Need help!! Infection?!
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Not necessarily. What kind of brew is this?
What makes you think it's infected? Have you tasted it?
What's that black stick in the 7-8 o'clock position?
What makes you think it's infected? Have you tasted it?
What's that black stick in the 7-8 o'clock position?
This is a peach mead I had just finished cold crashing and was about to start bottling it. That is a vanilla bean.
I tried it. It tasted young but im also just overly worried about an infected batch.
I've never seen anything that looks like this in beer. Almost looks like a scoby like you would find in kambucha. Any chance you added gelatin to this batch?
EDIT: Oh wait, mead is made from honey. Could that be a byproduct of the honey you used? Maybe there was bees wax in it that settled to the top? I don't know really, just taking a guess since you're not getting much response. I would take a sample and bottle it up. Then I would check the fermenter to see what that is? Is it solid and waxy or more like a gelatin? I might also try tasting it. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. LOL
EDIT: Oh wait, mead is made from honey. Could that be a byproduct of the honey you used? Maybe there was bees wax in it that settled to the top? I don't know really, just taking a guess since you're not getting much response. I would take a sample and bottle it up. Then I would check the fermenter to see what that is? Is it solid and waxy or more like a gelatin? I might also try tasting it. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. LOL
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There seems to be an oily film floating on top.
[Rephrased] There is some white haze on the top too, but I don't think it's a pellicle. Pellicles can be formed due to an infection by an intruder, such as a wild yeast.
Meads tend to be fairly high in alcohol, which is a deterrent to anything else growing in there.
Taste some. If it tastes good, the gravity has been low as expected, and hasn't dropped over the past 2 weeks, it may be ready to bottle.
[Rephrased] There is some white haze on the top too, but I don't think it's a pellicle. Pellicles can be formed due to an infection by an intruder, such as a wild yeast.
Meads tend to be fairly high in alcohol, which is a deterrent to anything else growing in there.
Taste some. If it tastes good, the gravity has been low as expected, and hasn't dropped over the past 2 weeks, it may be ready to bottle.
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There isn't anything in the picture that one can say that it is definitely infected. I don't think it is.
Realize that if it is infected there isn't really anything you can do for it.
It will either taste bad or it'll taste good. You never really know when you don't know the specific bacteria or wild yeast infecting it.
If the SG goes way lower than the expected FG then that might be a indication that something else got in there and fermented the normally unfermentable sugars.
Just like beers that aren't infected, the taste might improve with age. Or it might not.
Realize that if it is infected there isn't really anything you can do for it.
It will either taste bad or it'll taste good. You never really know when you don't know the specific bacteria or wild yeast infecting it.
If the SG goes way lower than the expected FG then that might be a indication that something else got in there and fermented the normally unfermentable sugars.
Just like beers that aren't infected, the taste might improve with age. Or it might not.
