possible contamination?

[gutz]

Hello everyone,

Seems some black hard material has appeared in my batch within the first 24 hours for pitching. I don't think its mold, but I'm not very familiar with different molds. Has anyone ever seen anything like this?

Whats in it:

malted barley extract
strawberries
cherries
raspberries
blueberries
clover/orange honey
nutrients
D47 yeast

I froze all the berries and then pasteurized. Malted barley extract boiled for 1 hour. A little more than 5 gallons, with a SG of 1.112. Honey was not boiled, but everything was sanitized.

At 12 hours there was dissolved CO2, within 24 hours there was airlock activity, and at 48 hours it seems to be fermenting fairly actively.

I've degassed a few times, and the hard black spots don't go away or dissolve.

 

[ffaoe]

that doesnt look good at all. my guess would be mold

edit: with other members mentioning seeds, thinking about it strawberry seeds are a better explaination

 

[gutz]

I was just thinking, maybe seeds from strawberries? the strawberries have been beatup pretty bad already. I suppose I'll know when the ferment is done if it tastes like crap.

 

[Illuveatar]

maybe seeds ? raspberries and strawberries have a lot of little seeds. hard to tell from the pic.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Ya, I'm guessing seeds too. You could try to filter them out, cheesecloth should work well.
Regards, GF.