reheating fermented wort to kill possible infection?

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tandpbrewing

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I have a pumpkin brew in secondary right now. Its developed a white skin on top of the beer, looks like an infection. In fact looks identical to the last batch that I bottled, that one had sat in secondary for 3 months, so I felt like it was probably caused by that. I think the carboy I'm using may have been the same one as that batch (sanitized with starsan of course)
This was my first experience with dry yeast (and maybe last). It does not have the hairy mold look, but I'm guessing it is some sort of infection. I have not tasted it since this developed.
I was thinking I will try racking to another carboy and leaving that behind (which I don't think works because as long as a tiny bit gets in there it will grow again). And if that doesn't work I was thinking I would throw this back into the brew pot and heat it up.
I know alcohol boils off at 172.9* and most infections including mold should be killed off by temperatures above 140* or so I was thinking maybe reheat the beer to about 150*

Am I correct in thinking that this will kill the infection and I shouldn't lose the alcohol??
Of course this will also kill my yeast that I need for carbonating.
Are there any other options to carbonate other than reintroducing yeast (or of course kegging, which I'm not quite able to do yet)?
If not, how much yeast do I reintroduce, or does that not matter as long as I add the right amount of priming sugar?

Let me know what you think.
 
Sounds like a normal secondary to me.

It’s highly unlikely that any infection would have taken hold so quickly as to cause a “mold” to form.

It’s VERY likely that you still have fermentables and yeast having a mini-orgy in the secondary and that you are seeing continued fermentation. I get white foam, bubbles, rings, froth on my secondaries all the time.

Don’t over react. Give it time and give it a taste.
 
BierMuncher said:
Sounds like a normal secondary to me.

It’s highly unlikely that any infection would have taken hold so quickly as to cause a “mold” to form.

It’s VERY likely that you still have fermentables and yeast having a mini-orgy in the secondary and that you are seeing continued fermentation. I get white foam, bubbles, rings, froth on my secondaries all the time.

Don’t over react. Give it time and give it a taste.

Alright, I am a semi-novice, this was probably my 15th batch or so, and until the last batch i've never had any issues 'til that last batch. It has been fermenting for 20 days or so, and I haven't seen any airlock activity in awhile.
 
Don't be scared to taste it as even if infected it won't hurt you. But ya chances are its a saccharomyces yeast infection feeding on your precious sugars converting them into alcohol :D
 
also, if you heat up the wort, to a level that will kill the bacteria, your also killing the yeast and at the same time boiling off the alcohol.
 
Ive had this "skin" form on several batches. It has always clung to the walls of the carboy/bucket while racking before bottling, with no effect on clarity or taste in the bottle. Not sure what it is or how or why it forms, but no ill effects so far
 
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