Mold in my carboy?

I have a gallon of Wassail fermenting in a three gallon glass carboy and there appears to be mold growing on the upper reigon of the carboy. I properly sanitized the carboy with saniclean prior to putting in the juice/ingredients. The wassail has been in the carboy for 17 days now and has been kept in the dark under a cardboard box the entire time. Is this batch toast?

Got pictures? Could just be krausen gunk.

Juice? I'm not familiar with the Wassail recipe, but I have never known it to be a fruit beer. And is said mold inside the carboy, or outside?

I can try and get pictures of it tomorrow morning when I get off work.

The yeast didn't generate any krausen to speak of and what looks like mod is up at the top of the carboy and not within probably four inches (if not more) of the liquid surface.

The wassail is a cider. Just apple juice, cinnamon sticks, cloves, orange peel zest, and safale S-04 yeast.

If it is mold then you will want to rack it to another container ASAP. Probably a decent chance you will be able to salvage it.

I may do that. However, it appears that fermentation is pretty much done. I watched it for a few minutes and didn't see the airlock budge. Would I be wise to add a little sugar/honey/juice so the yeast fill the new vessel with carbon dioxide? I wasn't planning on bottling this till November at least.

My apologies. I thought you were doing a clone of Wassail holiday ale from Full Sail Brewing. The wassail you're making sounds delightful though, minus the potential mold issue. Happy brewing!

StokedBrew said:

My apologies. I thought you were doing a clone of Wassail holiday ale from Full Sail Brewing. The wassail you're making sounds delightful though, minus the potential mold issue. Happy brewing!

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Thanks! I got the recipe for it here on HBT!

That Full Sail brew sounds good. I'll have to keep my eyes open for it in the beer store this winter. I am happy that I scored two bottles of Dogfish Head Pangaea and two bottles of Namaste the other night. I recall seeing some Full Sail singles in the aisle so there is hope!

I still haven't had a chance to get pictures of the mold. I won't be able to transfer anything to another carboy for a few days anyway. I am on call this week and am currently working my third 12hr night with two more to go. I might just have to chock this one up as a loss. Its only a gallon of apple juice and a packet of yeast with the above ingredients so its not a huge financial loss.