Mold from Dry Hopping? Is this a lost batch?

[tanderson36]

So I brewed a partial mash Rye IPA just over 3 weeks ago. At one week, after initial fermentation slowed in my plastic bucket, I racked it over to a glass carboy and added several ounces of various pelletized hops straight into the carboy for dry hopping. After two weeks, and a few swirls of the carboy every other day, about 90% of the hops had sunk to the bottom and everything was looking great. Temperature was around 67-68 and it was being stored in a dark, dry closet. Then I went away for the weekend and came back to find a funky mold like substance growing on the top of my beer. I was planning on racking it over to a keg in the next few days, but now I'm wondering if I've lost my first batch, or if it can be saved. I have not tasted it yet, but it still smells ok. Reading previous posts, it sounds like I should rack from beneath the mold and just hope that its tastes OK after carbonation.

Below are some photos I took last night. It's hard to see through the glass as there is a film around the inside layer. I took the cap off for 30 seconds to take the overhead shot to get a better angle of the mold.

Please let me know what I should do. Thanks.

 

[pwndabear]

my bet is the mold is not from your hops. it could be that your closet has moisture issues and if you had a less than acceptable airlock or if the airlock came off, some could have gotten in.

it could also be that there was some in your beer already and it somehow finally had a chance to take hold.

i can't tell in your pics whats actually happening but I would rack from under the mold and at the very least give it a shot. if you dont try it, you dont know; this could be the best beer than anyone has ever created in the history of the universe. but at least give it a try.

 

[beerloaf]

I would try to rack under the mold and taste it to make sure it's not sour(unless you were going for sour beer, then it's okl) and try to salvage it that way. You should be able to save most of it even if its moldy on the top. Just be careful about racking it.

beerloaf

 

[pwndabear]

when you swirled your carboy, did you simply move the carboy around or did you introduce a foreign object (read: a stick of some sort)?

 

[JohnnyNeurotic]

when you swirled your carboy, did you simply move the carboy around or did you introduce a foreign object (read: a stick of some sort)?

I'm new here, but not new to brewing, and this was my first question.

I'm not being critical, but many newer brewers (myself included way back when) tend to be anxious about smelling, taking readings and in general "playing" too much with beer.

Curiosity about what may have caused the infestation aside, I agree with everyone else: Rack it from under the fungus and cross your fingers. It might be fabulous.

Imagine if someone had thrown out the first batch of moldy cheese 1,000 years ago!?

 

[tanderson36]

when you swirled your carboy, did you simply move the carboy around or did you introduce a foreign object (read: a stick of some sort)?

I never removed the cap or introduced any foreign objects. I just swirled the carboy a few times until I noticed hop particles sinking to the bottom.

 

[pwndabear]

sounds to me like it was probably present in your beer and just hadnt had a chance to take hold until after the yeast were all done with what they were doing. this leads me to two conclusions, one of which we have already discussed:

rack under the mold. try it. if its bad, at least you know.

secondly, you may want to think your cleaning and sanitation procedures. step it up a notch maybe to avoid this in the future.

my $0.02.

 

[tanderson36]

secondly, you may want to think your cleaning and sanitation procedures. step it up a notch maybe to avoid this in the future.

I have actually been pretty anal with my sanitation up to this point, but this was my first time using a carboy for secondary, so maybe I just didnt clean it out well enough.

 

[pwndabear]

heh... anal.

 

[tanderson36]

i can't tell in your pics whats actually happening but I would rack from under the mold and at the very least give it a shot.

I took some better pictures and they are posted below.

It appears as though the "mold" is growing on the hop particles that did not float to the bottom. I wonder then, if I had stored the carboy at a lower temp or swirled it more frequently to get all of the hops to fall, could I have avoided this?

 

[gMonkey]

I'm not so sure that's mold. Looks like hop particles and yeast bubbles. But I'm no expert.

 

[chickypad]

I'm not so sure that's mold. Looks like hop particles and yeast bubbles. But I'm no expert.

I agree that looks like hops to me in those latest pics

 

[squeekybobo]

Looks fine to me... Dry hopping with pellets does that sort of thing, in my experience. I'd say relax and drink a homebrew, it looks great!

 

[mlg5039]

Looks perfectly fine to me.

 

[bobeer]

I'm dry hopping with 2 ounces of pellets right now and mine looks similar. I'd say you're a-ok.

 

[DroolingNeoBrewery]

I'm not so sure that's mold. Looks like hop particles and yeast bubbles. But I'm no expert.

yup looks like rehydrated hop bits and yeast bubbles (probably stirred up from the bottem when you swirled it around)

why did you swirl it? i have never heard of that before.

 

[duboman]

These pics are better than the ones I saw earlier, looks totally normal to me, hops and year doing their thing... RDWHAHB......

 

[Revvy]

I don't see mold. Just yeast and hop gunk. Perfectly normal.

 

[tanderson36]

why did you swirl it? i have never heard of that before.

I think I read it on here that swirling the carboy was a good way to get the hop pellets to sink down to the bottom. That, or turning down the temperature would get them to fall.

 

[TheBrewinator]

Just kegged my Rye IPA tonight and the surfaced looked exactly like that (minus the hops), just bubbles left over from the yeast doing their thing.

 

[tanderson36]

Just kegged my Rye IPA tonight and the surfaced looked exactly like that (minus the hops), just bubbles left over from the yeast doing their thing.

How long did you leave it in secondary with the dry hops? How long did it take for all of them to fall to the bottom?

This is my first time dry hopping without a grain bag and the last time I didnt leave it in long enough, so I didnt get enough of the hop flavor that I was looking for.

 

[TheBrewinator]

I don't dry hop in secondary, I use sure screens on the dip tubes of my kegs and dry hop with whole hops directly in the keg.

Though, before I got my kegs I did dry hop in secondary and if my memory serves me right, I left them in there for 2 weeks and they had not all dropped so I put the carboy in my fridge to cold crash which took care of it.

 

[DroolingNeoBrewery]

I think I read it on here that swirling the carboy was a good way to get the hop pellets to sink down to the bottom. That, or turning down the temperature would get them to fall.

interesting. isn't cold crashing a better option over all? wouldn't swirling risk oxidizing the beer? or is the assumption that the co2 blanket on top will protect it? personally i cringe every time i so much as disturb the surface of the beer. my wife jokes that i am cradling my baby when i move a fermentor.

 

[flabyboy]

Cold crashing works well. I also add a nylon bag to the intake or cane portion when siphoning. You wouldn't want to add it to the end of the hose at the outlet because of risk of oxidation

 

[jbaysurfer]

One more vote for:

NOT mold. Beer is fine.