Effects of Accidental Introduction of Mold from Maple Syrup?

[drubes14]

Hi all! Hoping for some insights from those who may have made similar mistakes in the past.

Made 5 gallons of an AG wee heavy ale last night as a base for a christmas beer. Planning on adding cinnamon and vanilla. Aggressive malt bill, with OG of 1.082 after 12 oz maple syrup addition. Subtle hop profile - one ounce of 14% AA Nugget at 60min, roughly 32 IBU. I used a huge starter of WLP001, recycled and washed from a previous batch a few weeks. I had probably 1/2L of yeast.

All went well, until I added the maple syrup. Wanting to not drive out the aroma and taste profile of the maple (a la boiling honey), I decided to add after cooling the wort and right before aeration and yeast pitch.

I poured the maple syrup into the wort, and out of the top came a big whitish, gloopy chunk. It looked to me like mold. I tried to fish it out, but it sunk too quickly. I guess the maple syrup had been open longer than I had originally guessed. I chucked the rest of that particular container, and opened up a new one. No additional infected maple syrup got into the wort.

I'm in a bit of a bind now. It seems there is one specific family of mold that grows in maple syrup, called Wallemia. (http://blog.mycology.cornell.edu/2007/03/20/the-fungus-in-my-maple-syrup/) Maple syrup, like honey, is fairly inhospitable for most microorganisms, but this particular mold can grow in it. Seems to be non-toxic, and apparently people can simply strain maple syrup and reboil it to kill off the spores.

12 hours after pitching, the beer was fermenting vigorously, with a thick krausen typical of WLP001. I'm hoping that with the high alcohol (expecting 8.5%), somewhat high IBUs (32), and quick fermentation by the WLP001 would knock the mold out.

If all else fails, I plan to toss in some campden tablets in the hope of killing off any lingering spores or mold cells. Has anyone had any experience with similar accidental introductions of mold? Any luck with campden? I know many use it for wine/mead. Would cold crashing kill the mold cells? I imagine not.

I'd hate to have to dump this.. had hoped to bottle and use for xmas gifts.

 

[day_trippr]

iirc that "gloopy chunk" is called "mother". Back when there was only real maple syrup I remember seeing that quite often.
As it always rode high up on the surface it was easily removed and the rest enjoyed.
No idea what it'll do in fermenting wort, but hopefully it'll be way too inhospitable for the mold to survive...

Cheers! (and good luck!)