Mysterious green blobs

[kirton]

I have just made a batch of elderberry and after straining the mash into 2 demijohns, i have found green, oil-like blobs floating on the surface of the liquid. I have syphoned off the liquid into fresh demijohns leaving these blobs behind and it's all fermenting nicely with no re-occurrence of these strange blobs.

Photos of blobs here.... http://www.tonydaniel.webspace.virginmedia.com/wine/index.html

I have never encountered this before and was wondering if anyone else could explain what these blobs are and whether the wine will be safe to drink.

Cheers

Kirton

 

[kirton]

I syphoned off the wine into a clean new demijohn just after posting the above. I have now come to rack the wine for the first time and the little green bobs have reappeared, but much smaller and less of them. I plan on syphoning them of like last time and adding a campden tablet to stop fermentation. If the green blobs are caused by bacteria or algae, will the campden tablet kill these off?

 

[Kyral210]

Hmmm, I am no brew master, but I am pretty sure these are not good news. I would say that your batch is infected and is now a lost cause. Try taking some of the blobs off the surface of the liquid and growing them in some sugar solution. If they grow like nuts then it is definitely bacteria and you can probably say goodbye to your brew. Maybe campden would stop them reproducing and they would die, but by now I cant imagine they will have added anything but bad flavours to your wine.

 

[gilgamesh]

To my untrained eye the blobs look like oil. Did you use raisins in your elderberry? I did and I must not have washed them as well as I thought. I have a fine layer of oil on my elderberry that is diminishing when racked. The wine tastes fine but it does look a little odd. I would have a little taste and a smell but keep a close eye on it.

 

[dizidave]

I racked my elderberry at the weekend and i noticed an oily greenish "tide mark" where the top of the brew meets the air.

I didnt notice any on the surface but didnt look all that close.

I think it may well be the unwashed raisin idea.

The brew itself tastes and smells fine.

 

[Tony]

Interesting. No idea at all, I've never seen them before.

But (and I apologise for this in advance), as soon as I saw your post the following phrase popped into my mind:

It's life Jim, but not as we know it.

 

[kirton]

Thanks all,

To my untrained eye the blobs look like oil. Did you use raisins in your elderberry?

I racked my elderberry at the weekend and i noticed an oily greenish "tide mark" where the top of the brew meets the air..... The brew itself tastes and smells fine.

I agree, it did look like oil, but i didn't use any raisins. However I do live in a heavy industrialised area and some of the berries were picked less than a 100m from the M4 and the rest at the bottom of an embankment next to a main A road. Maybe I didn't wash them thoroughly enough!

I racked the wine again after a couple of days and so far there has been no more. I had a little taste and it seems OK.

I might label this batch up as 'Rocket Fuel' :party:

 

[unclepumble]

To my untrained eye the blobs look like oil. Did you use raisins in your elderberry? I did and I must not have washed them as well as I thought. I have a fine layer of oil on my elderberry that is diminishing when racked. The wine tastes fine but it does look a little odd. I would have a little taste and a smell but keep a close eye on it.

Raisins do not naturally contain oil, as long as they are seedless, however be very careful when using them, as one of the tricks of the trade for getting rid of old crappy looking stock, is to spray the skins with citric acid, then coat them in Kosher vegetable oil. It plumps them up and makes them look shiny and appetising, but buggers em up for brewing with.

All the ready to eat fruits have gone though the same process.

UP

 

[greencheapsk8]

If you live next to a big-ass highway, Plian old water wont get rid of oilly *****. Unless you clean it with turps or something, that gunk is probably to stay, if its petro chemicaly made