Yet another Paranoid beginner(Photos)

Alright, its week three of my first batch. AHS Pale Ale. I have prided myself on not being a worried parent. I have only opened the primary once to take a gravity reading, and have otherwise ignored the beer until today. I opened it to bottle the beer. It's been in primary for three weeks, and looked and tasted fine when I took Gravity at the end of week one. Real simple, is the crap at the top normal? I feel like my first born is sick and Im a little worried.... Thanks!

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This image was taken this morning nearly 12 hours later. Whatever it is, it's growing. I'm not scientist, but it looks moldy and bad to me. Im not sure of the smell, but it burned my nose, alchohol perhaps?

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How does the beer smell and or taste? Has the gravity changed? It doesn't look good to me but if it tastes ok than I say bottle away!!

Jay

What burned your nose is co2- that really is overpowering and burning if you take a big whiff. That's normal.

The white stuff sure looks like mold. What I would do if it was me is to rack the beer to the bottling bucket, avoiding ANY of that white mold. Avoid the trub on the bottom, too- siphon out of the middle and lower the racking cane until it's just above the bottom. I'd leave the last two inches or so, so that you don't suck up any of that mold. Then bottle as usual.

The beer smells ok, just the burning. I can only assume it will get worse. Should I just make an opening on that top layer of funk and sneak the rack through?

I would sanitize a spoon or something, to make a hole through the mold-ish stuff, and then put the racking cane through without getting any on the racking cane if you can. You don't want to bottle any of that stuff! (I'm thinking it's mold, and mold won't kill you but you don't want it in the bottles).

I'd do what I could to save the batch, though.

YooperBrew said:

I sanitize a spoon or something, to make a hole through the mold-ish stuff, and then put the racking cane through without getting any on the racking cane if you can. You don't want to bottle any of that stuff! (I'm thinking it's mold, and mold won't kill you but you don't want it in the bottles).

I'd do what I could to save the batch, though.

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Can I skim the mold out? I'm sure visibly removing it would rid me of the problem but it may make it easier to rack. Do I have any other options, such as pasteurizing and re-pitching?

I'm no expert but I wouldn't think skimming it would be a good idea- you'd basically be stirring up the mold spores and spreading it through your beer. I'd just carefully rack, and avoid it.

Alright, thanks for your help. Guess I'm going to have to have an emergency bottling session. I've moved it to higher ground so it will settle before I bottle.

Yeah, I would follow Yooper's advice and bottle what you can out of it while trying not to disturb the mold and trub as much as possible.

I would also take a grav reading in the process.

The bottling sugar I have is for 5 gallons, I'm sure there will be less, how should I adjust ?

You might have 5 ounces in that package? That would still be ok. If you really think you'll only have 4 gallons when it's all said and done, you could use an ounce less. I wouldn't worry too much about that- pale ales are nice when they are more carbed.

Cool, Thanks a lot yopper. Im sanitizing now and hopefully I'll get these suckers bottle in a few hours.

how does that happen?

Well I got it all bottled, turned out to about 4 gallons. I tried my best not to get any of the shmutz in the bottling bucket, but I'm sure a little probably got in. Oh well, what the worst that happens? It might be a bad batch, or it might still turn out great. I'm brewing a hefe this weekend anyway. I'll give it 3 weeks in the bottle and give it a taste.

I wonder if you nuked it with potassium sorbate and then added a dry yeast packet if there would be enough surviving cells to still carb it. I guess it's too late now but it would be an interesting experiment.

You know, I'm really new to brewing, so take this as you will. If I were actually convinced that that white stuff is a patch of mold, I wouldn't drink it. Some molds produce some very toxic metabolites.

I suppose it's very unlikely that that mold - if that's what it is, is toxic. But I think you should do a little risk-benefit analysis before drinking it.

Tom

Powchekny said:

You know, I'm really new to brewing, so take this as you will. If I were actually convinced that that white stuff is a patch of mold, I wouldn't drink it. Some molds produce some very toxic metabolites.

I suppose it's very unlikely that that mold - if that's what it is, is toxic. But I think you should do a little risk-benefit analysis before drinking it.

Tom

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Ya I know what you mean, I'm not going to choke down moldy beer. But I'm pretty sure nothing that harmful can grow in beer.

Has anyone every successfully siphoned below a layer of gunk and had good beer?

Oh yea, that definitely looks like mold. And the worst that could happen would be a few (or most) of the bottles would be gushers. There's no known pathogens that can survive in beer, so you have nothing to worry about when it comes to toxins.

Alright so it's been about two days in the bottle, and it appears that the eeire grey layer has formed at the top of the bottles. Should these be pitched, or are they in any danger of exploding or anything?

No, they won't explode. It does sounds like the mold is growing again, though. Are they all like that, or just a couple?

YooperBrew said:

No, they won't explode. It does sounds like the mold is growing again, though. Are they all like that, or just a couple?

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It appears to be all of them, I found it extremely difficult to rack into bottling without disturbing the layer of funk, I was able to avoid large nasties, but little guys were nearly impossible to avoid. I assume mold in the bottles is No Bueno. Should I just get rid of any beers with mold and pray for the ones without it?

I think it time write the batch off ......
I would have anyway.. of course I'm no pro.. I'm only on my 6th batch all together.

I feel like my first born is in the hospital brain dead, and I must pull the plug......

I feel for you. I had to pitch a batch not to long ago. My friend was "helping" me and does really know about sanitation and had his hands all over everything. I had myself a nice layer of some funk.

I would consider pitching any hoses you used and replacing them...then I would resort to a major bleach water "napalming" of everything else that came in contact with the infected wort...you don't want to have that crap re-infecting your beers...

You may want to consider listenning to what Chuck Talley the creator of starsan says about using a combination of bleach water and vinegar in santitization...and mix up a batch following his instructions...

http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr03-29-07.mp3

Also, break down your brewing and sanitization process step by step for us, maybe we can see what you're missing so you won't repeat this again....

This thread makes me sad.

If you want to try some experimental surgery so to speak you could carefully pour them out into a large pot, try to remove any noticeable gunk, then pasteurize it by heating it up to about 160F for a few minutes. Then cool it back down, rack back to bottling bucket, pitch some dry yeast and corn sugar, and back to bottles.

I dunno if it's worth bothering with though. Big risk of oxidation and the pasteurization may take away flavor.

I don't like the cracks in the top, definitly looks like mold. I would pitch it

BleedsDogFish said:

The bottling sugar I have is for 5 gallons, I'm sure there will be less, how should I adjust ?

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I'm no expert (only bottled once and am now kegging) but i would think you should be fine with the priming sugar you have. I think whatever volume you won't get out of the fermenter isn't going to make a huge difference when it comes to adding the priming sugar. You shouldn't get bottle bombs just from that if that's what you are concerned about. Although, i could be wrong. Maybe someone more experienced can confirm or deny my opinion.

paranode said:

If you want to try some experimental surgery so to speak you could carefully pour them out into a large pot, try to remove any noticeable gunk, then pasteurize it by heating it up to about 160F for a few minutes. Then cool it back down, rack back to bottling bucket, pitch some dry yeast and corn sugar, and back to bottles.

I dunno if it's worth bothering with though. Big risk of oxidation and the pasteurization may take away flavor.

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That thought crossed my mind, but that would only seem worth it before I bottled. I'm going to dump them tomorrow, that way it's not too nasty when I do it.