Cider Infection

[Jimboriggy]

Hello All,
I've a question regarding an infection we have in one of four otherwise identical vats of cider.
The cider has been fermenting and maturing in fermenting bins since October. It is pure cider apple juice, milled and pressed by us, with no added yeast or other chemicals.

One of the vats has developed a white film on top. The film appears to consist of thousands of tiny (much less than 0.1mm long) white elongated particles. When it builds up into a thick layer, it forms flakes that look a little like satellite pictures of Antarctic sea ice (sorry best I can come up with without a photo!). It has not formed the stringy web like structures I've seen in photos of some types of infection.

I've racked it twice since noticing the infection, and the cider tastes and looks pretty much the same as the other three uninfected vats.
The film seems to have built up a lot more slowly after the last racking than it did the first time.

My question are:
- Does anybody know what the infection might be?
- Is it likely to cause problems with the cider?
- Is there any way of killing it?
- If I bottle this batch of cider, is the infection likely to continue to grow after bottling? If it does, is it bad?

Thanks very much for any advice,

James.

 

[evanvine]

It is not an "infection" as such, it is a wild yeast.
One campden tablet per gallon should sort it out, this is also the level of SO2 (50ppm) for preserving/storing wine/cider.

Edit CO2 to SO2

 

[bandit081]

Yep defo wild yeats, happens a lot with graped aswell when fermenting wine with just the yeats that comes on the skin, like ev says maybe there is some air getting in to that one dood.