Anyone know what this is on my Cantillon cork?

looks like an infected cork to me. my .02

 

It's from being placed on its side for an extended period of time. That's the sediment (yeast) from the bottom of the bottle. It's OK if some of it gets in your beer.

Ignore the speculative comment above.

 

If it were mine I would lay it on its side for a while and let that yeast reabsorb into the beer, then store it upright. Not sure if that would even work but I would try it.

 

wasn't speculative, honestly didnt know. Took a guess at it. Wines do that so why not beer.

 

I've had an "infected" sour only once. You'll know very quickly if this is the case.
I wouldn't bet on cork infect, cantillons are rather robust on their own and I doubt they are very susceptible to invasion/"uncontrolled" rotting...Unless someone wanted to share some loon infection horror story (and I'm not referring to the whimsical sulfur bombs cantillons used to be more often than not)

 

If you store them upright for a while the gunk will actually solidify a bit more and just come out with the cork or stick to the bottle. I call them "cork boogers."

 

With an avatar like yours can we believe you?

 

OH MY GOD IT'S POISON! Send it to me, I'll get rid of it for you!

 

this is the definition of speculative

 

You beat me to it.

 

There could not have been a better reply from him.

 

I am a horticulturist by profession, not an english teacher. Next time I will consult Websters prior to posting. Y'all can keep your big ole fancy words. Jerks.

 

Yeah, with how smart everyone seems to act on this site, I often think I accidentally went to quantumphysicsadvocate.com, but then I realize that it's a website dedicated to beer.

 

Dude....

 

this isn't my field, but my understanding was that "infected cork" usually refers to cork that's under attack from fungus or similar. is that correct or no? if so - what does how robust the beer is have to do with the pre-existing condition a cork might have?

 

might be something wrong with it, just send it to me i'll give it a proper taste test !

 

Highly acidic environment, shortage of consumable sugars, presence of competition (various fungal (yeast) and bacterial (multiple) cultures), meh, that's just off the top what I can think of, but I'd like someone to educate more on the Q. I'm mainly drawing on my experience with brewing kombucha for which there are many similarities. Wine is not really comparable as there are measures to protect against fungal "infections" (i.e. brett) and bacterial infestation, as it would putrefy the product

 

i guess what i'm confused about and may very well be wrong - but i thought "cork infection" is when a cork has hidden or dormant fungus that later goes active & eats at a cork. i guess what i'm trying to say is i don't think it generally comes from beer exposure or depends on how "robust" a beer is/isn't. anybody???

 

OP - any chance we could see a pic of the entire top of the bottle?