Possible infection - what to do?

[StiefelHund]

Hi All,

I did a cider (Whole Foods juice, some tannin and acid blend and S-04) on 8/1/14. I racked to secondary on 8/30/14, with a stable FG of 1.003. Today I noticed a few "islands" of film on the top (pics attached), and I think it might be an infection. I sampled it last week, and it tasted fine, but I hadn't noticed anything floating on top until today.

I did some searching and came across this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/what-top-my-cider-414795/
This seemed somewhat similar to mine, so perhaps it's aerobic bacteria infection?

My questions:
1) Do I try to rack from underneath? If so, how will this affect my equipment from a sanitation perspective?

2) Would adding potassium sorbate and/or metabisulfite halt this? If so, would I have to keep the keg cold to keep the infection at bay?

Thanks very much!

 

[FatsSchindee]

Looks just like mine did. I added one crushed up K-metabisulfite tablet (probably more than needed for one gallon), gently swirled it in, then let it sit for a few more days. Cleared up the film, and I didn't notice any off flavors from it (though I did have some off flavors from fermenting too warm, I think, in that particular batch). Hope that helps! Good luck...


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[Archer]

Had similar problem once because of too much head space in secondary vessels. I would rack under this into smaller vessel (little head space) and then add the campden. My turned out fine. Similarly, looks like you caught it early.

 

[StiefelHund]

Thanks very much for the replies guys, I try the campden tabs. Would I still be able to bottle carbonate after this, or would I have to keg?

 

[Maylar]

You'll have to keg.

 

[Archer]

Why would he have to keg? The campden won't kill all the yeast. I did this with one of my earlier batches, allowed it to age a couple months after racking/campden/smaller vessels and then bottle conditioned with priming sugar...worked out fine.

 

[Maylar]

Why would he have to keg? The campden won't kill all the yeast. I did this with one of my earlier batches, allowed it to age a couple months after racking/campden/smaller vessels and then bottle conditioned with priming sugar...worked out fine.

You are correct, of course... if one is willing to wait long enough you can still get carbonation after campden.

 

[Yooper]

You are correct, of course... if one is willing to wait long enough you can still get carbonation after campden.

Well, wine yeast is tolerant of sulfites (that's why winemakers use them and try to keep the wine at 50 ppm, sometimes more!) and ale yeast is pretty tolerant as well. Campden shouldn't even stun the yeast, or slow it down, but I don't know the specifics of exactly how tolerant S04 is of campden.

 

[Maylar]

Well, wine yeast is tolerant of sulfites (that's why winemakers use them and try to keep the wine at 50 ppm, sometimes more!) and ale yeast is pretty tolerant as well. Campden shouldn't even stun the yeast, or slow it down, but I don't know the specifics of exactly how tolerant S04 is of campden.

Thanks for that. Why do people recommend that if you want to use potassium sorbate that you always use campden with it?

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for that. Why do people recommend that if you want to use potassium sorbate that you always use campden with it?

Sorbate inhibits yeast reproduction, and it works better in the presence of sulfite (campden) than without it. It's a chemical reaction.

 

[StiefelHund]

Great discussion, thanks everyone.

If I were to bottle carbonate, how long should I wait after adding the the K-meta?

 

[Maylar]

3 days is the usual recommendation.