is it ruined?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

thekbomber

New Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2007
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
i was ready to bottle my first batch of beer and i noticed some mold floating on top. i found a couple of things that said to just dump the whole thing, but its my first batch and im not about to quit on it unless i have to. i used a turkey baster and tasted some from farther down and it tasted ok (i dont really know what it's supposed to taste like). would it be very obvious if it was bad? i was also wondering if im going to die from drinking moldy beer.
 
Well, if tastes ok to you and you want to save it, go ahead and siphon from under the "mold" into your bottling bucket. Maybe it's not really mold- sometimes there are "things" in the beer like yeast clumps or bubbles that don't look very nice.

Even if it's mold, it won't kill you. Beer that's infected might taste bad, but not kill you.
 
Firstly, you aren't going to die!!:ban:

Are you sure it's mold on top and not yeast?

It's good practice not to throw any beer away until you're absolutely sure is infected AND it's a few months old. I'm drinking one right now that I was about to dump because last time I tasted it (a month ago) it was tasteless and thin. It's now extremely tasty with a good firm head.

I think you'd know if it was infected. Most beginners would probably be suprised at how bad young beer can taste. Especially when they later taste the same brew a few weeks later.

My advice would be to bottle it and get on with brewing the next batch.

/Phil.
 
If it's mold, you can just skim it off and it'll be OK. Just like with cheese, a little mold only damages the area it occupies, but not the whole batch.
 
Back
Top