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I just tried out second fermentation on my last batch of heavily hopped american style amber ale. Unfortunately I'm suspecting I've got a mold infection in the second fermenter.

The brew had about 1055 OG and about 1010 SG when I racked it after about 5 days of fermentation. So there's plenty of alcohol in there and not a lot of sugar left. I dropped in a couple of "tea bags" of Cascade hops in there as I racked it and I didn't pre-boil them as I reckoned there was enough alcohol in there to kill off any potential bacterial infection.

The thing I'm suspecting is mold is like white patches floating on top of the brew. It doesn't look that much like mold and there's no color to them at all. Looks more like the foam from a beer head that has subsided, if you know what I mean. It has been growing though from just a few patches a week ago to a lot of patches right now. The patches are also sinking to the bottom of the fermenter into the yeast cake at the bottom.

Could it just be the yeast flocculating or is it really a mold infection? Is there some way of making sure it's mold? Should I just toss it?

Never toss any brew unless you are certain it's no good..even then bottle a few in case.

I'm a bit slack with sanitation compared to some here but even I'd have boiled up the hop bags (I don't use them and don't know if they are clean at all anyway).

Bottle it, and when you do, have a taste as well.

(I'm beginning to sound a bit tight about not throwing out beer!!!)

My beers sometimes have the same 'floating foam' you described after racking, no problems this end though. Without pics it's a bit hard to understand the problem but in any case, unles it looked REALLY ugly, I'd still bottle.

Tirsen,
i've also seen this before on one of my brews when adding hops to secondary. My beer turned out ok and tasted fine. Don't throw the beer out unless it tastes like sh**. Even then allow it to condition and only after you are certain that the beer isn't getting any better throw it out but not before.
All will be well.
AC

Yeah, throwing it out is probably a bit drastic. I found some contradictory advise on the internet:
"1. Mold floating on top of the fermenting beer. Toss it." (http://www.realbeer.com/jjpalmer/Howtobrew.html)
and
"Mold can usually be just skimmed off with no lasting effect on the beer's flavor." (http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-1.html)

I'm gonna leave it in the second for another weak then have a taste. Even if it tastes like crap I'll probably bottle a few just in case.

In hindsight I probably should have boiled those hops for a while before chucking them in. Oh well, you live and learn.

I get that every time I rack. It's no problem, and probably not mold.

Relax and have a beer. Have another beer, and bottle. Then make your decision.

Seems like a good reason not to rack

But I'm just slack

Cheers

Just racked a similar ale for the first time and encountered the same phenomenon, but things appear to be fine.

The "mould" patches looked a bit like little populations of bubbles, leading to my theory that occasionally some particles (yeast) will rise to the surface on other bubbles formed on the yeast cake. When on the surface, they produce more little bubbles because they're still a bit active and these group together to look a bit dodgy. Any takers?

Am I right in saying that mold on your beer will generally not be white? I think the white stuff generally is yeast ... ???

Oliver

Just had the first bottle of this batch. Well, there was certainly no mold in that fermenter!

Amazing drop! Citrusy and flowery aroma from the Cascade dry hops, caramel, toffee and hoppy flavor, long and quite bitter aftertaste. Best brew I've done by far.

What was the recipe for your brew tirsen?

Your description of the beer sounded fantastic!!!!!


CHEERS,


JAZZA

I kind of followed the following "pale ale" recipe:
http://daveshomebrew.com.au/index.php?o ... &Itemid=42

I substituted the extra pale malt with Coopers Lager (had them standing around) and used a full kilo of caramel malt (I ordered one kilo cracked so I needed to use the whole lot anyway). Since Coopers Lager isn't exactly "extra pale" and the additional caramel it made this more of an amber ale.

Unless you're a complete hop maniac (like me) I would ease down a bit on the bittering hops. I think Coopers Lager is already quite bittered and I think I even might have measured things wrong a bit. The IBU for this one is off the charts! I'd reckon it could be close to 80 even.