first infection

This is my first infection.
The posts that I have searched through lead me to believe that the fruit floating above the alcohol in the secondary made it susceptible to mold.
It had a vinegar-like smell when opened. I bottled 12, and kegged the rest, being careful not to disturb the mold, or siphon it (I left a bit more in the bucket than usual). The beer after racking tastes and smelled just fine.
FG 1.005. I used lees from Allagash white, built into a good sized starter.

Some questions:
Does my diagnosis sound accurate?
How likely am I to have more infections with the same equipment, even after thoroughly cleaning?
RDWHAHB, I know, but just to soothe my nerves a little more, confirm my suspicion that my beer will be just fine!

 

The problem is that you need a good blanket of CO2 to cover the fruit as this will prevent the mold. Also it seems you have way too much head space as well.

 

Depends on your risk tolerance. You can try to sanitize it and hope it works or you can toss it all. If it is new plastic that isn't scratched up yet, you probably will get away with sanitizing though.

 

Actually, based on that picture it doesn't really look like mold. If it smells vinegary and starts to taste vinegar, you probably picked up acetobacter. Did you notice any fruit flies around?

-chuck

 

Yeah the co2 blanket really isn't as strong, if present at all, during that secondary fermentation. Not really a lot of fermenting happens. The headspace looks bad because I had started the siphon already.

 

No, no flies. No taste of vinegar, either. To be more specific, it smelled of red wine gone sour. The mulberries are really dark, so the molding and/or just fermentation of those could have been the reason it smelled as such. Or acetobacter... not sure.
I put a gallon aside for a day, to bottle when I had more time the next day. Vinegar smell was gone (this was racked to a seperate vessel).
You think the bottles will explode?