A week ago I friend and I made a sweet cider out of some apple varieties she had in her orchard. I had read that the best cider is made from wild yeast, and not having any campden tablets, I decided to just go ahead and let nature do its stuff. Since the cider wasn't sterilized at all, I've been opening the fermenter from time to time to check on its progress. Well, a week has passed, and the cider has a dusty film of mold growing all over the top with bubbles trapped underneath. I scraped the mold off, and sampled the product along the way. It tastes fine. The yeast is working pretty heavily. Can the cider be saved? We put so much work into pressing this stuff, I'd hate to just throw it away. Will the alcohol kill off any mold that tries to start up again?
Moldy Cider...can it be salvaged?
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homebrewer_99
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Sounds like a wild yeast problem to me.
Give it more time to see if the mold comes back.
You can always rack from the middle and stay under the stuff, but sometimes they grow tenacles like squid do and it'll be a complete loss.
Give it more time to see if the mold comes back.
You can always rack from the middle and stay under the stuff, but sometimes they grow tenacles like squid do and it'll be a complete loss.
Vels
Well-Known Member
DONT drink or use it if it is mouldy. Mold shows in all different colors, and has a destinct dry smell a little like mold cheese smell without the cheese. Also mold usually looks hairy.
Many mold varities produces poisons.
They can make you pretty sick and even trigger multiple allergies you will have to battle for the rest of your life - even though you were not allergic before.
Dont fool around with moldy food/drink !
Dont go by the thought that you can scrape mold away. It will usually grow deep in to the stuff even not visible.
Toss that batch, and better luck next time would be my advise.
Cheers
Jakob
Many mold varities produces poisons.
They can make you pretty sick and even trigger multiple allergies you will have to battle for the rest of your life - even though you were not allergic before.
Dont fool around with moldy food/drink !
Dont go by the thought that you can scrape mold away. It will usually grow deep in to the stuff even not visible.
Toss that batch, and better luck next time would be my advise.
Cheers
Jakob
The book you read that stated wild yeast was the 'best' didn't mention that there's no guarantee that your apples would have the 'correct' wild yeast present. Most don't.
It's the juice is actually fermenting and tastes OK, I wouldn't worry about it, just let nature do it's thing. You might get lucky.
It's the juice is actually fermenting and tastes OK, I wouldn't worry about it, just let nature do it's thing. You might get lucky.
Less than 12 hours after I skimmed all the mold off the top, it was back in full. It might have tasted good in the end, but there was a too much mold for comfort, so I chucked it. I have another batch of store bought cider from a farm near my house that is fermenting with no mold problem. My plan is to save the yeast from that and culture it so I can use Campden tablets.
