Mysterious black stuff in fermenter!

[JesseL]

Hey everyone,

I just hauled my fermenter out of the closet for bottling day, and there's something I've never seen before. Check out the black stuff in picture. It doesn't seem to be getting down into the beer, but I don't know what it is. Has anyone seen anything like this? Is it mold? Is it a waste of my time to bottle this?

 

[flars]

Looks like mold but how the beer tastes is whether or not you bottle. Has the SG been stable for a few days?

 

[JesseL]

Looks like mold but how the beer tastes is whether or not you bottle. Has the SG been stable for a few days?

Tastes fine, really. The SG has been stable for a while (this beer has been dry hopped).

 

[ancientmariner52]

I just googled 'pathogens in beer'. Not surprisingly, many hits lead back to HBT. Also not surprised that the answer is 'depends'. However, the consenus seems to be that the only dangerous thing in beer is the alcohol.

If it were mine, and it tasted good, I'd bottle it, taking great care not to disturb that scary looking black stuff. Then clean and sanitize the heck out of that fermenter.

 

[JesseL]

Thanks everyone. I've gone ahead and bottled it. My fermenter is about to get the s**t cleaned out of it.

 

[flars]

Thanks everyone. I've gone ahead and bottled it. My fermenter is about to get the s**t cleaned out of it.

It would be better to clean the possible mold.

 

[Smellyglove]

Did you use yeast from WY?

I've seen some black stuff swirling around in my starters with yeast from WY. Peculiar, but always pitched the yeast and no probs.

 

[JesseL]

Did you use yeast from WY? I've seen some black stuff swirling around in my starters with yeast from WY.

Nope, this was Safale US-05.