So much mold!

[catalogguy]

This is my first time brewing. I bought the supplies ages ago, but the Wyeast packet puffed up (somewhat), so I presumed it had live yeast and I went forward. It's been 9 days, and I am not comfortable with the looks of this. I did not see any bubbling at all. Also, it took probably way too long for the wort to cool to pitching temperature, maybe 3 hours. I read that leaving too much Iodophor residue could also have caused problems. But I am just grasping at straws. Someone please tell me to throw this away and pick myself up.

 

[jrgtr42]

Yeah, that doesn't look healthy.
Did you cover the kettle (or whatever) as it was cooling down?
That is certainly not from the yeast pack.
How was your sanitization? Looks like there was something living in your bucket before the beer got there.
Idophor residue will NOT cause this.
Bubbling in and of itself is not a reliable indicator of fermentation.
Why don't you walk us through your recipe, procedures and numbers, maybe someone here can see what went wrong?

 

[Brewskii]

Is that just the photo or is there grain in this vessel?

 

[finsfan]

That looks terrible. Please throw that away and try again. I have had to dump 2 batches and it sucks but once you get it right you wont even remember this happened! Practice over sanitation your next couple brews and this shouldnt happen again if you are thorough

 

[Brewskii]

...Practice over sanitation your next couple brews and this shouldnt happen again if you are thorough

Unless there IS grain in there, in which case it's going to happen every single time he/she dose it!

As a new brewer you can make some really interesting process errors... Just trying to establish a sound technique is involved to keep the learning curve short.

 

[finsfan]

Unless there IS grain in there, in which case it's going to happen every single time he/she dose it!

As a new brewer you can make some really interesting process errors... Just trying to establish a sound technique is involved to keep the learning curve short.

Yeah there does seem to be some grain looking floaty stuff, not sure what to think of that haha

 

[jro238]

Is that just the photo or is there grain in this vessel?

Definitely mold.

Now that I look closer there does seem to be some grain looking stuff....hmmm good spot

 

[mtnagel]

Throw that away and pick yourself up

 

[blizzard]

That batch looks like a dumper. But, the good news is if you clean well, sanitize, and use fresh ingredients (especially yeast!) you'll have delicious beer in no time. You probably already learned a ton about the process from this batch, and it gets easier from here. You got this. Now get going on your next first batch.

 

[passedpawn]

dumper. Green is mean.

 

[catalogguy]

Thanks all for the supportive and insightful comments.

I am going to clean this out and start over with a new recipe.

This was to be like Alaskan Amber. The recipe came from a magazine given to me by the beer store man. Ingredients:
DME
LME
4 kinds malt (two-row pale, crystal 40, 60, & 90L)
2 kinds hops (saaz & cascade although my packet didn't say cascade but centennial)
Irish moss
Wyeast

This was roughly my process:

• Boiled a pot of water to keep on hand.
• Mixed a capful of Iodophor with water in ferment bucket (about half full) and put utensils in there for a little while, then drained it out and let them sit to dry; got lid, too. Prior to mixing the Iodophor, I washed everything with a clean dish sponge and soap.
• In 5 gallon pot, boiled 4.5 quarts filtered tap water; put malt-filled sock into bottom of pot and smooshed it around a lot to get it in the water. Steeped 45 minutes. Between the electric stove and trying to hold the thermometer, temperature control seemed impossible, so i just tried to keep not over a simmer. Them a friend held up the sock while I poured 2 quarts boiled water over it (to rinse).
• Added water to make 3 gallons, more or less.
• Add DME; boil, add cascade hops; boil 45 min then add saaz hops, Irish moss, LME; boil 15 more min.
• Into ice bath in sink (about 7# ice), ice all melted, emptied ice cube trays, waited until temp came down; poured from boil pot into ferment bucket. Added boiled water to bring volume to 5 gallons, but boiled water was hot and had to wait again for cooling.
• Used old package of Wyeast. I had bought this stuff so long ago and had gotten concerned about the yeast, so I had purchased another package, which itself was now old. Anyway, first packet got some puffage, so I used it. By the time I pitched it, about 5 hours had passed since I took it out of fridge and mutilated its innards.
• Covered bucket, inserted air lock, realized i needed to add water to it so I boiled a little water.
• I put some into the hydrometer tube and read a specific gravity of 1.10. I threw away the bit used for testing.

After a few days, no bubbles. No sign of that residue from fermentation foam, and a few bits floating on top that looked like mold. Next day, I took the picture at the top.

After all that, I can only really relate the things I intended to do. I can only guess that somehow I was just not careful enough with the sanitizing. Maybe the Iodophor solution should be stronger, and it should sit longer in the solution. Maybe I need to use cold boiled water to more quickly cool the wort to pitching temp. I can't think of anything else I could do differently, but maybe I just don't realize what I did wrong.

I'll definitely try another batch, but probably another recipe. This one was too expensive to end up down the drain.

 

[Komocabo]

You may want to invest in another bucket (or carboy or Better Bottle). That stuff may be in SMALL cracks and scratches in the bucket. It will cost you a few bucks and will take that out of the equation for next round. Sanitize well and you Will be ok. I have dumped 10 or 15 gals so far and you will learn a lot from your mistakes. It will get better. RDWHAHB.
Cheers

 

[403Brewer]

Did you sanitize the yeast packages? I like it seems like overkill but that looks like the only hole in your sanitization procedure...maybe the mold entered the system there

 

[biggmatt]

Everybody goes through it. Its just the breaks.

Do other areas in your house mold?

When I was living in a low lying area, everything that went bad molded. I started using bleach for sanitation instead of just sanitizer. I made sure I got fresh air in the room before I did anything. Also boron works well on basements floors.

 

[Komocabo]

What was the date on the yeast package, or approximately how old was ot?

 

[Brewskii]

Thanks all for the supportive and insightful comments.

I am going to clean this out and start over with a new recipe.

This was to be like Alaskan Amber. The recipe came from a magazine given to me by the beer store man. Ingredients:
.......

You described nothing that would cause this to happen. At worst you would have had a slow ferment due to old yeast or a mild secondary infection from something you forgot to sanitize..

Dump it for sure. As to what happened....

Maybe siphon hose/transfer equipment?

Is it possible you had someone "help" without your knowledge? Friend adds somthing or takes lid off to peek and inserts his junk in it or kid wants aqua man action figure to get some laps in.... That sorta thing?

That's a major infection and to have shown up like this in less than a week there would have to be somthing MAJOR going on. If the pkg was sealed, yeast would not have done this.

That's not grain in there? are you sure?

 

[DrunkleJon]

What kind of airlock do you use? Do you have any sort of temperature control? Possible suck back? Did you move the fermenter after pitching the yeast? Did the water level of the airlock drop too low? Temperature swings and too little airlock liquid caused my one and only infection.

It does look rather grain-y, but even then if you got a good rolling boil it should have been pasturized just fine.

Some more thoughts. The pre-boiled water, did it just sit out the whole time you were brewing? You say that you used the idiophor on the bucket/equipment then let sit and dry, there is a possibility that nasties got on the equipment there. Also, how did you transfer to the hydrometer tube to test? Did you clean/sanitize that first? Also, do you have any mold growing in your brewarea? I am not calling you dirty or anything, but if there is exposed mold already you could have just gotten unlucky and gotten a lot of spores and what not through air contact.

Did you stir while in the ice bath? Where did you put the paddle/spoon between stirs. Sorry for the long post, just spitballing here.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

yeah, you need to sanitize everything you used to create this batch. Looks like you have a 7.5 gallon bucket with 2-3 gallons of beer? See if you can reduce the head space by either doing a larger batch or using a smaller fermenter.

 

[Whattawort]

yeah, you need to sanitize everything you used to create this batch. Looks like you have a 7.5 gallon bucket with 2-3 gallons of beer? See if you can reduce the head space by either doing a larger batch or using a smaller fermenter.

Completely agree. That's way too much headspace.

 

[mtnagel]

I do 2.5-3 gallon batches in a 6 gallon bucket. No issues so far. I've even left an imperial stout in primary for 5 weeks like that.

 

[microbusbrewery]

One recommendation, precisely measure your sanitizer. In the case of iodophor you want 3cc's per gallon of cold water. If you mix it more diluted than that it will not properly sanitize. Likewise, if you mix it too strong it ceases to be a no-rinse sanitizer. Oral syringes like those used to give medicine to kids work well for measuring.

 

[Transamguy77]

Everybody goes through it. Its just the breaks.

Do other areas in your house mold?

When I was living in a low lying area, everything that went bad molded. I started using bleach for sanitation instead of just sanitizer. I made sure I got fresh air in the room before I did anything. Also boron works well on basements floors.

+1 to this, I just went through a mold issue at my house and found out its in my damp basement so after cleaning EVERYTHING with a strong bleach solution I've made 2 batches and started fermenting in my upstairs and not making my starters in the basement.

I'm bringing this up because I could have replaced all 6 of my fermenters and related equipment "just to be safe" and I would have had the same problem. It could be a mix if not really viable yeast and an airborne mold that caused your problem. Good luck on your next batch.

 

[Brewtah]

Unless there IS grain in there, in which case it's going to happen every single time he/she dose it!

As a new brewer you can make some really interesting process errors... Just trying to establish a sound technique is involved to keep the learning curve short.

Grain that has been boiled can cause mold, if put into fermenter? I frequently seem to get some into the fermenter.

 

[Clonefan94]

My guess would be fermentation never took off. After that, mold is everywhere, weather you have visible mold in your house or not, the spores are everywhere. If your wort doesn't ferment, it's basically a giant petri dish welcoming anything to grow in it. And it looks like that's what happened. I don't see any visible signs of a krausen ring, so it basically turned into a mold factory.

It's a bummer, sorry for you loss, but don't let this stop you.

 

[DrunkleJon]

+1 to this, I just went through a mold issue at my house and found out its in my damp basement so after cleaning EVERYTHING with a strong bleach solution I've made 2 batches and started fermenting in my upstairs and not making my starters in the basement.

I'm bringing this up because I could have replaced all 6 of my fermenters and related equipment "just to be safe" and I would have had the same problem. It could be a mix if not really viable yeast and an airborne mold that caused your problem. Good luck on your next batch.

I too have a very damp basement. A thorough cleaning and a dehumidifyer for the summer months really helped. You may want to consider getting one too.

 

[ong]

Also, not the cause of this problem, but another issue -- your recipe was a partial mash, since it included 2-row, which means that temperature during the steep/mash is pretty important. Rather than trying to maintain temperature with a constant low heat, get your water up to 158-160, then turn off the heat, add your grain, combine well (stir inside the bag), and wrap a blanket around the pot. Remove the bag after an hour. You can check once, halfway through, and bring the heat up to 152 if it's dropped below that. Boiling grain or even simmering it is not good, won't convert starches, and will add unpleasant flavors.

 

[brokebucket]

Go buy a copy of "How To Brew" by John Palmer....then read it. When you are done, get your supplies in order to do another brew....then read the brewing sections again.

Treat it like a college course...study the parts you need for the upcoming brewday, then go rock the exam.

 

[Flomaster]

Completely agree. That's way too much headspace.

I ferment 7 gallon batches in 15 gallon containers with no ill effects. the yeast will create enough CO2 to fill the head space. some how some way this batch was infected after the boil.

-=Jason=-

 

[Quixoticosis]

Also, not the cause of this problem, but another issue -- your recipe was a partial mash, since it included 2-row, which means that temperature during the steep/mash is pretty important. Rather than trying to maintain temperature with a constant low heat, get your water up to 158-160, then turn off the heat, add your grain, combine well (stir inside the bag), and wrap a blanket around the pot. Remove the bag after an hour. You can check once, halfway through, and bring the heat up to 152 if it's dropped below that. Boiling grain or even simmering it is not good, won't convert starches, and will add unpleasant flavors.

I will caution to check your temperature more often if you're using a blanket. I tried this trick, and the temperature went UP. I apparently have very warm blankets in my house...

 

[DrunkleJon]

I will caution to check your temperature more often if you're using a blanket. I tried this trick, and the temperature went UP. I apparently have very warm blankets in my house...

In those cases you may not have stirred it well enough and when you measured hit a cool-er patch