Mould in fermenter?

[paddyb]

My cider has been in primary for 2 ½ weeks, yeast has settled and is a beautifully clear golden colour. I’m planning to bottle some and move some to secondary at the weekend.

I haven’t removed the airlocks for gravity/taste tests as I’ve got a fair bit of head space. More details in this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=589782

I’ve just noticed a few green spots on top of the fermenter that look distinctly like mould. Is it game over of am I going to be able to salvage this?

 

[paddyb]

Done a bit of reading and this doesn’t sound like the end of the world. I’ll get some glass carboys tomorrow and syphon it off the lees. Should I add a campden tablet at this point, or leave it in secondary for a while and add this before bottling, or not add it at all?

Can someone also clarify, If I’m adding campden after fermentation, does this mean that I can’t carbonate?

 

[chevalcider]

Campden tabs would be a good idea. I've had what looked like various infections in cider and treated with campden tabs and was able to salvage. I carbonated as well. Sulphites don't kill all the yeast off. I've sulphited directly before bottling and managed to carbonate in times past.

 

[oldmate]

In my experience mould is a death sentence for brews, hard to stop the spores from infecting everything even though you can't see it. Had it a few times, cleaned, sanitised only to have it show up again after bottling. Had to ditch that fermenter in particular to get rid of the problem.

Hope you have more luck than me.

 

[paddyb]

Ok, I'll get it into secondary today. What do I need to look out for to tell if it's still infected? More mold or are there other signs/tests?

 

[Maylar]

Oxygen is your enemy at this point. Bacteria needs oxygen to grow. When you rack to secondary be sure to use a glass carboy and take steps to bring the liquid level right up to the neck of the bottle. Leave zero head space.

Good luck.

 

[paddyb]

Thanks for your advice.

I’ve racked to new glass carboys. SG at 1.000, pretty clear yellow colour in the glass, tasting very dry, quite sharp, a bit white winy.

I messed up a bit with the syphoning and got some of the lees in it. I think I need to let it settle out and then rack again?

Re the mold scare - I feel like a right idiot, I put my finger inside the container and couldn’t get any of the offending spots to scrape off, then I realised they were on the outside! Doh!

Should I still add campdens at this stage?

 

[ong]

Thanks for your advice.

I’ve racked to new glass carboys. SG at 1.000, pretty clear yellow colour in the glass, tasting very dry, quite sharp, a bit white winy.

I messed up a bit with the syphoning and got some of the lees in it. I think I need to let it settle out and then rack again?

Re the mold scare - I feel like a right idiot, I put my finger inside the container and couldn’t get any of the offending spots to scrape off, then I realised they were on the outside! Doh!

Should I still add campdens at this stage?

Heh, I was going to say, they looked like they were on the outside.

You shouldn't need to rack again -- any remaining lees should be left behind when you bottle or keg.

I wouldn't use campden unless there's a specific need to. If you were trying to keep it from fermenting again (e.g., backsweetening) you would use campden and sorbate, but if you're bottling, you don't want to keep the yeast from breaking down sugars.

 

[paddyb]

Thanks. I've racked it into four carboys of different sizes to get head room down to a minimum. Two of them have quite a lot of lees mixed in, so I think ill let them settle then decide where to go from there.

 

[paddyb]

duplicate post removed