mold or not?

[muskie003]

hey everyone. new to the forum and winemaking......
started three batches in the spring (early may). we made malbec, cab sauv, and pinot from juice buckets (5 gallon buckets). everything went as it should and was excited to bottle. took a small sample to taste about two weeks ago and they all tasted a little "young" but still pretty good.
now the problem. all three batches have a 5 gal carboy and a half gallon jug. both with stopper and airlock. we took very careful steps to ensure sanitation. within the last week or so something developed on the surface of the wine in the 1/2 gal jugs of all three batches, but nothing in the carboys. im not sure if its mold or not. I researched some pictures of mold on the internet and didn't see anything that looked similar to what I saw in our jugs. it is very thin. white in color. almost looked like solidified sugar. tried to skim it of the top with a small spoon and it more or less disintegrated when I touched it.
again, I was very very careful with sanitation. the only source I can think of is that I topped of the half gallons with a bottle of wine from the store. is it possible that this wine contaminated these? has anyone else had this happen? im worried that the wine in the carboy will become affected in time as well.
two pics attached. the top view is a little brighter from the flash on my camera.

 

[jamesngalveston]

you need to resize your pics, there so small i can not see anything.

 

[muskie003]

here are the bigger images

 

[skipdonohue]

looks like mycoderma to me.. caused from not being topped up enough, too low so2 or bung not seated properly… You need to suck this layer off with a turkey baster, and bump up your sulfites to max for your pH and top ALL the way up, and let it sit to see if the bacteria goes away...

 

[Pumpkinman]

I agree with Skipdonohue, sometimes it is easier to slowly add water (i use distilled) until the film is right at the top of the neck of the carboy, at this point you can remove it fairly easily with a turkey baster or paper towel. Make sure that you add meta after you remove it.

 

[muskie003]

thanks guys. I did a little investigating and found some pics that look a lot like what I have. one web site says to add the sulfites after skimming the mold off the top, then immediately bottling the wine. thoughts on that?

 

[jamesngalveston]

I dont think i would bottle after adding sulphites in a wine that is not clear.
If its clear I would add sulphite, wait a week, the bottle...

 

[muskie003]

also, there are a lot of different ranges of sulfite addition. ive seen 25-50 ppm, 50-100 ppm, 25-40 ppm, and 1-2 campden tablets per gallon. is there a right answer?

 

[tingo]

This is what i have done:

1. Turkey baster the white globs out. Try not to break them up too much.

2. Take a tablespoon of distilled water, add a 1/16 of a teaspoon of kmeta and mix. Slowly pool this tablespoon of meta solution on top of the wine, trying to keep what you can at surface level.

3. Wipe the neck and the top of your carboy with a paper towel dipped in your meta solution you use for sanitizing and mist the outside of the carboy with the same solution.

4. Replace meta in airlock with fresh solution or use vodka.

You will put a high concentration of meta at the point of the candida mycoderma infection but when mixed with your wine later on will have a much less effect on raising your ppm of So2.

 

[iVivid]

My understanding is also that the k-meta will only slow and not stop the Mycoderma infection; and its best to drink the wine in a shorter rather than longer time span.

 

[muskie003]

thanks for all the help guys. I ended up seeing a little more than I thought was there so I ended up using the baster to get out would I could and spent the night disinfecting and racking everything. I was at the point where I was going to bottle until I noticed this stuff. i'm going to wait a week and see if I see anything redevelop and if not then i'll bottle. do you think I need to add more kmeta prior to bottling?
again thanks everyone

 

[skipdonohue]

I would personally wait a while longer like a month or 2 or more before I even thought about bottling.. Your wine is infected with mycoderma, the only thing you should be worrying about right now is getting rid of this infection and letting the wine get stable again and see if the mycoderma comes back.. I'd hate to have wine bottled with bacteria in it.. Also its hard to say whether to add more Kmeta or not, when we dont know what your SO2 level is at now for your pH.. Do you test for SO2?

 

[muskie003]

no. I do not test for SO2. my approach isn't that scientific I guess. as far as bottling goes after seeing the mycoderma, ive seen a few sites recommend that you bottle immediately in an effort to kinda choke out the infection while other sites say similar to what youre saying about waiting to see if you've taken care of the problem. my worry is that ive already ruined one batch. we bottled one on a Thursday and saw no signs of the mycoderma and when we went back Friday to bottle, 5 containers had it. so i'm worried the batch we bottled already had some and we missed it. guess ill find out soon enough.