Here's the story -
I had a batch of California Common which I was fermenting in a bucket in a closet. I left it alone for about a month, and then took the lid off to check gravity a few days ago. Tonight, I opened it to check gravity again and noticed mold along the top of the krausen line. It was definitely mold - blue, fuzzy mold. It smelled like beer, with some mold on it. It looked like a bit floating on top of the beer, as well.
I figured I should dump it, but maybe I've read too many of Revvy's optimism threads and decided to just bottle it anyway (SG has been stable since I checked 3 days ago). I carefully put the racking cane down through a part of the surface that looked particularly unmoldy, and left maybe 3L in the bucket when transferring to the bottling bucket (figuring that the mold is probably mostly surface). I tasted a sample of the beer, and it tastes not bad (considering it was warm and flat). I threw out the bucket that I fermented in.
My thinking is - chances of my beer turning out to be drinkable is slim, but better than if I dumped it. Worst case scenario is that I wasted my time bottling, and even then I got some practice bottling which is valuable at this stage. I'm a bit nervous about bottle bombs, but I have them in a box wrapped in a tarp so they won't cause too big of a mess if that happens.
So, does anyone else have experience with this? I know the mold won't kill me or anything, but it certainly can make the beer pretty untasty.
If it turns out, I will definitely post this on Revvy's screwed-up-my-beer-but-still-tastes-ok thread.
I had a batch of California Common which I was fermenting in a bucket in a closet. I left it alone for about a month, and then took the lid off to check gravity a few days ago. Tonight, I opened it to check gravity again and noticed mold along the top of the krausen line. It was definitely mold - blue, fuzzy mold. It smelled like beer, with some mold on it. It looked like a bit floating on top of the beer, as well.
I figured I should dump it, but maybe I've read too many of Revvy's optimism threads and decided to just bottle it anyway (SG has been stable since I checked 3 days ago). I carefully put the racking cane down through a part of the surface that looked particularly unmoldy, and left maybe 3L in the bucket when transferring to the bottling bucket (figuring that the mold is probably mostly surface). I tasted a sample of the beer, and it tastes not bad (considering it was warm and flat). I threw out the bucket that I fermented in.
My thinking is - chances of my beer turning out to be drinkable is slim, but better than if I dumped it. Worst case scenario is that I wasted my time bottling, and even then I got some practice bottling which is valuable at this stage. I'm a bit nervous about bottle bombs, but I have them in a box wrapped in a tarp so they won't cause too big of a mess if that happens.
So, does anyone else have experience with this? I know the mold won't kill me or anything, but it certainly can make the beer pretty untasty.
If it turns out, I will definitely post this on Revvy's screwed-up-my-beer-but-still-tastes-ok thread.