Cause for concern with contamination or not?

[Contradiction]

Hi Everyone,

So I started a 5 gallon batch of Hard Apple Cider this Sunday evening and I began with unpasturized pressed apple cider from a cider mill and I heated it up to 170 degrees for 20 min to pasturize it myself. Before I pitched my yeast I added 1 1/2 tsp of Pectic Enzyme for clarity.

When I added it I noticed that some did cling to the neck of my Better Bottle carboy but I didn't think much of it because I shook the carboy thoroughly to mix it and aerate before pitching my yeast.

Well I noticed today that there are white spots on the neck of the bottle. I'm assuming this is simply left over Pectic Enzyme (it is a white powder) vs any kind of actual mold, but it still has me a bit concerned. I'm roughly 2.5 days into fermentation now. See pic below.

So what I'm wondering is two things:

1) Would I risk contamination by opening the carboy up and wiping this off with some paper towel? Is it potentially worse to expose it to outside air then it is to risk contamination from the Pectic Enzyme?

1) Since it's safe to say that I have identified the source should I just let it be? Is there a chance that the Pectic Enzyme could grow some mold? Would it really be harmless anyway?

As a relatively new brewer any advice is greatly appreciated! I'm not sure if I'm over thinking this and worrying about it more then I should or not.

 

[stru]

I wouldn't worry about it. I had the same thing happen to a pear/apple wine last year. I left it alone and it turned out great!

 

[brewbush]

I am the same way, if I see something in the neck like tannin powder, fruit bits or whatever, I tend to wipe them off.

Leaving it will not cause any issues, all is clean anyway. But I take a papertowel and dunk it in starsan and wring it out and use that to wipe out the neck as far as I can reach.

 

[Fermented_minds]

You can definitely feel free to dunk a paper towel and StarSan and wipe it off the neck, but I really don't think that's necessary. I would just leave it if I were you. The chances of that having any negative impact on your batch is very low.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Contradiction]

Thanks guys! I appreciate the voice of reason here. I get so paranoid about stuff like this. LOL