What to do?

[Delaweez]

Should I continue with bottling? What infection is this? This is the 2nd infection out of this conical and the first has no off flavor nor signs of over carbonation after 6 weeks in bottle. The beer is an altbier dunkel. It finished in primary at 1.014 and has dropped to 1.013 in secondary over 3 weeks. I've payed very little attention to it while in secondary I peeked in today to find this. I'm thinking a lacto or pediococcus and maybe it's super slow moving. Lack of oxygen seemed to stunt its growth by quite a bit. Just wondering if I should let it ride out, bottle carb and pasteurize, or bottle it and let it ride with frequent testing for bombs.

 

[rippajak]

To me, that looks more like mold than anything else. Granted, I am far from an expert on beer infections

Personally, I wouldn't give up on the beer. If you have the equipment to keg, I would go that route. Stainless steel kegs won't blow up like bottles might. Otherwise just bottle as normal and watch the beers you open for signs of infection or overcarbonation.

You should definitely give a thorough wash and sanitize to all the equipment involved. Did you rack that first batch into a secondary? I would look more at your secondary vessel and racking equipment as a source of contamination than the stainless steel conical.

 

[Delaweez]

Yes the first batch was in the same conical but only for one week. The pellicle formed in the bottle on the first batch. This batch, however, has been in secondary for three weeks. I think I'll proceed with bottling.

 

[bobeer]

beer is always worth riding out. Just rack from under the infection and try to leave the top inch or so behind.

I'd get all new racking equipment, tubing, etc... and give everything a good cleaning. I hope it clears up man, good luck!

 

[ImNoExpert]

Looks like mold. I'd be hesitant to continue. And I'm one who advocates drinking one's failures as an exercise of atonement.

 

[Delaweez]

I should have known it was mold. There was quite a bit of condensation on the fermentor walls and a slight smell of bananas. I'm just wondering how it got in. Is it possible I have a bad seal and air was able to get in? I'll rack from underneath it and monitor it for another week. If it reappears I'll just have to dump it.

 

[Delaweez]

After further research it appears that warm humid air in my house because of power loss for 48 hours and the fact that I had way too much headspace may have contributed to the growth of the mold. In the future, and after a very thorough cleaning, I'll use my conical as a bottling bucket only. Not gonna let anything sit for longer than 24 hours to settle out.

 

[ImNoExpert]

What do you use in your airlock? If you use something that doesn't kill mold spores, if some of that airlock liquid got sucked back into the beer (due to movement, pressure, or temperature change), it could have been contaminated that way.

 

[Delaweez]

Normally I use vodka or water with starsan. This time it was the latter but the ratio may have been low because I was almost out. The hurricane would certainly caused enough pressure change to reverse the flow. Thanks for the insight.