Possible infection?

[GetExperienced]

Hello Brewers,

I'm a true noob.. First post, first cider, only 3 brews total under my belt.

About 3 months ago i got some cider from a farmers market. Pasturized, but no preservatives.

Had a healthy fermentation with wine yeast that came recommended to me. Had to shake it sometimes to get it to bubble.. But the yeast was working. Used yeast nutrient, tannin, and pectic enzyme.. Also reccomended to me.

Didnt taste horrible after primary, just tasted "young." Put it into secondary where its been since. I want to bottle now, but the cider has a thin white coating on top. If i tap the carboy, little pieces of it fall down to the bottom.

The rest of the cider has a nice color, not as clear as i'd wanted, but still nice looking.

Its been stored in the mid 60s the whole time.

Working on getting some good pics of it without making all the coating fall to the bottom.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

 

[GetExperienced]

Keep in mind that what you see in the pics was covering the entire surface area of the cider. Most of it fell down to the bottom when i was moving it out of the crawlspace so i could get some good lighting.

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

I think its a lacto infection. If it were beer I'd say let it go for a few months and see what you get but cider, I'm not sure.

 

[Yooper]

It's hard to tell from the picture- but it looks like you have a ton of headspace in your carboy. A topped up carboy will not get mold or infection but one with a lot of headspace will allow a ton of oxygen in, and oxygen loving mold and bacteria will grow easily.

You may be able to save this, though. You'd need to sulfite the cider with campden tablets (potassium metabisulfite), in a pretty high dose, and then rack to the proper sized carboy.

A topped up carboy should look like this:


This is not my photo- I'm on my little netbook and don't have my photos on it, so this is one I grabbed off of the internet.

Hopefully, the infection process is very early and you can save the cider.

 

[parrothead600]

I think that I have the same thing going on with my current batch. There was a white, "powdery looking" film on top. This film breaks apart very easily. There is an "off smell" to it, but I'm not sure how to describe it (it is not a sulfur or vinegar smell but more of a sour smell). I took a small sample of it from below the film, which tasted very "watery". Other that that, it seemed fine.
Yooper mentioned to sulfite the cider in a pretty high dose. What would be considered to be a high dose?
I'm thinking that I should rack this to the keg & sulfite it for a week or so, then backsweeten & carb it. Would this plan work?

 

[D-west]

I am doing a batch of apple cider vinegar and that white powdery mold you see on the top is what makes vinegar. I had it happen before, and fixed it. Here is what I did.

I too had way to much head space in my carboy. So first thing you need to do, is get as much cider away from that mold as possible. I used 6 campden tablets in 5gal of cider, I crushed them up, put them in the empty sanitized carboy, added 1 gallon of fresh juice, then I racked the cider very carefully into the new sanitized carboy with the fresh juice and campden making sure not to mix/disturb the top 3" of infected cider in with the rest, mine was clearing so I could easily tell where to stop. Also the gallon of fresh juice in the new carboy gives you plenty of room to play with, make sure you top it off like the picture above or you risk infection.

I let mine sit for another 2 weeks and it was fine, didn't have to add anything to sweeten it and kegged it, turned out great.

 

[parrothead600]

I am doing a batch of apple cider vinegar and that white powdery mold you see on the top is what makes vinegar. I had it happen before, and fixed it. Here is what I did.

I too had way to much head space in my carboy. So first thing you need to do, is get as much cider away from that mold as possible. I used 6 campden tablets in 5gal of cider, I crushed them up, put them in the empty sanitized carboy, added 1 gallon of fresh juice, then I racked the cider very carefully into the new sanitized carboy with the fresh juice and campden making sure not to mix/disturb the top 3" of infected cider in with the rest, mine was clearing so I could easily tell where to stop. Also the gallon of fresh juice in the new carboy gives you plenty of room to play with, make sure you top it off like the picture above or you risk infection.

I let mine sit for another 2 weeks and it was fine, didn't have to add anything to sweeten it and kegged it, turned out great.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. I've got nothing to loose at this point.