Eek!! Mold

[troton]

Yes Mold, I am a very very newbee, Sept 23 I started a concord grape, Moved it to the secondary 7 days later. Sg was 1070.00 I stirred it the first few days and Have left it. I went to look at it yestersday and it had a layer of mold with mold bubbles on top.

I am guessing a contaimation at this point. BUT??? What else could it have been. I have two more batches in a primary and do not want the same thing. I only had a 6 gallon Carboy at the time and it was one gallon dessert wine recipe(no water). Was the Carboy too big? I now have a three gallon. Is that still going to be too big? Did it get too much air?

At this point I have done nothing. Is it completely lost? Or can it actually rescued???

Should I bleach the carboy and then use the sterile solution?

 

[Deye Busyu]

What does mold look like? I looked at my wine this morning and it's just finished it's high bubbling period and there looks like a tiny amount of, well I guess froth, right around the edges of the wine. Is that mold? Now I'm paranoid.

 

[troton]

oh mine is cleary mold. It is white and growing. Looks like a bad lab experminent. Maybe my wine is getting ready for Halloween. I am guessing if mold was able to grow my I screwed up because my alcohol content would be too low.

 

[Wine Maker]

Troton, was SG 1.070 at the start of fermentation? 1.070 at the start of fermentation without any added sugar would still result in 9.7% alc if fermented to dry (1.000 SG). I don't have an answer for you on the mold though, I have never experienced it myself.

 

[scubaman2151]

A slight bit a foam is expected, but if your really paranoid about it take a pic and put it up here.

troton:
Did you sanitize everything, I mean everything that touches the wine? If not, that could be your problem. If you did, then I dont know. As for what you can do, I dont think you can do anything besides dump it, but you might want to wait for a second opinion before you do that.

 

[weltercat]

Why can't you just re-sulfite it with some more campten tablets? That should kill all the mold. It might take it a couple days to start fermenting again but then you should be fine.

I am new to this as well so someone please correct me if I am wrong but I would try that.

 

[scubaman2151]

Why can't you just re-sulfite it with some more campten tablets? That should kill all the mold. It might take it a couple days to start fermenting again but then you should be fine.

I am new to this as well so someone please correct me if I am wrong but I would try that.

That would kill all the yeast, fermentation wouldnt restart without you adding more yeast, but I think once it molds you cant do much about it. I think.

 

[troton]

I have a couple more going right now. So I think to be on the safe side I will just get rid of that batch. I have reviewed my notes and read a bit more. I think i have realized my mistakes and just start over. Oh well right now it is all about learning. A coworker laughed at me and said,"but I thought you were an expert wine maker?" I laughed," No, no I am an expert wine drinker, I am a newbee at this wine making thing."

 

[weltercat]

That would kill all the yeast, fermentation wouldnt restart without you adding more yeast, but I think once it molds you cant do much about it. I think.

I don't know about that. If you used wine yeast it should be sulfite tolerant and should continue to ferment as long as no sorbate was added at the same time.

Jack Kellers website recommends re-sulfiting your wine every other racking to prevent such things.