First AG Galaxy Single Hop Brew

[HisDudeness]

Nearly two weeks in FV and the krausen is still hanging about its also developed a bit of a white skin on the krausen that looks a lot to me like some sort of mould forming. So some advice would be appreciated at this point! I have read that this yeast can stick around a long time so intended to leave this until it fell out naturally but not so sure now should I
a) scoop off the krausen
b)rack off to a secondary from under krausen
c)cold crash and hope it falls out
d)leave as it is and hope for best
It still needs to be dry hopped so can't go straight to bottle yet, my feeling is to do a) or b) but is there anything actually wrong? Has anyone seen yeast look like this before? It smells ok and the beer underneath is very clear, it has definitely finished fermenting

 

[clibit]

Have you done a gravity reading?

 

[HisDudeness]

Yeah it was reading 1.006 a week ago and is still there now so pretty sure its done

 

[rodabod]

You do not want that mould in your beer. Do whatever you can to get it into another vessel without mixing. If its solid, scoop it out. If not, siphon from underneath as you suggest. I'd get it straight into bottles or keg after you've racked it and added added sugar for the conditioning period.

 

[clibit]

I think careful racking is the best solution, asap.

 

[HisDudeness]

Thanks chaps thats what I thought, will be racking it off pronto hopefully it will be salvageable

 

[rodabod]

The mould bacteria I'll struggle when there is relatively little oxygen, so try and get it bubbling in the bottle as soon as possible too.

 

[HisDudeness]

Shall I abandon the idea of dry hopping this batch? Could the anti-bacterial qualities of the hops help (once I have got beer minus mould into a secondary of course) or is that just more time for infection to take hold

 

[clibit]

I don't think dry hops will affect it either way.

 

[HisDudeness]

So operation "Save the brew" seems to have a been a success so far (touchwood!). I scooped off the krausen/mould which came off in a weird semi solid pancake euurrggh! Then racked off with a filter bag which seemed to get rid of any trace of the nasties. 3 days dry hopping and there was no further sign of mould so into bottles it went sample tasted good so fingers crossed this will turn out ok

 

[HisDudeness]

Oh dear looks like this one might be a write off, checked the bottles this morning and every one has a nasty white film forming on top of the beer, gutted had really high hopes for this as all the samples had tasted great.
BUGGER!

 

[clibit]

That's a total bummer. I know how you feel. You'll just have to get another brew on.

 

[HisDudeness]

Its not going to put me off and I actually got a small test batch of that rye ipa on last night so hopefully that will be more successful, also the old peculiar brew is clearing nicely in the bottle so all is not lost!

 

[GHW]

Make sure that Fv and bottles get some serious sanitising, moulds are apparently buggers to kill off. It's the spores.

 

[MyQul]

Make sure that Fv and bottles get some serious sanitising, moulds are apparently buggers to kill off. It's the spores.

Deffo.

FV - use bleach. 100ml bleach to 2L water. As it's an FV any bleach residue is easy to rinse out- I stick my FV in the bath and use the shower head.

Bottles - Clean using oxiclean, oven the buggers to death - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=54300 then starsan to make sure.

 

[Tony1951]

As an aside, since the beer tasted OK on bottling, I wonder if it still does? Lots of cheeses are mouldy and are very fine eating. On the other hand, maybe the mould could be harmful. Guessing - and do this at your own risk as I am no kind of a mycologist, I'd be inclined to try the beer and see how I felt. I'd give more than evens that its OK, but then some people who know me, think I am an idiot where risk is concerned. Can't remember when I was last made ill by anything I ate or drank.

 

[nbpicklesno2]

Have you given the beer a sniff. Don't write it off without a sniff and taste test. It may not be what you think.

If it is to be chucked, bleach is the business for sterilizing everything. I've never used anything else and never had an infection of any kind.

Also, I think that when it had reached 1006, I would have been looking to rack it there and then as it was very unlikely to go much further. I rarely have them in the FV for more than 7 days, sometimes less, occasionally a little more.

 

[MyQul]

As an aside, since the beer tasted OK on bottling, I wonder if it still does? Lots of cheeses are mouldy and are very fine eating. On the other hand, maybe the mould could be harmful. Guessing - and do this at your own risk as I am no kind of a mycologist, I'd be inclined to try the beer and see how I felt. I'd give more than evens that its OK, but then some people who know me, think I am an idiot where risk is concerned. Can't remember when I was last made ill by anything I ate or drank.

Was kind of thinking the same thing as part of the "Feck it. I made it, I'm drinking it" brigade

 

[HisDudeness]

Thanks for the tips everyone, I will definitely be taking the nuclear option when it comes to sterilising the equipment, I think I will almost inevitably be tempted to try the beer anyway even if it does end in a dose of gut rot! :sick:

Reason it was left in the FV was the krausen was still at full height and I wanted to leave this to fall out, as it turns out it didnt and this provided a medium for mould to become established so yeah in future I would rack off regardless, from what I have read this is a feature of the adnams yeast so I will put it down to a learning experience....

 

[HisDudeness]

and I think this will also teach me to leave the bloody beer alone and stop peeking in to the FV to check progress, especially at this time of year when there are probably more nasties floating around in the air