Blue Mold in Secondary

[Mishraile]

Uh ohs!

I am brewing a Barleywine that called for 4-5 months in the fermenter. I brewerd it, put it in the primary, for about 10 days, then moved it to a secondary, sealed it up with an an airlock, and stuck in the back of a closet, that was 6 weeks ago, I went back and looked at it now and there is a deep blue mold growing on the top. Its almost shale blue. Now, my OG and TG indicated that this baby was sitting around 8% alcahol so I am thought nothing could touch it, also, I sterilized everything up pretty good so I am surprised to see this.

Any ideas what it might be, or how to handle it? Possible to skim it off the top or should I risk disturbing it like that?

My idea is to carefully move it to a tertiary fermenter for the remainder of the 4 months, attempting to leave that mold behind. Thoughts?

M.

 

[dfc]

Pics?

 

[Mishraile]

Hard to see through my super expensive plastic carboy, but there are two shots of it.

 

[res291que]

Not sure!! Are you positive it is mold? Looks like the water bottle is already blue, maybe causing leftover kerrasen to look like mold?

 

[Mishraile]

Its possible I guess, though I would have thought the Krausen would have sunk by now, its been in this secondary for 6 weeks.

The bottle IS blue... but even with that, the stuff seems blue.

 

[Gear101]

Is it growing larger or going down in size?

 

[sagacity]

Are you brewing a barley wine in a water bottle?

 

[Mishraile]

Gear101, I can't tell right now, as its the first time I have seen it, it wasn't there 6 weeks ago when I put it in the secondary, but I can watch it for a couple days and see.

Sagacity, well, not brewing, I use plastic carboys (5 gallon water jugs) as secondary fermenters and Priming Tanks. They don't break as easy

 

[Yooper]

Are you brewing a barley wine in a water bottle?

It's too late now, but I think the problem is the water bottle plus the big amount of headspace. When you want to age a beer, it's important to protect it from oxygen so a good quality carboy (non-oxygen permeable) plus topping up is crucial. Unfortunately, oxygen does allow mold and other things to grow.

The only thing I can think of to do is to try racking to a new carboy from under the mold (a smaller carboy so there is no headspace) and see what happens. If it grows back, you could try campden tablets (sulfite) to see if it can halt the infection.

 

[res291que]

Sagacity, well, not brewing, I use plastic carboys (5 gallon water jugs) as secondary fermenters and Priming Tanks. They don't break as easy

and probably cheaper than better bottles 😄

 

[Homercidal]

+1 to what Yooper said. If you must use plastic fermenters, I'd hit the primary for a while until the gravity settles down, then rack to another fermenter to clear up a bit. Maybe cold crash to help it out.

Then bottle it.

Extended times in a plastic fermenter will allow a far greater amount of oxygen into the beer, according to the manufacturers information on Oxygen permeability. ON top of that there is fairly large amount of headspace that will definitely create O2 problems in a secondary if there isn't CO2 on top of the beer.

As far as the "mold" goes, it looks fairly normal to me in those pictures. What you can do is taste the beer and see if it tastes good. If the stuff on top is growing and spreading out stringers, it is most likely an infection. If not, it could just be some stuff from the fermentation that hasn't settled down yet. You are likely safe to rack from under it if it tastes good.

 

[Mishraile]

Ok, update:

I waited 3 days and the "mold" didn't appear to grow at all. I then moved the carboy to a surface to begin to transfer it to a new carboy. I moved it only a couple feet, and as gently as I could manage, but in the process the blue stuff got disturbed and a large portion of it sank back into the beer. I have left it for a couple days since then hoping it will float back up, but it hasn't seemed to yet. I am thinking it is mold less and less. It seemed too easily disturbed for mold, not that I am a moldologist or anything. But Mold typically doesn't move as quickly and easily as this seemed to. I am now thinking it IS possible it is residue of some sort, perhaps sanitizer or something?

Unless people say nay, I think I will give it a couple more days to see if the stuff rises again and try transferring it after that.

 

[kanddr]

Have you recently tasted or smelled it? That may explain a lot right there.

 

[Mishraile]

I haven't... I am scared. But I will when I try to move it to tertiary.

 

[res291que]

I think you will be fine!!!