Corks have gotten moldy

[Jamesjoelee]

So I just bottled 2 batches of mead and already there seems to be mold growing on the corks. Is this something I should be wary of? None of my previous batches have had this happen.

 

[DungMonster]

Outside or inside the bottle? Color of mold and such helps. Otherwise you get best guesses which may not be accurate.

 

[gunit00]

Soak them in bleach then dry.

 

[Jamesjoelee]

Well it started out as a fuzzy grayish color that was on the outside of the corks.i haven't checked in it since but I'll look at it again to see if has progressed

 

[Stillraining]

Well it started out as a fuzzy grayish color that was on the outside of the corks.i haven't checked in it since but I'll look at it again to see if has progressed

Did you star-San the corks or sanitize them some other way before corking?

Is there any mold forming on them inside the bottle?

 

[DungMonster]

If it is 'ONLY' on the outside then you can always recork with sanitary corks. It should not hurt it but when recorking you need to have some co2 ready to fill in bottle right before recorking, flushing out all the oxygen. If you choose not to recork then you can just keep an eye on it and make sure it does not eat through the cork to the bottom, though that would take a really long time if it was even able to. Plus you should rinse the corks with some sanitizer, NOT BLEACH wich degrades integrity of the cork. Other than that don't worry about it as it is on the outside and should not i pact the mead.

 

[Jamesjoelee]

Ok so upon reinspecting the corks, it doesn't seem like any mold has significantly progressed in growth.

 

[DungMonster]

Clean it off then rinse with sanitizer and check it from time to time for any further growth.

 

[Jamesjoelee]

It hasn't progressed at all. I'll keep checking on it, but so far I don't believe I have anything to worry about