Definitley infected but with what?

[beerbabe]

We racked our pumpkin beer into our secondary and after a week we had this interesting growth in top. We have never had a batch go bad and have been brewing two years now but we are still learning. Can we skim this off the top and still bottle? Does the equipment need to be tossed?
I believe our mistake was that we used this secondary as a primary for one of our fruit wines before racking the pumpkin. The bucket is food grade.
The picture was taken through the airlock hole.
Any help appreciated,
BB

 

[Darkness]

One Campaden tablet and let it sit at least a day and re pitch yeast at bottling

 

[av8er79]

cool picture

 

[othellomcbane]

Pretty insane looking. I'd be interested to know what it is.

Have you tasted the beer? Like someone else suggested, if it tastes alright, you could possibly drop a Campden tablet in and still drink it. (Never had to try that myself, but it sounds like it should work!)

 

[Yooper]

It's hard to say, but it looks like it could be brettanomyces.

One of the problems probably is a wide headspace like that. If you're going to use a clearing vessel ("secondary"), it'd be good to use a carboy with a narrow headspace. Oxygen is what allows infections to take hold, as lactobacillus, pediococcus, aceterobacter, brettanomyces and mold will only grow where there is headspace.

 

[beerbabe]

Thanks for the advice. The beer tastes fine, actually. We did put one Camden tablet in so we will see. Seems like we can skim this off and save the batch. I do believe the headspace is an issue. Do you think we should toss the fermenter?
Whatever it is, it is coming with me to work tomorrow-I am a high school science teacher and plan to look at this growth up close!