Infection, or vodka?

[themanc84]

I sanitized 4oz of cocoa nibs and one vanilla bean in a few ounces of vodka (just enough to soak up all the contents), then added everything to the secondary.

Its been about 5 days and the top is starting to look a little white. I'm sure this is not too much to worry about. Has anyone seen this before when dumping vodka into the fermenter?

The only thing I didn't do was sanitize the mason jar before adding the vodka and cocoa nibs.

 

[TallDan]

Well, vodka will certainly not do that. I think you're asking the wrong question. You should be asking if it's an infection or wax/oils from the cocoa nibs or vanilla bean. Based on those pictures i think it's wax/oils, but I don't have an experience with those additions, so I can't be sure.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

I did a vanilla rum porter last year. after 3 weeks of soaking the beans in rum, the top of the rum was as your vodka is. I'm pretty sure its just the oils and waxes. I used mine and everything was fine.

EDIT: I just looked at the pic again. I thought the white was on top of the vodka not your carboy. Mine never did that, the film was on top of the rum/vanilla mix but didn't come to the top of the beer in the carboy.

 

[aprichman]

JFYI ~62% ABV is generally good enough to knock off most bacteria. Anything lower than that shouldn't be considered a sanitizer. Vodka is generally 40% ABV and therefore shouldn't be viewed as a sanitizer. In the future high % grain alcohols like Everclear would probably be a smarter choice. I also think using properly diluted Starsan would be perfectly fine to use for sanitizing something like cocoa nibs. Most people tend to think of starsan as a "chemical" that shouldn't be consumed, but it is food safe when properly diluted and could be drank straight, although it probably wouldn't taste very good.