Green mold

[Bowhunter64]

Brewed a large batch of Honeywiess a couple weeks ago it appears to be done fermenting so I pulled the lid off the pail to take a gravity and there are a couple of small spots of green mold about the size of a pencil eraser floating in it! Is it OK?

 

[Tar and Feather'em]

Are you sure it is not yeast?

 

[Bowhunter64]

I'm almost positive its mold it looks like mold on bread the krausen has fallen to the bottom so I was considering sanitizing a spoon and removing it before it multiplies I'm at my FG if the gravity is the same tonite I plan to bottle Saturday

 

[jmcnamara]

i'm just spitballing here, but i have the understanding that beer (not wort) is pretty inhospitable to anything trying to grow in it.
that being said, i don't know how that affects anything on top of the beer that's exposed to the air.

i'd scoop them out like you said, then give the beer a good smell and a little taste. if it doesn't make you gag or spit out the sip immediately, its probably fine.

fwiw, i've read that for some historical beers, a layer of mold or whatever on the top was welcome, to help keep out other beasties. but, they also believed the sun revolved around the earth at one point and look how that turned out

just out of curiosity, what kind of beer did you brew? have you experienced similar things with previous batches?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

its fine just don't pull the top layer into your bottling bucket, Im not saying to do this but "if it were me" I would cold crash the bottling bucket for 3 days then pull the beer off to anther leaving anything else that might be in there, worst case it would be a diarrhea beer but still good

 

[Nosybear]

As long as you don't get the mold into the next bucket, bottle or keg, you should be fine. Mold normally can't live on wort so you must have some floating yeast it's feeding on.

 

[Bowhunter64]

Thanx guys! I figured it was fine the beer smells awesome it's just like 3 spots about 3/8 in Dia floating in the beer. When I take a second gravity tonite I'll just scoop em out with a sterile spoon.

 

[jmcnamara]

if you think of it as penicilin, then the beer would be good for you (well, better for you then it was before).
If anyone asks why you're having another, tell them that you've gotta take your medicine

 

[Bowhunter64]

It is a Honeywiess I made with my father in law's home grown honey. I traded him a 6 pack of brown ale for it, he claims it was a good trade!

 

[The Brew Mentor]

It could be hop debris stuck to some non flocking yeast.

 

[Bowhunter64]

That is possible I opened it tonite to take another gravity and it was gone gravity held steady at 1.013 it smells and tastes great!

 

[Bowhunter64]

I'm a worry "wort" I guess! Lol