Moldy Top?

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Georgian Novice

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Here is a question for you all that I think I already know the answer too. . .but we will see.

I have a friend who made the Octane IPA kit from Midwest about 5 weeks ago, standard 5 gallons. Brew went well, put it in primary. He forgot to put the middle piece in the 3-piece airlock overnight and caught it the next morning. Vigorous fermentation.

Transfered it to glass carboy for secondary after 1 week. Dry hopped it and also put wood chips in that came with kit. He boiled the chips for 15 minutes but did not do anything with the hops. No bag, just threw it in there.

1 week goes by. He notices quite a bit of bubbling at the surface. It is primarily green (which we assume is the hops) and some white patches. Frankly, it looks like mold a bit. He checks the airlock and upon fooling with it a bit he forces it too much, breaks it, and the sanitized liquid goes into the beer. He puts a new airlock on it. etc.

2 weeks go by. I came over to see it and we did a hydrometer reading and a taste test. Tasted fine, a little "burnt" taste a bit, but probably from the wood chips, hydro meter reading was right at it's supposed FG, 1.018. He left it for another week.

He transferred it to a tertiary last week and after 5 weeks it looks like the picture shown. Still a moldy type of layer, green and white, looks like penicillan, and we have about 3 gallons left after all the trub and sediment has been racked off. It is still bubbling about 1 per 10 seconds or so after 5 weeks.

Whatchall Think? Mold? Bad bacteria? Great brew? :)

IMG_1281.jpg
 
I vote for great brew.

You have a lot of "extras" in those fermenters with the extra hops and wood chips. I'd guess that at a G of 1.018, you still have some room to drop and there is still pretty active fermentation.

Is there white sediment being built up on the bottom of the fermenter? Another sign that your yeast is active digesting sugars.

I'd get in the habit of getting a reading every other day to make sure your gravity is dropping.
 
Suggestion on the sanitizing liquid in the airlock: I always use cheap Vodka. The alcohol content is high enough that nothing will grow in it but if any gets spilled or sucked back into the beer all it does is boost the ABV a tiny bit:drunk: no off flavors or chemicals to worry about.
 
So this brew has been actively fermenting for 5 weeks straight? What temperature are you at? What does the hydrometer say the FG is now? I think you said it was 1.018 when you racked from the secondary 2 weeks ago and it is still fermenting away -- that doesn't sound good....
 
I have brewed an IPA from Midwest Supplies, and my brew definitely stopped bubbling after about one week in the primary fermenter. There was a very slight greenish tint to the krausen, but nothing much. I put it in the secondary with the hops that Midwest gave me for dry-hopping, and I did not notice much more fermentation activity after that point. Considering that your beer is STILL fermenting after 5 weeks, and judging from that picture, it appears that you have a contaminated batch. You've got mold, and probably a gusher bug, which is consuming ALL of the sugars (both complex and simple) in your beer. If it tastes ok, I guess drink it, but I would scrap the brew at this point and try again, making sanitation a priority.
 
I would suspect that it's infected too. If the top floaties looks furry, or it smells like vinegar/sour/awful/not beer, then it's infection.
 
eviltwinofjoni said:
I would suspect that it's infected too. If the top floaties looks furry, or it smells like vinegar/sour/awful/not beer, then it's infection.

Yep, definitely one of those things where you throw up your hands and say, hmmm, not sure. We went ahead and bottled it and will try it in a week or so. If it tastes bad, time for tossing. I will update at that time. :)
 
I've been brewing for 8 years, and I guess I should feel lucky, this is my first mishap....I pulled the secondary out of the closet last night and noticed immediately that something was wrong. The top was white and unsavory looking. I got out my tattered "The complete joy of homebrewing" and determined it's mold. I know from that that it "won't kill you" but it didn't really give much in the way of what to do about it this time. Lots of how to prevent it, which is good....
I was planning on bottling tonight. Should I try to remove it before preparing to bottle? I haven't removed the airlock yet. So I don't know how it smells, tastes, etc. I called the friendly folks at my local homebrew supply, he said to just plunge ahead, transfer as I normally would and try not to disturb the mold top too much. And taste it to see how it tasted after I transfered it over. Any thoughts on anything else I can try? Or something I should do?:(
 
to the issue of an IPA still fermenting actively after 5 weeks it does seem odd. my first beer was an IPA only took a week to ferment. turned out great to.
 
texas red said:
...I was planning on bottling tonight. Should I try to remove it before preparing to bottle? I haven't removed the airlock yet. So I don't know how it smells, tastes, etc....(

If you're sure it's mold (I have my doubts), rack the beer to your bottling bucket and sacrifice a pint or two by avoiding the surface material.

Could be that you just have a long fermenting beer and the krausen continues to sit in a sudsy like state.
 
BierMuncher said:
If you're sure it's mold (I have my doubts), rack the beer to your bottling bucket and sacrifice a pint or two by avoiding the surface material.

Could be that you just have a long fermenting beer and the krausen continues to sit in a sudsy like state.


I took your advice and left about two pints. Tasted ok....a little astringent. It's a red ale. First time to try or brew one of these, so I'm not sure exactly what the taste is supposed to be like. It was really white and lumpy looking on the top.....did not look good. I'm relaxed, not worried. I didn't have a home brew to enjoy during the process, so I opted for a craft brew from Blanco. How would I know if it was mold?
 
I"m no longer relaxed and I am starting to worry.....I checked my bottles this evening. When I tilt them, there is a film or a scum that coats them and a fair amount of white floaties on the top....why is this?? Is it too soon to panic?? I'm used to sediment, sure, but nothing on the top like this. Help me Obi-Beer-Won, you're my only hope!:( What do I do??
 
Taste one. Did you use sugar or Extract to prime? How long in the bottle? What yeast was used?

Are they all like that?

If you taste one and it tases sour or like vinegar then you know what that means.. but if not then....RDWHAHB.
 
Well, open one over the sink. (It might gush on you). Smell it. If it's smell fair to good, taste. If it's good, no worries. If it's bad, well, it's bad. Only way to know for sure!
 
Ok. I'll leave it for a few weeks and check it then. Maybe it will look better (?) The yeast was a dry Windsor. Thanks very, very much....I'll let you know in a few weeks what happened.
 
Sad news....opened one tonight. It didn't gush, but it did smell really bad. I'm afraid it's a goner....what a bummer. Sigh. Oh well, no use cryin' over spilt beer.... :(
The question now is; what do you think about reusing the bottles? Do they need to be recycled and start over? What kind of cleaning\sanitation chemical(s) should I use next time? For the last 8 years I have used nothing but b-brite, but the home brew guys at the shop are saying I should use something called "one-step". That b-brite is just for cleaning but does nothing for sanitizing. Charlie's book says use a bleach\water solution for everything, but I think that might take a lot of water to rinse and even then, might not rinse thoroughly enough. What do ya'll think?
 
It smelled foul maybe a little sulphurous. Almost as bad as a school bus on a hot day. There was no way I was willing to taste it, and that's saying a lot, because the smell was so bad. The slightest flexing of the bottle cap, and a wisp of air camp out, after just being bottle since Monday. One did try to gush. It's too late though, every last one has been emptied....The plan is start over Sunday.
 
I read a lot here on HBT that you should just give it time, but not really specific ideas. I too have my first long-term moldy batch, the other batches have had white mold appear but this is a bit of a longer problem.

I made an IPA one month ago in an open fermentor, transferred it to a carboy after a week and its been sitting in there ever since. BC I was out of town :fro: I didnt have time to clean my primary buckets, but simply stacked them in the same closet as the carboys without cleaning the hops/junk at the bottom of the fermentor....I could smell it reeking for the last two weeks, but I forgot that my IPA carboy had a wrong sized bung over it. I had stretched a plastic bag (formerly whole hop bag) over the top and made a small hole in the centre, then simply sat the too big bung complete w/airlock over that.

Anyways the mold is holding steady at about a 1-2 inch wide ring where the top of the wort sits and I would like to bottle. Can someone suggest if I should go out and buy a proper bung and let it sit 2 months, should I bottle it tomorrow and just try to avoid the mold part (and let it sit in bottles for 2 months)? I've heard both advice, or even to reboil your wort and start from scratch again....can't figure which is the best course of action.

It smells normal but I haven't tasted it bc I figured it had enough exposure to air and bacteria at this point.
 
I have a double imperial blonde ale thats been fermenting for 4 weeks now still has a g 1.016 and looks and smells really good
 
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