Mould in bubbler water

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

I fitted a blow-off tube to my PET carboy with the other end of the tube in a jug of water and VWP. The initial fermentation was pretty rigorous so some sediment and whatnot found it's way into the jug aswell. When I went to dry hop the beer after a week I noticed 2 small dots of mould floating on the surface of water in the jug.

What are the chances this could have worked it's way into the beer?

In hindsight I suppose I should have changed out the water but I didn't want to disturb it.

[johnrm]

I think you should be fine.
Some of the blow off didn't get dosed in VWP, so got exposed to air and went mouldy.
Assuming the everything up to the VWP was sanitised, no problem.

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

Cool - fingers crossed. I'll know soon enough when I bottle it anyway

[Parky]

I think you should be fine.

+1 on the above.

One little tip that may help is to put the end of the blow off tube into a plastic drinks bottle (see pic below), rather than an open jug. The narrow opening at the top makes it less likely for airborne spores to land on the top/sides of your blow-off container. It also means that the headspace in the drinks bottle is filled with CO2, which may inhibit any nasties growing there.

Just an idea of course 

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

Good idea Parky - I like it!

[johnrm]

You could go one further...
Sanitise the second vessel. Use cooled boiled water, use a cap with 2 holes, blow off in one and air lock in the second.
You are now capturing the blow off (lots of healthy yeast) in the blow off vessel.