this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
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Raspberry peanut butter mead, this happened after racking into tertiary. Primary and secondary had raspberries freefloating in the container, so it miiiight just be floating bits of raspberry. When I shake it up, they briefly sink and float back up.

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That looks to me like the shells of the drupelets of the raspberries that have been squashed, so all of the colored juice has come out. Presumably racking it over also liberated some co2 which caused it to float. I would refrain from opening the fermenter cause every time you do, you let in O2 and roll the dice on infection.

[–] Hlodwig@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Peanut butter ? Its not because you can do something that you should...

What does it smell? Nice subtle yeast odor or an odd/off odor?

It doesn't look like mold, but it could be unwanted bacteria biofilms which should smell bad...

[–] birdcannon@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Curiosity inspires!

It smells like honey and peanuts, nothing off

[–] Hlodwig@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

But how did you include the peanut butter ? Yeast can't digest fat and if you have a thin layer of oil on top of your mix (fat and water never mix), then bad things can happen on top of this layer.

But if it doesn't smell off then you are normaly ok.

[–] birdcannon@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I didn’t use actual peanut butter, it was PB2 powdered peanut butter

[–] Hlodwig@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I see, you should be good then, but its maybe better to remove what is floating

[–] alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago

Funny thing is, apparently, yeast can metabolize fat - according to Dr. White, they can use available fat instead of synthesizing their own using oxygen on growth stage to build new cell walls. It's not a lot of fat they need though, but quite measurable amount, and only on exponential growth.

[–] SGforce@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] wizzor@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 days ago

Yea this would be my hypothesis too.

[–] CodingCarpenter@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Use your nose that'll be more reliable than visual. And generally if it's not fuzzy it's not mold. If you're really worried just don't drink it. But to me it looks like pulp or maybe pectin

[–] birdcannon@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

I was hoping it was just pulp, and it smells pretty nice, thank you for affirming

[–] birdcannon@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] lath@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Those look like fat, juicy larvae to my untrained eye.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Looks like a mix of yeast and possibly an infection, but I distill so filth means shit to me and I shouldn't be trusted.

Sanitation is why I went from brewing to distilling.

[–] alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

Sanitation? Username checks out lol.

[–] alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Looks like chunks of berries, not like mold. How did you rack exactly?

Sniffing it is your best analysis available. Just scoop some and sniff, if you don't like it, you won't like the rest!

[–] birdcannon@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I use an auto siphon, sanitizing everything of course. Primary had freefloating raspberries, then same with secondary when backsweetening. Racked to tertiary after a week and that’s when this appeared, and I had never seen that before in a batch.

You make a great point in that I could definitely just scoop it out, then if it returns I have my answer. Thank you!