Infection help

[jjackel53]

Did a watermelon saison. Chunks of watermelon floated to the top. A week later I found this. Is this mold? Think it's infected. What do you all think? Is it ruined?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=409229&stc=1&d=1501478774

 

[Killshakes]

How does it taste?

 

[oceanic_brew]

Nearly certain it's not mold.

Opening it up to check if its mold is a great way to infect the beer and also add oxygen which feeds it.

When I did a couple watermelon beers I used a blender and strainer to separate the chunks. Worked really well.

 

[Yooper]

When winemakers use fruit (in primary), the stir up the wine so that the fruit stays submerged. That keeps it from getting mold. In your case, in a bucket with that huge headspace and the fruit floating, it's a big risk.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but I would definitely rack that beer off of the fruit right away into a carboy and see if that 'filmy stuff' recurs. It could be infected, but it could also just be the fruit breaking down.

 

[jjackel53]

The beer tastes fine. I skimmed and strained the stuff off last night. I tasted it a couple days ago and discovered last night that the lid was not completely closed . Some air got in there . Going to rack it off and see what happens.