White stuff on the surface of my beer?

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STStunner

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I went to check on my beer today. I was planning on bottling it on Friday, as it's already been fermenting for over four weeks now. I planned to have it ready in time for Halloween, but I noticed that the surface area has quite a few white spots, which I fear is white mold. I saw a small little white spot or two last week, but I thought it was just yeast. Since it's began to spread, I'm really starting to doubt that hypothesis. The carboy had some blackberry wine in it back during the summer that looked similar, except that smelled horribly in the sense that you could easily tell that it was spoiled. This beer however smells just like a normal batch of beer would. I sanitized the carboy really well with One Step Cleanser after I dumped the blackberry wine out, so I don't really understand how this could have happened? This is my first 5-gallon batch, a Fat Tire Amber Ale clone, moving up from brewing three batches of Mr. Beer in the past. Is there any way that this beer can be salvaged? I would hate to lose the $50 that I spent on these ingredients. Maybe if I tried transferring it back to the other bucket and try not to siphon any of the white residue? Sour beer is one thing, but I've read conflicting information online about whether or not drinking it can make you sick or not? I never should have transferred the beer to secondary and maybe this wouldn't have happened. I know that secondary is generally not necessary for low alcohol beers.
 
First off, a sour beer isn't going to hurt you. Secondly, no, you don't need to transfer to secondary. It's generally not necessary for most beers. Post a picture. White chunks are usually yeast rafts. Whether they're growing or not is all speculation at this point.

You probably shouldn't have used the same carboy as the wine. One step cleaner isn't really the best thing you can use. Star-san is much better. If you get an infected smelling/tasting anything in your carboy then clean it very well before you even sanitize it.
 
For future brews, use a true sanitizer like Starsan or Iodophor. One step is more of a cleanser than a true sanitizer.

As people have said, pictures would help clear this up better. Take a close look at the white spots you are talking about and make sure they aren't co2 bubbles clinging to yeast. I've had those freak me out a few times as they got pretty big, but on close inspection, they were just tiny bubbles that had clung together in a patch.
 
It's very dark in that closet, so most of the photos didn't turn out too well. This is the best looking one of the lot, so if it's still not good enough, let me know and I can try to take a better one.

IMG_0084.jpg
 
By the way, I did clean the carboy really well in the sink prior to using the One Step Cleanser, but I guess neither method was effective if these white spots really are mold.
 
It's very hard to tell from that picture. But by no means should you dump that. I'd guess yeast rafts at this point, which will eventually settle out, but it's possible that you've acquired an infection. The long and short of it is that you needn't panic. If the batch doesn't turn out then there will be many batches to come in the future that will be great. Out of 60+ batches that I've brewed I've only gotten 2 infections - so they're harder to get than some would suspect. Ride it out and see what happens, as there's a very good chance that it's just yeast.

Edit: just saw the part where you're worried it might make you sick - No, it won't. Unless you directly put poison into the beer then there's no wild bacteria's that will get in there that can make you ill or kill you - at worst it'll make you grimace when you drink it.
 
Looks like yeast, could be something else. A photo is nice, a clearer photo is even better.
I didn't think one step was a true sanitizer.
 
You never know, this may turn out to be an incredible beer.I would ride it out also and see how it turns out. Good luck!
 
By the way, I did clean the carboy really well in the sink prior to using the One Step Cleanser, but I guess neither method was effective if these white spots really are mold.

You need to CLEAN with the one step and then SANITIZE with the star-san. In that order.

Just rinsing with water isn't enough. I would also advise DO NOT use dish soap on any brewing gear... !!!!

On the good side, that is a glass carboy and can easily be sanitized as it will not harbor bad stuff. A good long soak in one step, then air dry, then star san should do the trick. I usually rinse with water IMMEDIATELY after transferring and then clean and sanitize just prior to use again. rinsing will get all the stuff out while its wet and real loose, once it dries up and becomes stuck on, it requires a good scrub with a bottle/carboy brush. to get it off.

i would take the advise of those above and check gravity, and bottle it up as soon as possible. could be nothing wrong with it.

Really hope this helps..
 
I think this picture turned out much clearer than any of the other ones did. The carboy is plastic, not glass.

IMG_0097.jpg
 
To me, it looks like you are about 50/50 on weather or not it's an infection. Some of those bubbles do look suspect. That being said, it doesn't look that far off from some funky looking fermentations I've had. I have had 2 beers that I swore were infected upon initial look. The more I inspected it though, it was just an oily layer on the top, I'm assuming from lots of hops and a lot of yeast rafts that never settled out.

What you have could be the start of an infection, but right now, if it's been that way for a few days, I'd say you are on the oily, yeast raft road. So far, what I see there doesn't look like a full fledged infection, especially if you look at what's in the "infection" thread. With the picture not being that clear though, unfortunately it's hard to give a definitive answer. That's a good thing too though, because from my experience, if it were a full fledged infection, none of us would be debating it, we'd just be saying, "Yup, infected."

My personal opinion is that you are OK.

As said by others and myself above though. For future brewing, clean with the one step, then sanitize with Starsan and do not rinse after that. Starsan is a no rinse sanitizer. You want to drain out as much as possible of it from your vessel, but the foam left behind and a little residual liquid won't hurt at all.
 
Hard to tell, get a better pic or two of the big clumps. Don't see a definite pellicle at this point. Most likely just yeast and bubbles. You're probably fine.
 
After getting the beer out of the carboy and scrubbing it down really well with hot water, will Star San be able to kill this white mold off for good if I go out and buy some? Because I really don't wanna risk another $50 batch being ruined by an infection. Lesson learned, be careful about introducing wild fruit into a fermenter because it may be impossible to successfully eliminate all of the bacteria from them. The mold from those blackberries not only infected my wine, but now my beer is impacted too, and One Step Cleanser and a soak in the sink were not enough to prevent it.
 
After getting the beer out of the carboy and scrubbing it down really well with hot water, will Star San be able to kill this white mold off for good if I go out and buy some? Because I really don't wanna risk another $50 batch being ruined by an infection. Lesson learned, be careful about introducing wild fruit into a fermenter because it may be impossible to successfully eliminate all of the bacteria from them. The mold from those blackberries not only infected my wine, but now my beer is impacted too, and One Step Cleanser and a soak in the sink were not enough to prevent it.

You definitely need a sanitizer, so either star-san or Iodophor would be a good buy.

The reason for the infection is probably much simpler- a boatload of headspace in the secondary.
 
That's another valuable lesson learned from this unfortunate experience, no more secondary for beer.
 
That's another valuable lesson learned from this unfortunate experience, no more secondary for beer.

Secondaries aren't the devil. They're not necessary for most beers, but they're not the devil.

It seems like at this point that you don't have an infection, but especially not white mold. So please for the love of beer, stop calling it that! ;) If those bubbles/film looking stuff grew over the next few days to cover the entire surface, then yeah, you have an infection of some sort, could by wild yeast, could be bacteria, but still unlikely that it's white mold. Again, go look at this thread to ease your mind about what infections really look like:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=71400&page=71

Going back to the secondary usage though, the biggest thing that can go wrong with a secondary is too much headspace (which is what you have going on). The second is that you're exposing the beer to more oxygen, so you need to rack from the bottom up.

If I rack to secondary, I will honestly usually do a true secondary fermentation and add some more fermentables. Attached is a picture of my pumpkin ale that I racked to a secondary. It sat there for two weeks, with a ton of headspace, but I never got an infection, and the airlock maintained the pressure from the fermentor the entire time.

IMG_0049.jpg
 
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