Mold in secondary

Brewingmich · Oct 26, 2018

I made my first 5 gallons of cider this past month. I racked out of primary after 4 weeks. I split it up and put half a gallon on cranberries. After 5 days on berries I racked off again. 3 or 4 days after this I noticed the bung I was using had a crack in it. I replaced bung but now have this. There is still fermentation happening (I'm assuming based on c02 still rising) so my question is do I put campden tablets in and then rack under it or do I pitch it?

Brewingmich · Oct 26, 2018

It's all I have left from that batch and really want a drink lol

IslandLizard · Oct 26, 2018

Is it mold or the formation of a pellicle? Looks more like the latter to me.
Drink ASAP!

Brewingmich · Oct 27, 2018

IslandLizard said:
Is it mold or the formation of a pellicle? Looks more like the latter to me.
Drink ASAP!

Just rack off from under it and it should be okay?

IslandLizard · Oct 27, 2018

Brewingmich said:
Just rack off from under it and it should be okay?

If you don't want the white bits from the top, yeah from underneath. Now realize, if there's an infection it is in the cider, the pellicle is just a side effect of it.
The pellicle consists of carbohydrates, and is not harmful to your health. The "bugs" create the pellicle as a blanket to keep other invaders out.

A slightly sour cider is very drinkable, heck, the cranberries themselves added a ton of acidity (and tannins) already. You may want to mix it with something sweeter, to taste, in the glass.

Half a lifetime ago I used to buy cider in Somerset, England, poured from wooden barrels. This was long before I became aware it being the "world capital" of cider. I must say, most of that stuff was extremely brut, more than I could appreciate at the time, but the locals loved it! I always got some much sweeter cider to go with it for mixing back.

RPh_Guy · Oct 27, 2018

It's a pellicle. You have some wild microbes. Nothing to worry about.

I generally recommend maintaining 25-50ppm free sulfite after fermentation to control the microbes and prevent oxidation.

IslandLizard said:
Drink ASAP!

No need for this. Cider isn't beer. It's easy to stabilize.

IslandLizard said:
A slightly sour cider is very drinkable

Again, cider isn't beer. If you take standard precautions to avoid acetic acid production, wild microbes generally do not make cider sour. In fact, LAB will metabolize malic acid into lactic acid, making it less sour.