Mould on outside of fermenter -Question

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Benn

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Good evening Brewers,

Yesterday arvo bottling- i opened the deep freeze which my fermenter had been in for the last 8 weeks (18deg.) to find a decent amount of fluffy green mould (like the stuff that grows on old bread) on the internal walls of the freezer and also some small smudgy/dusty looking patches on the outside of the fermenter and on the tap. I did my best to clean & sterilize the tap.

My question is not whether I might get an infection- the beer looked and tasted good so i went ahead and bottled it, what I'd like to know is, is an infection from this type of mould likely to cause bottles to explode or just cause the beer to taste like .... If it is likely to cause explosions it would be nice to know in advance.
I now know I've got to be more thorough with cleaning the deep freeze before each brew, has this mould problem happened to other people?

Interestingly, almost all of the mould that was growing on the fermenter was where my hands had come in contact with it i.e around the top/lid area and the tap.

Thanks,
Benn
 
8 weeks? Probably too long to have it at 18C...

It would have been finished 6 weeks ago, possibly 7.
 
No its not going to cause explosions. The mould is on the outside and the fermenter is air tight so as long as it tastes good and the FG has been stable (with 8 weeks you sure as hell wanna hope it has) you'll be fine.
 
The last beer I fermented was in a similar condition, was all mouldy and hairy on the outside, the inside looked fine. Bottled it and it's perfect. Haven't noticed any off flavours nor any changed carbonation. I just made sure that I cleaned it best I could in an area away from where I was bottling so I didn't get too many spores where I was bottling. As long as the seal on the fermenter is still solid there shouldn't be an issue.
 
if you have mould inside your fermenting fridge clean and sanitise your tap before bottling, you will have to look up into it to see if there is nasties harbouring there.

Otherwise you can stuff your whole brew by bottling through a crusty tap.

Not sure if it will be a good brew sitting on a yeast cake for 8 weeks?

Did you go on holidays?
 
Thanks for the quick replies,

The brew was a bit of an experiment I guess, hence the 8 weeks, I've played around with racking to secondary etc. before, and after searching through some interesting discussions on the forum I thought I'd leave it in primary and see how it went. Im only talking coopers real ale kit with hops & re-cul coopers yeast so no massive loss if it turns out shit,
You never never know if you never never go... or something like that.

Cheers
 
Just drink it, if it tastes good then it isn't infected. Just make sure you go crazy with the bleach inside your fridge to get rid of as much as you can.
 
If you're going to leave your beer in primary for 8 weeks, when it reaches FG it's a good idea to turn it down to somewhere between 4C and -1C.
 
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