Fricken Fungus!

I have got some kind of fungus growing in my wort. I boiled it up Wednesday and I have had no fermentation at all. Guess my starter was a dud. Anyways this fungus is white and kind of snakes around in the wort. Other than that the wort is clean. Now I had bought another yeast pack but I am wondering if I should even bother with this batch? Another possibility is to reboil the wort for a half hour to kill what ever nasties are in there. I find that idea a little more appealing. What do you all think?

Well, yeast is fungus, but it sounds as though it might be infected. Give it a couple of days and see what happens, it could just be that it's the krausen forming. Don't boil the wort again, you could end up ruining a perfectly good batch. Give it a week or so, then smell/taste the beer, if it tastes good then let it age and bottle it, but if it tastes bad you might have to dump it.

Picture is worth a thousand words.

This is 72 hrs since pitching
Also OG has not moved an iota

Dude, that is not good, I would say dump.

Sorry for the loss, but another reason to brew again, as if you needed one.

Cheers

Virtuous said:

Picture is worth a thousand words.

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I see....
Yeah it doesn't look good, I'm sorry. You should probably dump it.

I figured that would be the consensus after hitting the smack pack. I've got an irish stout kit I can brew up So Its not a total loss. But I really wanted an ESB. Maybe next month.

That doesn't look good at all. Not at all. I hear about some people skimming and trying again. I've also heard about folks pasteurizing the wort, so you could try that by bringing it up to something like 165F for a few minutes.

If it's only been two days since you pitched, you should not see mold like that in your fermenter. You ought to review your sanitation.


TL

Dude, try saving it. Siphon off the good stuff, re-pitch some yeast and give it a shot. If you toss it now, you are out probably 30 bucks worth of ingredients, when you could save it for the price of a $6 smack pack.

Yeah, its been tossed. The stuff was runnin through out the beer, it wasnt just on the top.. I was actually more thorough this time with sanitation than my first batch. I'll just chalk it up to a fluke. The only thing that I really did different was I left the AC on this time while I was chilling and racking the wort. My ducts are OLD so I wouldnt be surprised if that was the source.

I only have room to ferment one batch at a time do I didnt want to waste 3 weeks of potential brew time for a maybe. Espescially when I have never heard people recomend to pitch it on this site. It's all good, I am happy with my 50% success rate

So I have a Stout brewing up right now.

I'll lift one to a brew lost. Sorry man.

For me, the biggest clue that it's a fungus would be the web-like structure. Yeast clumps, but I've never seen it grow in organized structures.

As for the fungus, it's just a plant. I'd strain, boil, re-pitch before I'd dump it... It may still suck, it may not...

I thought about re-boiling but I didnt know how advisable that was. I'll keep that in mind should there ever be a next time. Thanks

pldoolittle said:

Yeast clumps, but I've never seen it grow in organized structures.

Click to expand...

One word: brett!

Iordz said:

One word: brett!

Click to expand...

True, I have never done a Brettanomyces.

See this is exactly what more newbies need to do before dumping. Wait a few days, take a picture, wait for consensus from more experienced people. Sorry to say I agree this should be dumped.

Even boiling it again could still keep the really rank, sour flavor the bacteria in the beer, so you'd probably have to dump it anyways.

Thanks eviltwin. I think I made the right choice too. My Stout is just churnin like a machine. Found some yeast nutrient at the LHBS and it seems to have made a real difference.
As for the smack pack, I am going to go get some glycerine and try to freeze it till next month when I re-order the ESB.
What is the whole Brett refrence?

For one month, I'd just refrigerate. Freezing is really rough on yeast.