a film and white stuff on top of secondary :(

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Mike-H

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ok, well i've done quite a few beers and I have yet another first. I have a milky looking film on the top of my secondary. Also, on the rim of the liquid is actually white, milky looking stuff, it kinda looks like little sheets of paper cut up into confetti. I also just happen to have a glass of homebrew that has been "sitting" for 3-4 days and it appears to have the same crap on it. I am pretty sure this is an infection.

What I have done is racked the brew to a 3rd container to try and rid of the infection, I only did this out of desperation. While transfering I tasted the beer, it still tastes fine. I'm waiting to see if the infection pop's up again while in the new secondary. Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated!

Also, here are a couple things I did that may help pinpoint the problem... 1, the secondary was originally used as a primary for a batch of wine (which had wild yeast already fermenting it when I purchased the juice). 2, it was my 3rd round with White Labs Cali Ale yeast (I.E. its 3rd use).

If I did ruin a beer i'll take this as a great learning experience. I look forward to your insight.

Ok, I also took a picture of the glass of beer, since my carboy has already been emptied. They look pretty much the same.

mold.jpg



Mike-H
 
How did you clean and sanitise the fermenter in between the wine and beer? I take it's a glass carboy?


In my opinion it looks like your whole area is infected. You can never make beer again. You need to ship all your kit to me for inspection and testing along with all your stashed beer.
 
Actually, its my only plastic carboy, a better bottle. I just used iodaphor like normal to sanitize the carboy.
 
I just posted on the same topic. "Moldly beer" https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=18350

I am religious about sanitization so i think it must be contaminated yeast, but who knows. My white labs ale yeast is a few batches (and months) old so i think it was imprudent of me to use it. Two batches wasted.

I believe the suggested solution is to heat the beer to 150 degrees to kill the nasties. Is terrible for the beer, but unless you want to drink mold (which isnt bad for you, but is kinda gross).

Anyone more knowledgable have any comments?
 
Yeast will make a white blotchy skizey sometimes. How does it taste? Moldy or OK? If OK, then OK. Moldy taste? dump it, you won't be able to get rid of the taste.
 
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