There's Musrhooms In My Fermentor?

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Spartan 117

Well-Known Member
Joined
30/10/08
Messages
532
Reaction score
0
Just got a call from a uni mate of mine who's in NSW, he's from there and lives in melbourne while at uni, he brews while on holidays and he just called me asking the best way to clean mushrooms from your fermentor. He didn't clean it before he left last time and its been sitting in the garden shed for about 2 months or so. WTF!!!! I just think that's so rank but so funny at the same time.

I'd personally wet everything down with bleach+water but then again I'm thikning "what if the mushrooms are poisionous?"

Any ideas??

Cheers

Aaron
 
Bleach is fine. The mushrooms themselves toss them. The mushroom industry grows mushrooms on boiled grain (notice the similarity :p) and then as the moisture levels drop they are induced into fruiting (growing the upper mushroom part). You must have had spent grain product left in the fermenter that airborne spores landed on and started growing mycelium. Then as moisture dropped grew mushrooms on top of the cottony mycelium.

Either way, cleaned fermenter and you'll be fine. You'll eliminate most of the spores although pressure cooker is recommended for sterilisation of the majority of spores. Suffice to say when you put wort in there and ferment it out to beer with a big pitch of yeast cells there is no way any residual mushroom spore will be able to compete. You're safe to reuse the fermenter.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete
 
If it is plastic and there is serious stuff like mushrooms :eek: , I'd replace it for $15 @ Bunnings.

Give it a good rinse to get out debris, then a full volume soak of hot water with sodium percarbonate (unscented nappy soaker) + caustic + detergent for a week or so, followed by a full volume soak with starsan or iodophor for another week.
 
If it is plastic and there is serious stuff like mushrooms :eek: , I'd replace it for $15 @ Bunnings.

Give it a good rinse to get out debris, then a full volume soak of hot water with sodium percarbonate (unscented nappy soaker) + caustic + detergent for a week or so, followed by a full volume soak with starsan or iodophor for another week.


That's what i said but he's keen on keeping his fermenter, he lives in the sticks and unless he drives 2 hours there and two hours back a trip to Bunnings just isn't worth it. mind you if he soaks it for two weeks he'll be back in melbourne and wont get any beer out of it :p .

Aaron
 
I've just had issues with mould & spores throughout my brewery and I've gone over everything with the bleach+white vinegar+water combo as recommended by some.

1 cup bleach:4 litres of water:1 cup white vinegar. 10-30 mins contact time has said to kill all bacteria, including anthrax spores.

Had a dark ale sitting there for months that had some funky infection and growth on top. Tipped the beer, cleaned it out with the bleach and vinegar and dropped a beer in it the next day; which came out fine.
 
My fermenter has mushrooms in it, too! Little tiny ones that eat sugar and excrete ethanol and CO2...

:icon_cheers:

I've just had issues with mould & spores throughout my brewery and I've gone over everything with the bleach+white vinegar+water combo as recommended by some.

1 cup bleach:4 litres of water:1 cup white vinegar. 10-30 mins contact time has said to kill all bacteria, including anthrax spores.

Had a dark ale sitting there for months that had some funky infection and growth on top. Tipped the beer, cleaned it out with the bleach and vinegar and dropped a beer in it the next day; which came out fine.
 
if any of them are these type of mushrooms you can kindly pick them and send em to me for research purpses :

three-kinds-magic-mushrooms.jpg


B)
 
if any of them are these type of mushrooms you can kindly pick them and send em to me for research purpses :

three-kinds-magic-mushrooms.jpg


B)

Whats the one on the right called? is that a top down shot?
 
not too sure mate ripped the pic straight from google images.
 
if any of them are these type of mushrooms you can kindly pick them and send em to me for research purpses :

three-kinds-magic-mushrooms.jpg


B)


+1 for research with Fents.

Goldtop or Blue Meanie beer - Now there's an idea.

Spartan 117, your mate is a genius.
 
Just got a call from a uni mate of mine who's in NSW, he's from there and lives in melbourne while at uni, he brews while on holidays and he just called me asking the best way to clean mushrooms from your fermentor. He didn't clean it before he left last time and its been sitting in the garden shed for about 2 months or so. WTF!!!! I just think that's so rank but so funny at the same time.

I'd personally wet everything down with bleach+water but then again I'm thikning "what if the mushrooms are poisionous?"

Any ideas??

Cheers

Aaron

hillarious... but I was hoping for photos
 
Whats the one on the right called? is that a top down shot?


from left-right, Psilocybe Cubensis(average potency),Copelandia Cyanescans(strongly visual trip) and Psilocybe Tampanensis aka Philosophers stones(weak to average potency) hope this helps :D
 
+1 for research with Fents.

Goldtop or Blue Meanie beer - Now there's an idea.

Spartan 117, your mate is a genius.


It could be done if you thoroughly dried a shit load of shrooms and then chopped them up or powdered them and add this to secondary you might find a bunch of crystals at the bottom of your fermentor since psilocybin,when in contact with alcohol forms a salt. A better idea would be to get some really strong vodka, add your shroom powder to this, heat for a few hours, filter out mushroom crap, put the filtrate in a freezer and collect the crystals that fall out and then drop a few in at bottling time and wala! - shroom beer!
(personally im happy enough with a nice stout or wheat beer) ;)
 
Back
Top