Film yeast

Had a film yeast on my first batch of cider, the bucket it was in had a leak (i blame the bucket, though im sure there were rachel inflicted happenings that may have aided the situation) and i moved it back to a plastic carboy, hit it with campden per the watkins book. looked good, but i am noticing a translucent patches on the top of the cider today. criticism, tips, tricks welcome! :smiley:

i really need help guys. i just came home from an overnight stay in Chicago and the film yeast is back. ive hit it with 2 crushed campden tablets per gallon like the watkins book said. totally lost, i hope i dont loose this batch!!

Try racking it out of the carboy from underneath the film? Is it about done fermenting? If so, bottle it up, get it in the fridge quickly…as in give it like a week to bottle condition, and try drinking it young. If you can stomach it on the first few, then it should be ok, but again, drink quickly, these ones aren’t gonna be keepers for next year.

thanks n8young! when i first noticed the film i racked it from underneath and moved it and hit it with campden, its definitely done fermenting though, i just wanted to let it hang out for a while before i bottled it to make sure it was gone completely. fine for a couple days then it was back :slight_smile:

If this is what I think it is, it’s the beginning of an infection of either acetobacter or Lacto. Probably acetobacter, which produces acetic acid which is vinegar. In either case, this is a bacterial infection. Take warning that any plastic currently in contact with the cider might be permanently affected and might need to be replaced! This has happened to me in the past and it is not a good thing. But don’t worry too much – if you drink your cider in a reasonably short amount of time, it will taste fine. It will just become more and more and more sour as it ages, that’s the thing. Since cider is already tart, it might not be too terrible. It’s a worse problem when it happens with beer that you didn’t want to be sour.

And one more thing – bottle it right now. This is very important so you can drink it as young as possible.

thank you dave!!! i was hoping to hear from you! :smiley:

shoot! so even sterilizing the plastic equipment meticulously may not work? i was thinking of investing in a second glass carboy now i have a reason. i suppose this is what i get for siphoning by mouth 'eh?! can i just bottle from the carboy and not transfer it to “the bottling bucket” to avoid contamination of all of my other equipment?

i will go ahead and bottle it ASAP!

at least i still have the second batch to look forward to for long term enjoyment! :smiley:

You can try sanitizing your plastic, and it may work, but I have not had good luck with this in the past. Seems like half of my beers for a whole year were contaminated, while half were not. Strange. Still I don’t like those odds of an infection, so ultimately I had to replace all my plastic. You might be lucky since you’ve caught the infection early, so it might not have soaked into the plastic yet. Maybe. Hard to say.

You should be able to bottle directly out of the fermenter as long as you don’t disturb the sludge at the bottom by adding priming sugar or anything like that. Otherwise I think you’ll be alright using a bottling bucket just for bottling. I just wouldn’t let the skin develop in plastic for any number of days because then it will soak into the plastic, forever contaminating it.

Best of luck to you.