Persistent Mold

Back in October I had a beer that got some mold on the surface, I read around and long story short bottled it and it tasted fine. However, every beer since then (now 4 maybe 5?) picks up a white surface mold. Has yet to lead to off flavors, or bottle bombs or any really negative effects but obviously I would like to not have mold.

I have dumped all old "soft" equipment and drank all the past batches. I thought I beat it with my last batch (put in a brand new glass carboy) but 3 weeks to do the day of pitching it is fully covered in white mold. Anything I didn't throw away has been star san'd to death and also soaked in a chlorine solution.

The best solution I can come up with now is to not keep any fermenting beer in that closet. Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Generally its tubes, valves, raking canes that infect and reinfect beer.

Bottling bucket valves are very hard to clean.

If you transfer beer in a very dusty area, that can be the source.

are you coating everything with star-san?
dip tubes, bottles, caps and anything else that will come in contact during the bottling if that is where the mold is being experienced. In fact, from the moment you begin chilling wort, star-san should be at your side.

Are you using airlocks or blow-off tubes? Most molds are aerobic, and if you keep out the oxygen the molds will go away.

I have replaced all my tubes and racking/siphoning equipment. I also star san things to death on a normal basis and have been extra aggressive since this problem started.

As far as airlocks/blowoffs go I mostly have been using the one piece bubbler airlock on a normal 6 gal bucket. The current moldy beer (3 weeks old) I have is in a carboy with a cap and a bubbler airlock.

I just brewed yesterday and did a blow off into a fresh batch of star san in a small bottle, would it be smarter to just keep it that way even after high krausen has come and gone?

dibiase said:

I just brewed yesterday and did a blow off into a fresh batch of star san in a small bottle, would it be smarter to just keep it that way even after high krausen has come and gone?

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Yes. Everytime you move the beer you risk the chance of an infection. The fewer times you move it the fewer opportunities exist for infection.

Have you replaced your buckets? Or at least your lids? There could be some crud under the lid gasket.

What everyone said, then grab a dehumidifyer and run it for a day or two near your unused equipment and where you store your stuff. It might help to let your equipment back in the sun for a day, but depending on where you live, that might be hard right now

dibiase said:

As far as airlocks/blowoffs go I mostly have been using the one piece bubbler airlock on a normal 6 gal bucket. The current moldy beer (3 weeks old) I have is in a carboy with a cap and a bubbler airlock.

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Do you have a leak in your buket's seal? I would never be able to run a 1-peice airlock on a primary fermenter, it would explode even in a 6-gal bucket. I would pay special attention to your seals, I usually take the seal out of the lid every time I sanitize the bucket to make sure there is no crap wedged in there.

I had one cracked lid but replaced it. Took the other one apart and cleaned every bit with a bottle brush. I think at this point all my equipment should either be new or very very clean.

Bottling up my most recent beer with mold today, and sanitizing the carboy it's in as soon as its empty and clean. This will mean no more moldy beer in the house so I will leave the closet empty/door open for a few days and let everything air out. Hope that that finally ends this nonsense.

dibiase said:

.... so I will leave the closet empty/door open for a few days and let everything air out.

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Maybe spray down the closet with Lysol?

Are you sure that it is mold? The reason I ask is because sometimes yeast can look pretty funky as it ferments the wort. I do not know your brewing experience as you just joined the forum and don't have many posts. Maybe you should post a picture of your brew with the mold on it to see it everyone here thinks that mold is growing on your beer. My feelings are that mold is not a common thing to grow on beer in a fermentor.

Had mold once in the hundreds of gallons I've brewed. It was in a carboy and it was obvious.