mold how?

[kegan]

Ive been brewing beer for a while and have never had a problem with mold. A week ago I pressed my oun cider (1st time) I didnt have any yeast at the time so i boiled it to kill any wild yeast and filled a sanatized carboy 6 inches from the top and pluged. today a week later i notice this chunky stringy glob floating at the top with a dime sized mold spot on it. is cider that different then beer and how did that get there?

 

[RobWalker]

You should have used campden to sterilize. Boiling apple juice Will activate the pectins and cause it to become forever cloudy.

 

[johnnyspade]

If I read you right, you just had boiled juice in a sealed container. There's probably still enough air there to produce mold. Pitching the yeast and starting fermentation creates the carbon dioxide to push the air out of the fermentation vessel.

Cider really isn't much different from beer at the stage of the process. If you left your wort for a week without pitching you may get a similar result. Next time though, no need to boil the juice. Try campden tablets instead.

 

[emjay]

If you left beer for a week without pitching, you'd almost certainly have a similar infection.

You shouldn't be boiling the apple juice though... use campden tablets or some other source of sulfites instead.

Also, boiling for long enough usually kills at least 99.999% of the microorganisms, but NOT 100% - that can only be achieved with a pressure cooker at temps above 250°.