blue mould on turbo cider

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rhodian

blue mould on turbo cider

Post by rhodian » Sun Apr 01, 2012 11:26 am

so, just apple juice and yeast. will probably bulk it out with sugar water shortly, BUT... the first batch of yeast didn't take, and tho we're now fermenting happily with a second bunch of yeast, it's not before some funky looking specks of blue mould have formed. now, i know this is great on cheese, and to be honest it may have happened before - i never really pay much attention to what's going on on the surface of my brews while they're fermenting - but, well, i dunno...

how will this affect: a) the flavour of my cider and b) my health?

any ideas?

cheers!

ian

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Jim
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Re: blue mould on turbo cider

Post by Jim » Sun Apr 01, 2012 3:20 pm

I don't like the sound of that. :shock:

I'd be very wary about drinking it, to be honest.
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Stoat on a rope

blue mould on turbo cider

Post by Stoat on a rope » Sun Apr 01, 2012 3:59 pm

I recently listened to something that said if you get mould growing on the top of your beer, skim it off along with any other suspect objects floating there that may have caused the mould (all with a sterile utensil mind!) and it could still be ok. I guess it would be wise to try the cider and make sure it doesn't taste odd, ie penicillin-y, and keep a close eye on it through the rest of fermentation etc and make sure the problem doesn't run deeper. But if all is good, carry on!

I wouldn't have thought it to be an option before and would have ditched anything showing signs of 'new life', but if you can spare the fermenting vessel and time to risk on an experiment, give what I said a go, bearing in mind it might be a bigger problem on cider than beer, im not sure. I would be interested to hear if it works.

Good luck if you go for it

boingy

Re: blue mould on turbo cider

Post by boingy » Sun Apr 01, 2012 5:53 pm

Blue mould is a new one one me but I don't know much about TC. With beer the usual infection is a white dusting and you can get away with racking most of the beer from under the surface, leaving only the top couple of inches to be chucked. It's prudent to drink the beer young because there are bound to be remnants of the infection in the racked beer.

I suggest you try the same with the TC. Don't be too tight and try to save every last drop. Siphon or drain from under the surface and leave a good wodge behind. Then have a taste. If it makes you puke, it's probably not good to drink. Other than that it's unlikely to harm you.

rhodian

Re: blue mould on turbo cider

Post by rhodian » Mon Apr 02, 2012 1:35 am

thanks for your various comments. this is a mini-brew with only 2 litres of apple juice at stake, so the sensible thing to do would probably be to just chuck it. have to say, i'm kinda curious tho. i made a batch of real-cider-from-actual apples recently and some of those apples were a mess (i discarded the worst, but included ones i wouldn't have eaten) and that cider is amazing!

it's in a demi-john so skimming isn't really an option. the specks of mould have now turned black and i'm assuming that the mould has been killed by the yeast and/or the layer of CO2 from fermentation. smells healthily like cider rather than cheese. total surface area of mould coverage is about 1%. i usually add a couple of litres of sugar-water at this stage, but i reckon if i add enough to make it overflow, then the mould should spill out the top and i can pretend it never happened.

if it tastes somehow great, i'll let youse know.

cheers

ian

Stoat on a rope

blue mould on turbo cider

Post by Stoat on a rope » Mon Apr 02, 2012 3:39 pm

I've made cider from apples picked off the orchard floor as late as Christmas! They must have been there ages, I was amazed at how nice many of them looked, almost supermarket quality, but some were in a terrible state, they all went into the cider though and it too was amazing! Never made a turbo though so I can't compare.

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Pinto
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Re: blue mould on turbo cider

Post by Pinto » Mon Apr 02, 2012 8:23 pm

Make sure you give SHMBO your login details so she can post where to sent the get well cards :lol: :p

Braver man than me tbh - mould is a baad thing IMO - from what you describe, it does sound dead - but its what it managed to metabolise INTO you cider during its lifespan that would worry me :(
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Spud395

Re: blue mould on turbo cider

Post by Spud395 » Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:08 pm

rhodian wrote:the specks of mould have now turned black and i'm assuming that the mould has been killed by the yeast
Or maybe it's plague :shock:

second2none

Re: blue mould on turbo cider

Post by second2none » Mon Apr 02, 2012 10:26 pm

You get blue mould on cheese dont you?

But from my experience with moulds as a mushroom grower is if you can see blue or green the whole project is spoiled as it is not just what you can see its also spores and microbes lurking around to that you have to worry about!

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