Orange Peel question

[Praesil]

About 8 days ago, I threw together this recipe for orange vanilla cinnamon methlegin.

I checked on it this morning and there's a whitish spot on the orange peel. I'm hoping that this is yeast, and not mold. I'll be racking it tonight as the fermentation has slowed a bit, but I just wondered if anyone had this happen and might know offhand.

 

[MedsenFey]

It probably isn't mold. Mold requires air and if you have it fermenting under airlock, it won't have any. I'd suggest swirling in around some to dunk it into the acidic alcohol solution.

By the way, boiling honey must is a good way to get rid of a lot the good volatile aromatic compounds that make a honey special. Also, boiling energizer breaks down many of the vitamins like thiamine, and may destroy amino acids that would provide good nitrogen. It is better to add energizer after the boiling if you feel you simply have to boil your honey.

 

[Praesil]

Even though I added the nutrients during the boil, the fermentation was very active, and even after 8 days, is still producing a healthy stream of bubbles. I didn't think it was mold since the alcohol should have killed it, so I was assuming that it was yeast sedimenting out and depositing on the orange peel, but this is my first time so I wasn't sure.

I was worried about the boiling too. I had 6 lbs of honey, so i did a second batch of a raspberry mead - only heated the honey to 160 F this time, and using DAP and fermaid-K for nutrients instead of the pre-mixed bottle. I might have used slightly too many raspberries though, as that's all I can smell.

Live and learn! Mead making is pretty easy, so here's hoping they both turn out ok.