Wtf is this at the top of fermenter? Is it mould and can it be saved?

[Bayern1987]

Help...

 

[Qhrumphf]

It's not mold but it is a pellicle. It's a telltale sign of infection. If you want to potentially salvage, rack it to the smallest glass carboy possible (as little headspace as possible), and let it sit a while. If you don't do sour beers, just dispose of all plastic that touched it and heat pastuerize everything else after a thorough cleaning. If you brew sour/wild beers you can relegate all that plastic to the funk pile.

There's no guarantee it won't taste like garbage no matter what you do. It could also be amazing. If I were you I'd rack to glass, and then feed it viable sour dregs to build some biodiversity in there and hedge your bets.

Unless it already tastes unpleasantly phenolic (burnt, plasticy, smoky, medicinal, etc) or acetoney (like nail polish remover) or cheesy or vomity or anything else like that. In that case there's likely no saving it so just dump it.

In the same vein, if you don't want to wait on/chance a sour/wild project, just dump it.

 

[Bayern1987]

It's not mold but it is a pellicle. It's a telltale sign of infection. If you want to potentially salvage, rack it to the smallest glass carboy possible (as little headspace as possible), and let it sit a while. If you don't do sour beers, just dispose of all plastic that touched it and heat pastuerize everything else after a thorough cleaning. If you brew sour/wild beers you can relegate all that plastic to the funk pile.

There's no guarantee it won't taste like garbage no matter what you do. It could also be amazing. If I were you I'd rack to glass, and then feed it viable sour dregs to build some biodiversity in there and hedge your bets.

Unless it already tastes unpleasantly phenolic (burnt, plasticy, smoky, medicinal, etc) or acetoney (like nail polish remover) or cheesy or vomity or anything else like that. In that case there's likely no saving it so just dump it.

In the same vein, if you don't want to wait on/chance a sour/wild project, just dump it.

Really? I am always super sanitary when completing each process...
Left this one in the fermented for 6 weeks so thought it was mould... skimmed it and racked to bottling bucket and it tastes alright.

That's a shame. I'm not into sour or funky beers. Waste of equipment

Thanks for the info