Well I think it’s finally happened, I must not have sanitized well enough. I have what looks to me like mold covering my secondary and am hoping for some opinions on what, if anything I can do or if the only answer is to dump it. Thanks in advance for your help!
I have images, but I’m thinking my new status may be the reason I cannot upload them.
You need to host your images elsewhere (Picasa, flicker, etc) and then post them using the sharing link (little Mona Lisa button.
If you are using tapatalk on a mobile device, it offers hosting and adding photos is very easy.
Thanks for that. Here they are:
I don’t think it’s mold, but you certainly have an infection. Might turn out good, might be a dumper.
It looks like a pellicle to me - and not mold. Not that it is better news for you if aren’t expecting a pellicle from some sort of microbe that wants to help ferment your beer. What are the details on your beer recipe?
I would suggest giving it a taste to figure out how far the flavor has deviated from what you would expect. If it tastes really gross then you are probably looking at dumping it. If it tastes good, I would just chill it and keg it. Keeping it cold will minimize any flavor change from the foreign microbe.
You probably need to take a close look at your sanitation for future batches.
Thanks for the replies. This is a West Coast IPA. It really didn’t happen until I dry hopped my beer 4 days ago. Reading what you wrote, it sounds like the best thing I can do is to go from secondary to keg ASAP. It has already spent plenty of time fermenting. Reading up on pellicle now.
Infection from dry hopping isn’t very common as far as I know. Did you use a nylon bag?
It was a muslin bag
That could be the source of your infection. Did you try to sanitize the bag at all? The bags at my lhbs are cover in all sorts of dust, I would never use one for dry hopping. I toss my hops right in the fermenter.
So it’s the first time I ever dry hopped in a bag --trying to minimize the sediment that ends up in my keg. My muslin bags are stored in a zip lock bag and look clean, but as I was doing it I thought to myself that I should’ve sanitized the bag. So yeah lesson learned.
Cold crashing does a pretty good job of getting pellets to settle out. If you are using whole hops, you can get an item called sure screen that goes on your racking cane.
I’ve only ever done pellets but just ordered leaf for my next brew. Thanks for the advice.
Back when I used those, I would boil first, add hops, put into the beer. No problems.
That would certainly work, but not doing anything was for sure the wrong choice.
Or go commando
Dump the batch and brew again. You will be glad you did. I prefer the Commando approach too Jim.