weird ?mold? growth in my beer - is it infected?

[BrewingChemist]

Alright, so I racked my brown ale from primary to secondary back in December. In the secondary was woodcubes that had been sitting in bourbon for about a month. Went down today to check on my beer and found there were some strange inhabitants floating in my beer. Took several pics: whats weird is that instead of spherical colonies it is like coming out of the beer. so what does everyone think - infection or no?

http://s1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd371/udchemist/?action=view&current=DSC00749.jpg

http://s1216.photobucket.com/albums...1/udchemist/?action=view&current=DSC00748.jpg

http://s1216.photobucket.com/albums...1/udchemist/?action=view&current=DSC00747.jpg

http://s1216.photobucket.com/albums...1/udchemist/?action=view&current=DSC00746.jpg

http://s1216.photobucket.com/albums...ion=view&current=DSC00745.jpg&t=1297307358475

 

[zepolmot]

I'm pretty new to the HBT community, and to brewing in general, but given my experience as a biology graduate student, I'm pretty confident that those little floating fuzzies are mold.

 

[lumpher]

doesn't look good with the hair on the clumps. no hair, i'd call it yeast rafts. hair? mold

 

[zepolmot]

looks like the yeast is clumping and settling off... yeast rafts

Really? I've never seen yeast grow those 'furs'. I'll defer to the brewer with more experience.

 

[trizzant]

There are hairs on it though I thought that was one of the signs

 

[lumpher]

Really? I've never seen yeast grow those 'furs'. I'll defer to the brewer with more experience.

i said that after looking at the first picture. i reconsidered (and reposted) after looking at the rest of the pictures... mold

 

[zepolmot]

Solved and solved, sorry tiff.

 

[BrewingChemist]

so what do I do now? I've never had an infected beer

 

[lumpher]

take a sample, and taste it. if it tastes bitter-sour (and it will), dump it and clean the carboy. soak it in light clorox water (about 2-3 oz clorox to a total fill with water) for an hour or so, and try again. sorry to have to break the bad news

 

[BrewingChemist]

so my fiance has a theoury. he thinks that it might be like a wood mold or something and that it is only growing like on the woodcubes that are floating at the surface...I can't actually tell if there are wood cubes under the mold colonies or not. Its weird that the mold is growing in such strange shapes - usually when you see pics of it, the mold has grown in a layer with like spherical colonies (not ones that look like a duck).

 

[zepolmot]

I think that wood mold or not, its in your beer. I think you gotta go with lumpher's strategy, take a taste and go from there. Just thinking out loud here, but I don't think its wood mold, aren't wood cubes usually roasted for some length of time before packaging? I think that would serve to sterilize.

 

[mlg5039]

It takes a while for mold to form, how long in the fermenter?

If it is fully attenuated, I would rack from underneath and bottle it. Unless it is really gross tasting.

 

[lumpher]

It takes a while for mold to form, how long in the fermenter?

If it is fully attenuated, I would rack from underneath and bottle it. Unless it is really gross tasting.

exactly the reason for taking a taste. take a taste from the bottom and the top, but don't get hopeful. if it tastes ok from the bottom but not the top, rack about half, and dump the rest

 

[Monkey55]

This one kind of looks like a dead lab mouse. (head on the left and tail on the right).. :cross:


E

 

[brewit2it]

Pretty cool looking mold though, really white and fuzzy. I'd probably rack it and bottle it. White mold on top never hurt my prego spaghetti sauce when I was in college, doubt it would hurt your your oaked porter. Odds are it is only growing on the surface.

 

[BrewingChemist]

This one kind of looks like a dead lab mouse. (head on the left and tail on the right).. :cross:


E

lol - it really does! So now we have a mouse and a duck growing in our beer - perhaps the name will come from this.

 

[BrewingChemist]

Thanks everyone for the replies - I think we have a bit of a gameplan. I think Lumpher's plan sounds like a plan of action - now I just need to get a winethief! We are hoping that its only growing on the surface and not affecting the beer itself.

Well if nothing else, guess I could have a bourbon barrel aged sour brown ale - just throw in some Brett and let it go for awhile.

 

[gtpro]

Whatever it is, I've had the exact same thing in the bottom of some bottles that I didnt clean out very well, it was feeding on the yeast, kinda creepy/alien looking mold.

 

[Stimulus]

that's so crazy looking. I would expect it to show up in the usual round big and tiny circles. The foldy-hairy look is nuts. Maybe it'll end up being a miracle cure or give you special powers.

I'd def taste it and if it doesn't taste like gym socks and ass I'd bottle it and roll with it. bottle caps are cheap, f it.

 

[BrewingChemist]

so we tasted it and it really didnt taste spectacular - kinda tasted like 2 yr old homebrew .... gonna throw some brett in there and let it go I think. thanks everyone for their imput!

 

[Naz]

We recently had a (possibly) similar situation with out chocolate/vanilla/cinnamon stout. Fermented or about 3 weeks and this is what we saw when we opened the carboy:

I think it came from some left over gunk in our plate chiller - dint do a good enough job cleaning it out, I guess. Mold? Something else? We were gonna rack it this week but i wanna better idea if the beer is still good or not before we commit about 50 bottles to it. thx!

 

[onipar]

Oh, I'd love to hear how this turned out in the end.

 

[tasq]

I don't think brett is going to help.

 

[cjcalico]

I'm also pretty new, but I say taste it first. If it tastes okay and is "done", bottle and bottle fast. No worries if you planned on secondary conditioning rather than bottle conditioning ... it will just have a slightly different flavor. But at least it will have a flavor!

 

[BrewingChemist]

realized i never posted a final update:
we never really got a nice pellicle formed from the Brett...we tried it again back in january 2012 and it was terrrible. down the drain it went. not sure if bleach is enough to kill whatever that alien fungus was!! haven't used the carboy since - kind of worried that it will just infect another batch.

 

[brewit2it]

realized i never posted a final update:
we never really got a nice pellicle formed from the Brett...we tried it again back in january 2012 and it was terrrible. down the drain it went. not sure if bleach is enough to kill whatever that alien fungus was!! haven't used the carboy since - kind of worried that it will just infect another batch.

I think it got infected by mold because of the wood chips, which is fairly common. If you cleaned it out real well then soaked it with starsan it will be fine. Just brew something that doesn't have any foreign bodies and can be in bottles or kegs in 2-3 weeks for the first batch at least

 

[rodwha]

Make a small cheap beer in it and see how it fares.