ALMOST infected

Mold try to get in my beer, but I think I stopped it. I woke up this morning and went in the kitchen to change the ice packs on my stout and something smelled wrong, so I looked in the water bath and sure enough, there was a spot of mold in it. I took the carboy out and cleaned it off and noticed there was also mold on the rim of the carboy cap I had on there. I took it off and it had started creeping inside the cap, but it hadn't gotten close to breaking the seal at the top, so I think my beer is still ok.

I had bleach in the water, but apparently not enough. I need to rethink my closed can strategy for keeping temperature regulated.

water bath to keep the fermenter cold? you might toss a tiny aquarium pump in there to circulate the water.

The pump could be a good idea for keeping mold away, and help decrease the temps with added circulation, but if the water's capable of growing things like mold, other things can too, like algae (I've done water-cooling stuff). I'd add some starsan to the water, which should stay sanitary for a month, or so they say.

RadicalEd said:

The pump could be a good idea for keeping mold away, and help decrease the temps with added circulation, but if the water's capable of growing things like mold, other things can too, like algae (I've done water-cooling stuff). I'd add some starsan to the water, which should stay sanitary for a month, or so they say.

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Yeah. I'm going the route of sanitizing the water so it stays germ free.

And the water bath and some ice packs do help keep the fermenter at the temperature it needs to be. It works very well.

Hey this made me think of my recent "Crepusculo del Verano (Summer Twilight)" which is a Sour wheat with sour cherry. Finally it finished out after like 3 months in secondary and I went to bottle. Man at one point it had pushed liquid out of the airlock cause it was soooo full, and the beer sat there. So that unfermented beer was good food for mold. There was a thick ring of grey mold in the bung. I shrugged it off. The beer is awesome.

from my aquarium days, a solution of 1 part bleach to 20 parts water gives you a solution that'll kill off algae. that was for a dipping solution...so you probably only need 1:15 ratio to have water that'll retard algae growth to the extent it just won't take root.

i'd think that'd be enough to stop molds too.