Fruit beer--mold or no?

[alby44]

Recently transferred a blond on top of 7#s of fresh, frozen, then heated peaches. After 5 days in a white slimy film has started to develop on the top layer. Any worries there and how much longer should I keep before transferring?

Initial taste and smell was a light peach fwiw, but want to rule out uhh infection.

 

[alby44]

Bumped to see what others think....

 

[unionrdr]

Definitely getting mold on top. Fruit always seems to do that. so with my watermelon hefeweizen, I put the fruit in the blender on the smoothie setting. Then used my fine mesh strainer to strain that twice. Added it at flame out to pasteurize a little.

 

[Yooper]

It's probably not mold. Since it's slimy, it is probably lactobacillus, a bacteria and not a mold.

It also could be that the fruit is breaking down (it happens in about 5-7 days), but it wouldn't get slimy usually.

 

[alby44]

It's probably not mold. Since it's slimy, it is probably lactobacillus, a bacteria and not a mold.

It also could be that the fruit is breaking down (it happens in about 5-7 days), but it wouldn't get slimy usually.

Thank you both!! Should I rack at this point or give it some more time??? It has a'peachy' taste, but I definitely don't want to risk infection....

 

[alby44]

Thank you both!! Should I rack at this point or give it some more time??? It has a'peachy' taste, but I definitely don't want to risk infection....

 

[barnaclebob]

How hot did you get the peaches?

 

[alby44]

150-160 for about 10 minutes

 

[unionrdr]

Well, the way I understand pasteurization,@ 142F it takes about 30 minutes. @ 160-162F, it takes seconds. So @ 150F, it wasn't long enough @ 10 minutes.

 

[alby44]

I think I'll take another look tonight and see if anything further has developed. I may just end up rack to a tertiary vessel to clear....any other suggestions is most appreciated!

 

[jekeane]

With many fruits, the fruit loses its color and becomes white in the fermenter. Peaches are generally slimy... is the white slimy that you are seeing just peach that it losing its color?

If not I would consider racking off the fruit sooner than later and taking care to disturb the fruit as little as possible.

 

[unionrdr]

Well, as I said in my first post, this beer being an experiment,I tried buzzing the fruit in a blender on the smoothie setting. Then used my dual layer, fine mesh strainer to strain it twice. It still had some solids in it, but not as much as there would be just adding chunks. I need to do a 1st FG test here in a bit. So I'll get an initial impression of how pureeing/straining & adding at flame out works. I'm hoping that adding the silty juices @ flame out while it's still boiling hot pasteurized it sufficiently to prevent this sort of thing. It could be applied to any sort of fruit, in my opinion.

 

[Microscopist]

Let your tongue decide - if it tastes OK I wouldn't worry, you may have lac but it's the final taste that counts. If you chuck it you've wasted a brew, keep it and if it's off all you've lost is time and a little effort in sanitising your gear and you might end up with something remarkable and unexpected.

 

[WayFrae]

How long have the peaches been in the beer in the photo? Could the "slimy" stuff be krausen just starting to form from a second fermentation due to the sugar in the peaches? I have never brewed a fruit beer so this is just a guess.

 

[fantasticapparatus]

Last year I made a cherry beer and jammed loose cherries through a funnel into a carboy and racked on top. The floating fruit cap developed a very gross looking mold, so I racked the beer from underneath with a siphon in a hop sock to a tertiary vessel. No floaties in the the final carboy and the beer ended up tasting fantastic and aging gracefully.
This year I have a speidel so I sanitized a 3lb glass mug and put it in a large paint strainer with 16lbs of cherries to keep the fruit fully submerged at all times- this worked out much better for me.

 

[unionrdr]

^True microscopist. I got a bad lacto infection with the Brewer's Best Ale Pail I had that contained my Maori IPA. Being partial mash & using all New Zealand hops in larger quantities than a pale ale, it wasn't cheap to produce. So needless to say, I wasn't dumping it. I opened it up to drop in the dry hop sacks, which had been soaked in Starsan & found the infection. Scooped it off with my sanitized spoon (Cooper's) & spritzed the surface with my spray bottle of Starsan.
Thinking that'd kill the nasties on the surface to some extent, I dropped in the hop sacks & spritzed it again. 7 days later, I opened it to find this;

Not nearly as bad as I found when I opened it to drop in the hop sacks. But bad enough for concern. Anyway, i had a spigot on the ale pail, so I racked off to the bottling bucket without disturbing the funky surface. The first round of it gave me flashbacks to that pool of oxides by Hawshaw Chemical on the Black River we grew up on. Primed & bottled as planned. 4 weeks later (1 week fridge time) I was treated to an awesome IPA where that tiny bit of funk leftover added to the oaky, tropical fruity flavors of the NZ hops. So properly done, the beer can be saved.

 

[alby44]

Let your tongue decide - if it tastes OK I wouldn't worry, you may have lac but it's the final taste that counts. If you chuck it you've wasted a brew, keep it and if it's off all you've lost is time and a little effort in sanitising your gear and you might end up with something remarkable and unexpected.

Thanks! It has the 'peachy' taste, so was going to let it go another day or two. Guess we'll see

 

[alby44]

How long have the peaches been in the beer in the photo? Could the "slimy" stuff be krausen just starting to form from a second fermentation due to the sugar in the peaches? I have never brewed a fruit beer so this is just a guess.

Perhaps, the photo was taken at Day #5. I did a raspberry brown some time ago for 7 days and didn't see the same look. It makes me wonder if its the fruit....

 

[phatspade]

I've gotten that when I used peaches. I just thought it was normal and let it go until bottling. Didnt leave a bad taste or any other adverse effects to my brew. Does get a bit disgusting looking after a couple weeks of dry hopping. If anything I would think it's pectin or yeast by-product.

I do assure you that your brew is ok.