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Is this beer infected?

Northern Brewer General
#1

So yesterday I made 5 gallons of very high gravity beer. I pitched the yeast and put it all in the cooler to ferment at around 65 degrees. This morning, nothing. I just got home from work and checked on my brew and found what looks to be a large culture of mold growing on the top…Here’s a link to a snapshot I took wtih my phone: http://s1095.photobucket.com/albums/i47 … t=brew.jpg

Is this an infection? I will admit I wasn’t paranoid about sanitation, but I was pretty careful about sanitation. HELP!!!

#2

Its a little hard to tell from the picture, but looks like hop particles to me. Did you use pellet hops? They can rise to the surface as fermentation kicks off. RDWHAHB.

#3

Oh, and you say very high gravity. How high? How much yeast did you pitch? Did you make a starter? The slow start could be a sign of not enough yeast. Its nothing to panic over though. Good job on temp of 65 though.

#4

Umm… Well, before I added some freshly boiled water, the gravity was about 1.120, then I added about a gallon and a half of boiled water (I’d forgotten to add any irish moss so I boiled about a 1.5 teaspoons of that and added it.)

I’m using an American Ale yeast and I did make a starter that I stepped up. I’m more concerned about what looks like clouds of mold sitting on top… I know it’s a bit hard to see… have to see if I can get a better pic with my camera.

#5

Umm… Well, before I added some freshly boiled water, the gravity was about 1.120, then I added about a gallon and a half of boiled water (I’d forgotten to add any irish moss so I boiled about a 1.5 teaspoons of that and added it.)

I’m using an American Ale yeast and I did make a starter that I stepped up. I’m more concerned about what looks like clouds of mold sitting on top… I know it’s a bit hard to see… have to see if I can get a better pic with my camera.

#6

Here’s another snapshot, which shows what looks like mold: http://s1095.photobucket.com/albums/i47 … 121920.jpg

#7

Disregard… I panicked. It appears to be just foam with maybe Irish moss particles or other stuff floating on top. It’s chugging away quite nicely… I’ve got a blowoff hose going to a pitcher of water and every few seconds I hear a “burp” of CO2 escaping from the blowoff tube into the water.

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