Fermentation taking a long time

[Brewkyu]

Hello everyone,

I started my second brew recently, a basic Weissbier, but I added a little orange peel during the boil. A little bit got into the fermenter and I thought nothing of it at the time, but, after a week, I discovered that mold was growing on the little piece of peel that got into the fermenter.

I'm not convinced that the fermentation is even happening correctly to be honest. The Krausen looks fine, I think, but it took 5 days to even start! I measured the gravity after 10 days, and it hasn't shifted at all. The wort tastes really sweet, but I didn't get any sour flavours etc.

Any advice? I'm going to scoop out the piece of moldy orange peel, but I'm not sure if that is ok. If the fermentation is just stuck, should I pitch an extra pack of yeast?

I tried photographing the mold, but it's in an awkward position. It looks exactly like the mold you get on oranges after a while.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

 

[halcyondays]

I'm not sure how the orange peel could be moldy if you added it to the boil. That should've sterilized it. From the picture, everything looks fine, krausen looks healthy. Have you calibrated your hydrometer in 68 degree water to make sure you're getting an accurate reading?

 

[Brewkyu]

Thanks for the reply. Yep, I calibrated the hydrometer. I got a refractrometer recently, so I checked it with both that and the hydrometer. I wanted to make sure the refractrometer agreed well with the hydrometer before I start to use only that.

Perhaps it wasn't some orange peel? After I transferred the wort to the fermenter, all I saw was that there was a little speck floating on top and it didn't look like hops, so I assumed it was a bit of the orange peel.

I'll leave it alone for a few more days and see how things develop. Thanks!