Brown slime?

[Wraithraider]

Good morning,

I currently have 3 gal of cherry cyser in the primary. It seems to be bubbling away quite happily, but I noticed that a brown slime is starting collect in the fruit cap as the foam dissipates. I can't detect anything off about it and everyhing was sterilized within an inch of its life before use. Anybody else have this happen?

 

[delvorak]

Well in my experience whenever I have fruit caps with excessive foaming, I tend to get a brown residue on the sides of the bottle, but I believe that is just yeast that got left high and dry. I wouldn't call it slime exactly. Have you been punching the fruit cap down on a regular basis (multiple times a day)? I know that if you don't punch it down, mold and other nasties can grow on the cap.

 

[bryantjt]

I have been brewing mead for about 2 years now and consider myself a novice. With that said, I have learned to stick to the tried and true beginner's rule of "just leave the mead alone"! The brown head is normal and for now should be left alone til you are ready to rack onto a second fermenter. Constantly opening the fermenter releases your CO2 protective barrier and exposing your mead to foreign bacteria and wild yeasts. I'm assuming your are using an airlock. Hope that helps

 

[Wraithraider]

The fruit cap gets disturbed when I aerate the must a couple times a day. Since it's still fermenting, it doesn't take long for it come back to the top (or refill the CO2 barrier). If other people have seen it before and not had a negative effect on their mead, I'll stop worrying about it. This is the first time I'm using cherries in the primary, so this might be normal.

 

[Wraithraider]

Thanks for the feedback. The brown slime was actually residue from the cherries. The skins completely dissolved leaving the flesh behind. So what I was seeing was all the residual cellulose being pushed to the top by the CO2. It was taken back into solution after a few more days and there have been no signs of biological growth or other contamination. Racking it now and it tastes divine!