mold!!

[msmoon]

Hello everyone! I am happy to have found this forum!
I am sort of new to brewing beer and now I have a problem which I have never had before. That is....
During the racking process my brew developed a floating mold. Can I still bottle it and save the patch. Thank you.

[steveg]

The mold will not survive in the bottle once carbonated. Molds are true aerobes, and need lots of oxygen to thrive. You may get a slight film in the neck of the bottle if you are bottle conditioning.

If it is a white powdery looking film on top of the beer it could also be wild yeast, which will survive in the package.

[msmoon]

Thank you for your reply Steveg. Are you saying that once it is bottled it will be fine? It has only developed over the last few days. Also, I should tell you that the mold is like two small lily pads floating on the surface.. the kind you get on food when it is starting to go bad. I will discard it if I have to, but really don't want to. Thanks again.

[steveg]

Thank you for your reply Steveg. Are you saying that once it is bottled it will be fine? It has only developed over the last few days. Also, I should tell you that the mold is like two small lily pads floating on the surface.. the kind you get on food when it is starting to go bad. I will discard it if I have to, but really don't want to. Thanks again.

It should be OK if mold is the only thing you have in there. Mold is a pretty weak spoilage organism in terms of beer, so it is sometimes the first visual sign of other spoilers being present. It will however quickly die once most of the oxygen is gone. Carbonate this stuff quickly!

Mold is also indicative of lots of head space air! Your beer will probably oxidize very quickly, so drink it fast!

One other aerobe of concern is acetobacter: vinegar producers. If you have conditions under which molds are growing, you also have conditions under which these are growing. Smell the stuff and make sure you don't have vinegar!

Let me know if you need any more help!

[msmoon]

Thank you for your reply. I did go ahead and bottle it as you suggested the day I posted my plea for help. I guess we'll be drinking it fast considering I like the fizz factor and yes, I now know it was a 'dead air space' issue. Not paying enough attention to it!
Thanks again!