Mould inside elderberry wine demijohn

[Anniebrewer]

Hi .
We have been making wine for some years now and this is the first time our elderberry wine has looked like this… can anyone help and advise please.. is it safe to rack and drink or should it be thrown away? Many thanks in advance

 

[Maylar]

What is the white stuff on top of the airlock bung?

 

[Anniebrewer]

What is the white stuff on top of the airlock bung?

I don’t know..
We made 2 demijohns of elderberry
One is worse than the other.. I don’t know if it’s just a sterilisation failure..
Never happened before..
Maybe old bungs.

 

[SatchIce9]

I don’t know..
We made 2 demijohns of elderberry
One is worse than the other.. I don’t know if it’s just a sterilisation failure..
Never happened before..
Maybe old bungs.

One observation I have - it looks like the airlock isn't pushed as far into the rubber bung as it could be (particularly on the upper demijon in image.jpg).
I have my airlocks pushed into the hole in the bung as far as possible, until the tip of the plastic airlock is nearly through to the hole on the other side. This gives best chance of an airtight seal between the bung and the airlock. (It can help to put the bung in hot water for a while to make the rubber more pliable for insertion of airlock).

As for whether it's safe to drink - I wouldn't throw it away until I'd had a taste, but be prepared to spit and don't swallow if it tastes odd!
(as the vicar said to the actress ;-)

 

[IslandLizard]

In both the movie clip and the "top" carboy in the last picture (in post #3), what are those white flakes, on the outside, on top and around the pink/mauve rubber stopper (bung)?

The white specs inside the carboys could be small clumps of yeast, stuck to the side. I also see a granular precipitate in the bottom 2" of the carboy.

 

[SatchIce9]

In both the movie clip and the "top" carboy in the last picture (in post #3), what are those white flakes, on the outside, on top and around the pink/mauve rubber stopper (bung)?

The white specs inside the carboys could be small clumps of yeast, stuck to the side. I also see a granular precipitate in the bottom 2" of the carboy.

I doubt that the white specs inside the carboy are clumps of yeast. I've always found yeast to be very soluble, and never seen it stay clumped on the inside wall of a demijon for a long time and all through fermentation.

In the image.jpg photo (Post #3), the lower demijon looks like a lot of the specs might be on the outside of the demijon, perhaps from a spillage of sugary must that has since gone mouldy. The specs on the upper demijon do look like they are mostly on the inside though.

I suspect it might be due to "flowers of wine" aka mycoderma bacteria. The puzzling thing is that "flowers of wine" are normally seen floating on the surface due to oxygen from air getting in due to inadequate airlock/bung seal, not all down the inside wall of the demijon.

https://blog.homebrewing.org/white-scum-on-wine/

 

[SatchIce9]

Just found this thread from Oct 5, 2022 that might be relevent. Howie_G posted his elderberry wine pics showing similar bacterial spots on the inside of their carboys/demijons. Other posters comment it's likely caused by Pediococcus bacteria.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/any-hope-for-an-elderberry-wine-attempt.703609/