Mold in Fermenter

[crazyworld]

So I brewed this stout, primaried for 3 weeks or so, and racked on top of frozen whole, pitted cherries that I heated through to about 175 degrees, and left covered to cool for probably an hour. After 10 days, I tasted it and didn't notice much of a cherry flavor. After a month, I noticed this:

However, I tasted it and it tasted great!

Done maybe a dozen or so brews in my first year of brewing and this is my first infection. I follow general sanitation practices outlined in John Palmer's "How to Brew." Apparently mold can be a common occurrence when using fruit (as Palmer cites).

Regardless, I had done my best to carefully rack it again (easier said than done). After only 4 days or so, the mold is starting to present itself again. Ideally, I'd like to bottle this brew and keep it around awhile however I do have kegs.

Should I:

• Skim, see what happens
• Rack again, see what happens
• Rack into a keg, let carb, and bottle from the keg
• Rack into a bottling bucket, wait a few days. If mold grows, just bottle from underneath it
• Rack into a keg and drink that sucker up (I'd really rather not)

Thanks for your advice guys.

Nick

 

[bribo179]

That doesn't look like mold. Bacterial infection. The good kind. I'd let that sit for a long time to sour up

 

[TyTanium]

That doesn't look like mold. Bacterial infection. The good kind. I'd let that sit for a long time to sour up

+1 Forget about it for a year and you may have something wonderful.

 

[JonK331]

Yeah rack it into glass and leave it.

 

[mcwilcr]

looks like pellicle to me and the makings of a nice sour stout!

 

[bribo179]

And that bucket should either be used for sours From now on or thrown away.

 

[crazyworld]

BTW, I just tasted this one a week ago after being infected for about 5 months and MAN is it tasty! Not really too sour (yet?), thick pellicle. What I still don't get it is when it ferments out "completely," it won't grow it's pellicle back once it's in the keg or in bottles?

 

[crazyworld]

Oh and I have a picture of its current pellicle, I'll try to remember to upload it and if I forget and someone is interested, just remind me.

 

[Murrayatuptown]

Well, I'm obviously a newbie with more luck than not, thus far...fingers and eyes crossed.

Those photos look scary as >bleep< to me, having never seen such things on a plate, in a glass or bottle.

Not knowing the difference between pellicle & mold, safe mushrooms and unsafe, I'll just keep my distance.

 

[Joeywhat]

Well, I'm obviously a newbie with more luck than not, thus far...fingers and eyes crossed.

Those photos look scary as >bleep< to me, having never seen such things on a plate, in a glass or bottle.

Not knowing the difference between pellicle & mold, safe mushrooms and unsafe, I'll just keep my distance.

It is exceedingly unlikely for any pathogens (organisms that can make you sick) to grow and have any sort of significant presence in "finished" beer. The alcohol prevents them from reproducing and existing at any appreciable level (if at all). If you see something like this you can be certain that it's not dangerous to your health. The possible exception to this would be if the infection happens before any alcohol is made (which is rare) or if the beer has a very low alcohol content (which again is pretty rare, seeing as alcohol is a main component of finished beer).

Long story short, any "infections" the beer picks up won't hurt you, although they don't always taste great. Often times they do taste pretty fantastic, though.