White spots on top of beer in secondary?

I'm a new to forums, as well as, homebrewing which I throughly enjoy!! First batch (American EPA) turned out pretty good, with real hoppy aromatics. I hope it will begin to mellow out as it 'ages'.

My second batch (New Castle clone) has been in the secondary carboy fermenter for about 5 days, I have noticed that there are some small white spots floating atop of the beer, could this be mold?? The batch started out at a pretty high gravity 1.060 with a real vigorous first 3 days of fermentation - airlock popped of twice and I had to resort to a make-shift blow-off tube. Could it have become contaminated and now is molding??

Cheers!

TheBeerLife said:

I'm a new to forums, as well as, homebrewing which I throughly enjoy!! First batch (American EPA) turned out pretty good, with real hoppy aromatics. I hope it will begin to mellow out as it 'ages'.

My second batch (New Castle clone) has been in the secondary carboy fermenter for about 5 days, I have noticed that there are some small white spots floating atop of the beer, could this be mold?? The batch started out at a pretty high gravity 1.060 with a real vigorous first 3 days of fermentation - airlock popped of twice and I had to resort to a make-shift blow-off tube. Could it have become contaminated and now is molding??

Cheers!

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It could be, but it might not be. Does it actually look like mold? Or does it look more like white blobs? White blobs are actually flocculated yeast- I call them "yeast clumpies" in my highly technical brewer's language.

It is more than likely yeast colonies left over from when the krauzen dropped, or kicked up from the bottom by CO2...

Lot's of people come on here afraid their beer is moldy describing the exact same thing.

I'm pretty sure it's fine.

Another vote for it just being yeast. I have teh same thing in my wit right now, and I've seen it many times before.

Don't worry unless it grows hair or develops a phonetic language.

Hagen said:

Don't worry unless it .....develops a phonetic language.

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Hmmm, then we wouldn't need our hydrometers to listen to it.

post a pic ...thyen we will know for sure. It is probably just yeast

TheBeerLife said:

I'm a new to forums, as well as, homebrewing which I throughly enjoy!! First batch (American EPA) turned out pretty good, with real hoppy aromatics. I hope it will begin to mellow out as it 'ages'.

My second batch (New Castle clone) has been in the secondary carboy fermenter for about 5 days, I have noticed that there are some small white spots floating atop of the beer, could this be mold?? The batch started out at a pretty high gravity 1.060 with a real vigorous first 3 days of fermentation - airlock popped of twice and I had to resort to a make-shift blow-off tube. Could it have become contaminated and now is molding??

Cheers!

Click to expand...

I had some white spots on my 1st brew. 90 shilling clone. I wasn't sure what to do, so i talked to my lhbs and he told me to open it up very fast and smell the wort. if it smells skunky it could be mold.

My beer was fine, i bottled it and to be honest it teasted much better then 90 shilling.

hope this helps

I just brewed my first batch last week and I have the same thing in my primary. After studying the pics of infections on HBT, I'm fairly certain that its just yeast. It seems pretty normal so don't worry too much about it!

adarelme said:

I had some white spots on my 1st brew.... i talked to my lhbs and he told me to open it up very fast and smell the wort. if it smells skunky it could be mold.

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That's odd advice....If they are little white/yellowish balls they are hop seeds.

TeleTwanger said:

That's odd advice....If they are little white/yellowish balls they are hop seeds.

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the spots were white in color, I took a bunch of pixs, everyone i know who homebrews told me it was yeast. and it sure was.

That's great to hear! I am a little fresh and got to thinking I must have done something wrong racking my brew from the primary to my carboy. Glad I was just jumping to conclusions and it was just the lil yeasties kicking it! The little blobs do kind of look like the mold that grows on your salsa if you leave it in the fridge too long. Will these blobs settle out? or will they continue to float in there? When I transferred my brew there was a layer of bubbly happy yeast floating on top -so much I had to skim them off to syphon the ale out. Stayed in the primary for a little over 2 weeks. I am going to rack it into my other carboy and dry hop it in a week...I am hoping that's long enough to let them settle down a bit.

Sometimes they will fall, but I've had a couple of floaters that didn't.

Okay, so, I've got these white specks as well... although, I didn't notice them until I took a close look at the beer this week. It has been in the secondary for maybe a couple months, I just haven't gotten around to bottling it. I figured I was safe for a few months in the secondary, but I'm just now getting back into this after a several year hiatus from brewing.

I figured it was growing mold, but it looks the same after several days of this... I guess just pop off the airlock and see if it has the dusty mold smell?

Hagen said:

Don't worry unless it grows hair or develops a phonetic language.

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That cracked me up! I hope you don't mind, but I'm putting your quote in my signature.

Lambo3 said:

Okay, so, I've got these white specks as well... although, I didn't notice them until I took a close look at the beer this week. It has been in the secondary for maybe a couple months, I just haven't gotten around to bottling it. I figured I was safe for a few months in the secondary, but I'm just now getting back into this after a several year hiatus from brewing.

I figured it was growing mold, but it looks the same after several days of this... I guess just pop off the airlock and see if it has the dusty mold smell?

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Don't worry about it. It is just yeast. If it were mold it would look fuzzy and perhaps be white hairy bubbles. I've been brewing for a year and a half pretty heavy, and only had one infection. That was due to an ill fitting bung that kept falling out and hitting the wet indoor outdoor carpet and getting put back on, and I admit to being a bit sloppy with sanitation, yet I make good, even award wining, beer.

I had this problem today! I am brewing a Sweet Chocolate Stout. I used 6 ounces of non dairy chocolate morsels which i added at the final 10 minutes of boiling the wort. I used Whitelabs Irish ale yeast liquid. It has been fermenting exactly 2 weeks. The last 3 days I have been checking with hydrometer and it shows that fermentation is done. I opened it up today to bottle it, and I seen this crazy ass surface! It looked like spider webs and was pretty dense. It looked like spider eggs, the white puffs with threading. I smelled it, which seemed like goodness!! I took a sanitized measuring cup and tasted it. tasted good! I took my fermenter and placed in on the table top so i could syphon. When I looked into the bucket it seemed to have broken up very well just by the movement of lifting and placing it on the table. I called one of my brewing friends who has been brewing years longer me said it seemed like Belgium Lace???? I am going to bottle for 3 to 4 weeks and see what happens. Scared the crap out of me when I saw it!!!!!!

I've got a Belgian brown ale sitting in the secondary - it's been there for 3+ months - I'm using a Sam Caligione's recipe. There's still lots of bubbling activity on the surface. Don't see any sign of bacteria infection though I'm not counting out the possibility. I'm planning to bottle this batch in a few days, but I'm wondering if I should hold off until the bubbles subside - any thoughts?

Leadster said:

I've got a Belgian brown ale sitting in the secondary - it's been there for 3+ months - I'm using a Sam Caligione's recipe. There's still lots of bubbling activity on the surface. Don't see any sign of bacteria infection though I'm not counting out the possibility. I'm planning to bottle this batch in a few days, but I'm wondering if I should hold off until the bubbles subside - any thoughts?

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Hydrometer reading...Gravity reading...Hydrometer reading...Gravity reading...Hydrometer reading...Gravity reading...Hydrometer reading...Gravity reading...We can't tell you what's going on. My brewing psychic ability only works on the 5th Tuesday of the month and barely extends past my own brew closet let alone looking into yours.

Just encountering this problem, and I'm pretty sure my case is one of two things.
1) Yeast Clumps as stated above
2) Leftover residue from Starsan. I was told that bubbles were ok with Starsan, and to not worry if I am pouring beer on top of them, but when I racked into my secondary, there were alot of bubbles on top of the beer, and as they've dissappeard, they've been replaced by these white streaks.

This is my first beer, so I'm a little anxious, but does anyone have any opinions?

Lame attempt at posting a picture of the problem

My brews have these same "yeast clumpies" - likely nothing to worry about.

B

Just checked out my secondary and Im experiencing something similar. I have attached some pics. Basically little white clumps floating on top of the wort.

This is my first brew and the only thing that I can think that might have caused contamination would be that I didn't scrub the carboy because it was new, and right out of the box. I did rinse it out with sanitizer though.

Let me know what you think.

How long was the beer in primary? If it was a short primary and you racked over too quickly I could say "possible" yeast clumps. If it was in primary three weeks then something is likely wrong.

BillTheSlink said:

How long was the beer in primary? If it was a short primary and you racked over too quickly I could say "possible" yeast clumps. If it was in primary three weeks then something is likely wrong.

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Good to hear. I did indeed jump the gun on primary and racked it into secondary after 6 days. (Hangs head in shame)

unionrdr said:

Is it just me,or are there little strings running between clumps in your 1st pic?

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I think that is just some beer or sanitizer that is on the bottles walls. Theres only the white yeast islands. If you look closely at it; it looks like tiny white bubbles all crammed together.

Guess this is one of the reasons that people keep their brew in the primary for the whole time before bottling.

SandMBrew...how did it turn out? Mine looks exactly like that!

Ashhills said:

SandMBrew...how did it turn out? Mine looks exactly like that!

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post a pic, but i'm guessing it's fine. the pic that was posted above looks like yeast rafts. those are very common afar fermentation, and they cause many a new brewer some unnecessary worry.

People see a dot and freak so easily because they took a microbiology class or assume that it is an infection based upon previous posts of people assuming as well.

Majority of your yeast gets into the wort. However, especially when you use dry yeast that is sprinkled, it will cling to the bottle neck of your carboy.

Due to Condensation from the krausen and warmth of fermentation, the yeast runs down the side.

What makes me nervous is that this is the secondary and there is more and more of it as time goes by. It has been in there about 5 weeks.

Ashhills said:

What makes me nervous is that this is the secondary and there is more and more of it as time goes by. It has been in there about 5 weeks.

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Taste will tell you if it's bad. If you puke or die, it's probably infected. If not, bottoms up!

Another vote for it just being yeast had the same thing happen to me thats a good thing

Secondary fermenter after 2 weeks primary, 10 days secondary with dry hopping. Any ideas?

Hey fellas, first post here. Google search on "white mould on my wort" took me here.

Seems like I have the same question. At this point, I think I just want some extra reassurance that this is yeast & OK.

It's an Irish Red from OBK. OG 1.050. Moved it after 7 days in primary at 1.016. It's been in there for just over a day when I took this photo. This is only my 4 th batch, and I've never seen this white stuff before.

Oh yeah, its a 3 gal kit in case you were wondering where the rest of it was.

I think both these last two are yeast floaters with krausen left overs.

Generally when you use a secondary, you want as little head space as possible, so 3-gallons in a 5-gallon carboy might not be the best idea...

When your beer it's in the primary and fermenting away, it's putting off a lot of C02, which stops any air from getting to it, so a lot of head space is fine, plus you'll have a big kraussen, so you need room for that.

Once fermentation is done and you move it into your secondary, you want little to no head space, since the beer isn't putting off very much C02 anymore, and more contract with air raises the chances of infection.

A lot of people here (myself included) don't bother with a secondary unless they have a specific reason for it like adding fruit.

^ +1

Racking to secondary is handling beer where you don't have/need/want to unless you do have a really good reason. Each time you handle beer infections can creep in.

Next time let it be for 2 or better yet, 3 weeks in the primary before even taking a gravity sample. When it's done, cold crash for a couple days to clear it and rack to your bottling bucket, prime, and bottle. 1.016 is still pretty high for this beer anyway. Chances are that beer wasn't quite done yet, although it looks really clear.

Read the stickies on the forums to learn about brewing. They're there for a reason.

If those white speck are fuzzy it can be mold. If they grow it points to an infection. They're probably just yeast floaters/rafts as unionrdr said.

Thanks guys. Keeping it the primary makes sense. Less work, less risk of contamination, I get that.

I was moving it to the secondary because it was mentioned in the instructions - I'm not adding anything to it. Thought i had read something about not leaving wort in plastic > 7 days, or not allowing wort to be in contact with yeast for too long, but I'm a neophyte and probably only got half the story.

The white floaties really do look like a mould though. A bit fuzzy, but I can;t get a great look at them. Could mould have formed so quickly (28 hrs) at 66F?

I'll go check out the stickies now.

Plastic fermenters don't leach o2 into the wort that fast at all. & the yeast autolysis is an old boogie man. Commercial brewers are concerned with it by the sheer volume of beer in the fermenters vs the yeast on the bottom of the huge conicals. It was hard to tell in the pic,but if they're getting fuzzy,an infection could be developing.

Bottled it this weekend, super clear. Gravity went down to 1.014, so a little extra fermenting was indeed going on. Had a taste and nothing funky. A little hoppier than I was expecting for a red, but that may change after a few weeks in the bottle.

Already ordered my next two kits