White Film on top of cider

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madbulldog

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I have had my cider in secondary for 2 weeks and it suddenly formed a white film floating on top. What should I do?

IMAG1763.jpg
 
Could be a number of things, hard to tell with the picture. Take a sample from underneath the film and see if it tastes vinegary. I would try to carefully rack from underneath the film, than top it off with apple juice or cider to reduce head space. From what i've learned here, you don't want more than a few inches of head space in secondary.
 
It appears to be Mercaptans, there is too much head space in that carboy, it is a disaster waiting to happen. Does the cider have an off odor/smell to it, maybe sulfur or rotten eggs?
If it were wine, I'd siphon from under the film to a clean carboy, I'd recommend stabilizing it with meta, going a little heavy on the meta, and make sure that there is an inch or two head space at the most.
I've never treated cider so I cannot tell you that it would work the same, but I believe it will, unless it has progressed to a vinegar.
 
It appears to be Mercaptans, there is too much head space in that carboy, it is a disaster waiting to happen. Does the cider have an off odor/smell to it, maybe sulfur or rotten eggs?
If it were wine, I'd siphon from under the film to a clean carboy, I'd recommend stabilizing it with meta, going a little heavy on the meta, and make sure that there is an inch or two head space at the most.
I've never treated cider so I cannot tell you that it would work the same, but I believe it will, unless it has progressed to a vinegar.

Yes, I would treat cider the same way.

Oxygen is deadly to wine and cider, and oxygen loving mold and bacteria will grow in the headspace if the cider is not filled to the top, as you've seen.

I can't identify the infection from that photo, as it could be lacto, mercaptans, flowers of wine, etc, but it's definitely not ok.
 
So I bottled the cider. I tasted it before bottling and it tasted like a normal cider. No off tastes or smells. Actually...it tasted pretty good!!! The carboy was a 5 gallon carboy. It was 4 gallons of cider...so loads of head space. Mistake. Next time I will fill this bad boy almost up to the neck. I put in just shy of 1/2 cup of cane sugar to prime to bottles. My neighbor (who knows nothing about homebrew) tried a glass of the warm, non-carbonated cider left in the bottling bucket. He said it tasted fine.

One thing to note, I had to move the carboy from my storage spot to a spot where it could be elevated during transfer to bottling bucket. The white film broke apart completely. I let is settle for about 2 hours before bottling. Nothing formed on the top at all. I am going to chock this up to wild yeast, and too much head space. Thanks for everyone's advice.
 
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