Lawrence Brewers Guild

My wife and I brewed a double IPA a month or more ago. It was transferred to the 2ndary after fermenting for about 2 weeks. The 6 gal carboy was placed in a place consistently at 70-71 degrees and dark. After about a week of being in the 2ndary we decided to dry hop with leaf cascades that Freestate donated months ago. They were stored in a freezer bag in the freezer and were poured directly into the carboy.

Just yesterday I checked on the baby and noticed there was white fuzzy stuff growing on top of the hops. The hops have probably been in there for 10-14 days. This was pretty alarming! All I've read indicates hops don't often grow mold because of their antiseptic qualities.

I'm tempted to go ahead and bottle now instead of waiting until mid October. I could also try and fish out the hops if they do indeed have mold on them. I haven't taken a gravity reading lately or tasted it.

Does anyone have any ideas? HELP!

A couple of things.
First 14 days is way to long to dryhop. 3-5 days max is plenty long enough otherwise you will pick up phenolic flavors (green grassy) picked up from the vegetative parts of the hop. You want the oils only.

I say taste your beer and see how that goes for you. If no off flavors then your golden. The white stuff could be yeast, co2, or worst case scenario lacto. Id be surprised it was mold. Regardless get your beer away from those hops and taste it. What was the OG/FG btw? Might even post a pic.

Agree with Andy, but don't try and remove the hops but rack from underneath them.

It would be nice to know what your specific gravity is at this point. Look to see if it is dropping.

The oil in hops is what kills the bugs and yeast by coating the cell wall. Leaf hops will not have the cell walls crushed or broken down by heat. The flower can still have bugs on the surface.

Taste the beer. Check the gravity. Don't bottle until you are sure the final gravity is stable and don't throw the beer out

You might need a little thicker bottle if bottled to soon If unsure, prime with sugar at a lower carbonation level. What is the gravity - important?

You might find this entertaining:
http://www.babblebelt.com/newboard/thre ... 1285251585

amen...and amen...

for next time, you may want to rack the beer to a keg from the secondary. Then use a hop bag with a length of fishing line attached to it. You sanitize the bag and line with Starsan, put in the hops in and put it in the keg. seal it up and charge with a bit of CO2. This way you can taste the beer after a couple of days. When you get the right amount of hop goodness, just open the keg and pull out the hop bag. no mess, no fuss and clean up is a breeze.

Andy's method works great! Have used it several times with great results.

Jason

We decided to go ahead and bottle the beer a bit early just to get the beer off the suspicious looking white filmy fuzzy stuff. We took a hydrometer reading that was consistent with the last one taken at the transfer from primary to secondary. The OG was 1.085 and ended up right around 1.020. We tasted it with no apparent off flavors so I think we are good!

Great ideas from all the posts. I'll keep in mind the length of dry hopping time. I checked the calendar and it was 9 days dry hopping.

Thanks guys!

Looking at your gravity readings, I believe that you are safe as far as sugar consuming bugs (76% ADF).

The one thing to look for later is high foaming beers about a month down the road or maybe a little longer.