Mould in airlock

[brydo]

Hi guys, I leave my brews for four weeks in primary, then bottle. However yesterday I noticed a tiny amount of mould in the airlock. Do you reckon the beer will still be safe to drink ?

 

[Gee117]

If you can change the airlock or clean it out and watch the beer for any signs of infection

Sent from my F8331 using Tapatalk

 

[Pawlo7671]

Don't use tap water in your air lock, I use starsan

 

[Personal91]

Hi guys, I leave my brews for four weeks in primary, then bottle. However yesterday I noticed a tiny amount of mould in the airlock. Do you reckon the beer will still be safe to drink ?

Tap water will have pathogens in them, boil some water, take your airlock out and rinse with tap water, then wash it/leave it in boiled water for a few minutes.

Then put the boiled water in the airlock :) be careful to not allow it to run back into your brew

Plus add some sugar to your brew to push the excess oxygen out of the fermenting bucket :)

 

[Gunge]

It'll most likely be alright unless it's sucked back through. But I still think it'll be alright. In future, used boiled water in the airlock, chuck a tiny amount of sod.met in it and fit a cap. Sorted.

 

[BeerisGOD]

Starsan works for me

 

[Dr_Unkenly]

+1 for Star san.

 

[Clint]

...or cheapo vodka so if it gets into your beer it don't matter..

 

[LesTom]

Another +1 for StarSan

 

[TenaciousG]

We have some cheap rum left over after a party I use now solely for my airlock lol

 

[Covrich]

I would take the airlock out cover the hole with foil or something and soak the airlock in something like vwp.. you will want to kill whats in there.. star san wont do that..

But yes use star san or vodka in the airlock

 

[terrym]

Tap water will have pathogens in them,

With respect that's rubbish.
Mains water is safe to drink out of the tap and contains negligible or zero biological nasties as governed by all sorts of regulations imposed on the water industry.
It's what happens after you put liquid into the lock that matters not before.
What is more likely to have occurred is that the CO2 passing through the airlock carries with it traces of the fermenting wort and that stays in the water and provides a nice warm wet environment and food for mould spores present in the air or in the lock itself to settle and then multiply.
If you want to stop this happening just provide an environment which is inhospitable to mould like Starsan or alcohol.
Personally I just use water straight out the tap, which suits me fine.

 

[Personal91]

With respect that's rubbish.
Mains water is safe to drink out of the tap and contains negligible or zero biological nasties as governed by all sorts of regulations imposed on the water industry.
It's what happens after you put liquid into the lock that matters not before.
What is more likely to have occurred is that the CO2 passing through the airlock carries with it traces of the fermenting wort and that stays in the water and provides a nice warm wet environment and food for mould spores present in the air or in the lock itself to settle and then multiply.
If you want to stop this happening just provide an environment which is inhospitable to mould like Starsan or alcohol.
Personally I just use water straight out the tap, which suits me fine.

I accept that you'd view it as rubbish. I would have a year ago as well until our health and safety rep started bleeting things out all the time.

Personally I had always used regular tap water that came out at whatever temp it came out, but now if I already have some hot water to hand then I will use it.

You have to remember that the vast majority of our water pipe network our very old and very inefficient - they get contaminated hence why there are so many additives in the water to try and counterbalance it.

Have a read of the link I post just below and tell me if you'd sit by the air con unit at work in the future...

http://www.watertechonline.com/bacteria-and-viruses-commonly-found-in-drinking-water/

 

[brydo]

But in general, the beer should be fine as it will have alcohol in it so any amount of mould in the airlock won't effect it ? Or am I being dumb and should just bin the beer ?

 

[terrym]

But in general, the beer should be fine as it will have alcohol in it so any amount of mould in the airlock won't effect it ? Or am I being dumb and should just bin the beer ?

One of the golden rules of homebrewing must be that you only pour the efforts of your hard earned money and labours down the sink when you have exhausted all possibilities of it being drinkable.
So my advice is to carry as if nothing had happened and chances are when you get to sample and drink it, it will be fine. If it isn't, just learn from the experience and move on.
Hope it works out :thumb: