be nervous about that skimming from the top of my beer, but as long as it tasted (normal) then chances are its going to ultimately be fine :)
-Me
 
Also, I'm moving in 3 weeks so I can't really have it sitting around for another month-- it just ain't happenin'.

But, how's it taste? If the mold was contained to the top area, the beer underneath might be fine. I'd bottle it, and let it carb up before writing it off. If it's not a lacto or aceterobacter infection (and it's not) it shouldn't make the beer undrinkable or taste bad.

I'm pretty laid back, though, and I'd be disappointed in the mold but wouldn't write it off yet!
 
Gave it a taste. Didn't taste quite like an IPA-- but that could have been because I had ****ed up the recipe during the brewing; it was a mess from the start, I guess. Not my cup of tea... I think I'll bottle a dozen or so and see how they come out. My beginning gravity was a 1.046 and final was 1.020 -- not a huge variation. I definitely will be trying the IPA again, but I don't think it will be my next batch.
 
LOL... plenty of cheese makers rely on that green goodness to deliver flavor!

Sanitation, not sterilization.

That is a pretty thick looking bed of mold. If it were me I'd add some campden tabs and then force carb. I don't know if you could bottle after using campden, I think it kills the yeast you need to carb.

Not all molds are beneficial. One type of mold commonly found on grain products produces a mycotoxin. Maybe it could occur in fermenting wort, maybe not. It would hardly be worth the risk to find out.

Tom
 
Not all molds are beneficial. One type of mold commonly found on grain products produces a mycotoxin. Maybe it could occur in fermenting wort, maybe not. It would hardly be worth the risk to find out.

Tom

Well if your post does anything it will make him paranoid about being killed by his beer.

I have never seen anything like that in 37 years of fermenting beer. What temperature has the fermentation been and how long was it at the highest temperature?
 
Not all molds are beneficial. One type of mold commonly found on grain products produces a mycotoxin. Maybe it could occur in fermenting wort, maybe not. It would hardly be worth the risk to find out.

Tom

Ugh, I am getting sick and tired of people thinking their beer will kill them. There's no 'maybe' about it, the acidity of the wort and alcohol content kills or neutralizes any pathogens. I'm putting this in big text so people don't miss it:

NO KNOWN PATHOGENS CAN EXIST IN BEER.
 
The only 'harmful' molds I have seen are when cultivating fungus (in the EARLY stages - even this is contained) the only part that was potentially harmful was when it released its spores and they were inhaled accidentally.

The good thing about beer is even with different strains of mold that can take hold of the surface - you still get beer through and through.

Give that beer some good age and revisit it. You might be pleasantly surprised!
Good luck!
-Me
 
1.020 and you're bottling?! Yikes dude.

The only beer I have had that stopped at 1.020 gave me 2 gushers. I am actually scared to open/handle any bottles from that batch.

Point is, whatever that was, cannot harm you. In reference to the above post about the molds that exist on grain, that can not survive in beer just like E. Coli cannot survive in beer nor can C. Botulinum (botulism).

I wouldn't dump it, but I wouldn't be bottling after only a 26 point drop from 1.046.
 
Ugh, I am getting sick and tired of people thinking their beer will kill them. There's no 'maybe' about it, the acidity of the wort and alcohol content kills or neutralizes any pathogens. I'm putting this in big text so people don't miss it:

NO KNOWN PATHOGENS CAN EXIST IN BEER.

I second this....Get it straight people, no known pathogens can grow in your beer....nothing in your beer can kill you.

I came across this from a pretty well known and award winning homebrewer railing against a fellow brewer (it was on one of those "color coded" brewboards where they are a little less friendly than we are.) I just cut and pasted it and stuck it in a file...here it is.

Engrave this in your mind, and tell your fellow homebrewing buddies to quit perpetuating this idiotic fear....If something toxic could come from our homebrewing, it wouldn't be a legal hobby!!!!!



Can you get a PATHOGEN from beer. No. NO *NO* Did I make that clear? You have a ZERO chance of pathogens in beer, wine, distilled beverages. PERIOD!

Pathogens are described as organisms that are harmful and potentially life threatening to humans. These are some 1400+ known species overall encompasing viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and helminths. Of that group, we are only interested in those that can be foodborne. Quite simply, if it can't survive in food, it isn't in beer. That knocks out all but bacteria and fungi. Viruses need very specific circumstances to be passed around... like on the lip of a glass or bottle, not the beer in it. **Ahhh...CHOOO!**

Pathogens as a rule are very fastidious beasts. Meaning that they want very specific temperatures, acidity, nutrients and other conditions to thrive.

Bacteria that *could* live in wort, cannot survive even a little bit of fermentation. There are several reasons for this. One is in the 'magic' of hops. It is the isomerized alpha acids that provide a preservative effect to the beer, which happens to inhibit pathogens! Good deal for fresh wort!

Another reason is the drop in pH from fermentation. Next, yeast emit their own enzymes and byproducts, all in an effort to make the environment hostile to other creatures. The major one is alcohol, of course, but their enzymes will break down less vigorous organisms and they become sources of trace nutrition. Now the latter is very minor compared to the effect of alcohol, but it exists! Most of the time these enzymes work on the wort, not organisms until late in the process. Good deal for beer! ...uh, wine too.

Oh, Botulism specifically... did you know that this is an anaerobic pathogen? It's toxin is one of the few that is broken down by boiling. Did you know tht it is strongly inhibited by isomerized alpha acids, even in water? Since fresh wort has a healthy amount of oxygen in it, the beastie cannot even get started, then once the O2 is used up, it doesn't have a chance against the hops or the yeast.

All that is left are a handful of acid producing bacteria that'll ruin a batch of beer. Overall, there are less than 200 organisms that can survive in beer and lend flavor effects. None of these for very long, or very often. Lambic being the sole exception, and if pathogens *could* survive, that'd be the style where you find 'em.
 
The inability of anything bad to survive in beer is the main reason beer was invented and became popular.
 
After the sermon by Revvy I hardly feel this is necessary, but you're missing out on the big pink elephant sitting in front of you on this one. IPA was originally brewed to survive for months upon months on ships with no temperature controls and not even an idea that germs existed. Besides, some people pay good money to get sick from mold (fungi).
 
After the sermon by Revvy I hardly feel this is necessary, but you're missing out on the big pink elephant sitting in front of you on this one. IPA was originally brewed to survive for months upon months on ships with no temperature controls and not even an idea that germs existed. Besides, some people pay good money to get sick from mold (fungi).

I'm not missing any elephant, I'm just pointing some info out to the uber noob brewers who are deathly afraid of their beers being toxic...it is something than many of us strive to do, whenever some new brewer jumps in, or is worried about it, we try to correct that piece of mis-information.....that is all....

And as many of us have said, more than likely the beer is fine, below the surface of the mold.......

You are right about the IPA's being meant to be hardy beers.


But no one truly knows whether or not any of the casks of IPA's didn't necesarrily have a thin pellicule of mold or something on the surface of them and were still consumed, quite simply, because they often were transported in casks, where it wasn't quite that easy to see what was floating on the top whilst the beer was being served, usually out of a spigot via gravity.....

AND don't forget those wooden casks were crawling with all manner of critters, like Brett, Aecetobactor, and lactobasillus...so honestly, the IPA that reavelled across the sea, may not have tasted anything like when it left the brewery...OR like our modern IPA's in sanitized bottles...

Pellicules and layers are usually formnd to PROTECT the contents below...so those Ipay may have indeed had that kinda skin on it for all we know.

They were made not necessarily to sour, or go stale, but that doesn't mean that they were bulletproof. They were more than likely different than they were at the beginning of the voyage.....

Oh, and I'm the one on here who usually points out that beer was brewed before germ theory...and that if beer had turned out bad, or toxic, would have gone the way of the dodo bird, new coke, or evil's formerly favorite beverage, pepsi clear.:D

But you are right they were pretty hardy beers....

:mug:


Oh, OP...I have racked under mold and have had the beer turn out fine...not the best beer. But it didn't kill anyone. Of course my mold wasn't so "colorful." :D
 
to the OP,

Keep going with the beer, dont dump, use that cool pic to make bottle labels, dont explain the pic on the bottle to someone until they have had three. Hope you documented your procedure, may be the best beer you've ever made.
 
I'm not missing any elephant, I'm just pointing some info out to the uber noob brewers who are deathly afraid of their beers being toxic.......or evil's formerly favorite beverage, pepsi clear.:D

Revvy, that elephant comment wasn't directed at you, you were, as always, spot on. :rockin:

......and, uh, I liked pepsi clear also, but I definitely didn't have an over abundance of it.
 
Revvy, that elephant comment wasn't directed at you, you were, as always, spot on. :rockin:

......and, uh, I liked pepsi clear also, but I definitely didn't have an over abundance of it.

:off:

In my teenage years I was once out with some friends one night, just driving around. One of them had a bottle of Pepsi Clear. We got stopped by the cops and our car was searched. The cop saw the bottle of Pepsi Clear, opened it (thinking it was filled with vodka or something) and essentially put his nostril on the mouthpiece of the bottle to take a big whiff. He returned it to my friend after figuring out there was nothing alcoholic in it. That experience turned me off from Pepsi Clear forever just because of the grossness factor of what the cop did. Pepsi, you can thank the Evansville, IN police department for turning a potential customer off forever. (Nothing was found in the car, and the cops let us go without even a warning.)

Ok--back to the topic at hand: Yes, again, that mold looks gross but I'd still try to save the batch... As Revvy said, it ain't gonna kill ya!
 
Revvy, that elephant comment wasn't directed at you, you were, as always, spot on. :rockin:

......and, uh, I liked pepsi clear also, but I definitely didn't have an over abundance of it.

Yeah I realized it after...but it got me thinking about how truly nasty those IPA's mave have actually tasted compared to our modern versions.

:off:

In my teenage years I was once out with some friends one night, just driving around. One of them had a bottle of Pepsi Clear. We got stopped by the cops and our car was searched. The cop saw the bottle of Pepsi Clear, opened it (thinking it was filled with vodka or something) and essentially put his nostril on the mouthpiece of the bottle to take a big whiff. He returned it to my friend after figuring out there was nothing alcoholic in it. That experience turned me off from Pepsi Clear forever just because of the grossness factor of what the cop did. Pepsi, you can thank the Evansville, IN police department for turning a potential customer off forever. (Nothing was found in the car, and the cops let us go without even a warning.)

Ok--back to the topic at hand: Yes, again, that mold looks gross but I'd still try to save the batch... As Revvy said, it ain't gonna kill ya!

LOL...

You can find just about anything in teh googelz.....

crystalPepsi.jpg
 
Thanks for the help guys-- I'll be updating this whenever I settle into my new place. I've gotta move from Boston to Providence for 6 weeks, then to Philly. SO essentially, brewing is taking a back-seat for a little while. :mad:
 
I would toss it and forget about it, but it's up to you. I like the idea about making up labels with that picture though
 
Ugh, I am getting sick and tired of people thinking their beer will kill them. There's no 'maybe' about it, the acidity of the wort and alcohol content kills or neutralizes any pathogens. I'm putting this in big text so people don't miss it:

NO KNOWN PATHOGENS CAN EXIST IN BEER.

Shouting and using large text doesn't make it true. In fact, blanket statements are seldom true.

A type of fungus known as Fusarium that infects barley produces mycotoxins that survive the malting process and can end up in beer. This is one of the fungi responsible for the gushers we have all seen. There was a documented case of myctoxins in a commercial beer produced in Kenya. Google the terms fusarium beer and Kenya will turn up lots of hits.

I have no idea if the mold produced by the OP is hazardous or not, but since it could be hazardous it's hardly worth the risk for a lousy batch of beer. It's easy enough to produce a batch that is not abnormal.

Tom
 
according to wikipedia...bentonite binds with mycotoxins:
"In the feed and food industry it has become common practice to add mycotoxin binding agents such as Montmorillonite or bentonite clay"

you could possibly try bentonite if your worried but at 3.5% i dont know if would care to salvage it. In defense of the never dump rule, maybe people (not i) have had infected batches turn out better than if they had never become infected.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/post-your-infection-71400/
 
Shouting and using large text doesn't make it true. In fact, blanket statements are seldom true.

A type of fungus known as Fusarium that infects barley produces mycotoxins that survive the malting process and can end up in beer. This is one of the fungi responsible for the gushers we have all seen. There was a documented case of myctoxins in a commercial beer produced in Kenya. Google the terms fusarium beer and Kenya will turn up lots of hits.

I have no idea if the mold produced by the OP is hazardous or not, but since it could be hazardous it's hardly worth the risk for a lousy batch of beer. It's easy enough to produce a batch that is not abnormal.

Tom

That's a bad example. It isn't an example of something infecting your beer, it's an example of something infecting the grain and the byproduct of that infection ending up in the beer. That's like someone brewing a beer with grains coated in arsenic and then saying he died because his beer got an infection. It's not an infection, it's a chemical poison from a tainted raw ingredient.
 
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