Cherry Belgian ale: cherries floating ok?

If this is a mixed fermentation beer, that "mold" is probably a pellicle. If it's not, you should dump your beer. Mold is BAD news. Most molds are, however, obligate aerobes, so if you have something growing in your beer, it's probably a yeast or bacteria that can form EPS.

 

Yes. This is why headspace isn't an issue if active fermentation is occurring. It's only an issue if you have a vessel that is highly permeable or if you let air into the vessel by removing the lid/bung and not purging with CO2.

 

hmm... will have to try and get a picture up on this thread (photobucket doesn't seem to be working) I will try and give a description... white .75-1ish inch growths on the tops of cherries that weren't submerged in the beer. if it is mold, uh oh... I had like 3 pints of the beer yesterday... no issues so far....

 

regardless, moving forward, I will try to purge with CO2 more thoroughly

 

Photobucket is no longer supporting 3rd party hosting so you'll have to use a different site. I switched to Imgur.com and it worked well. However, I had difficulty finding the "Direct link" that is needed to post here on BA, so I'm unsure if I looked in the wrong place or or if it took Imgur 15-20 minutes to process my pic and create the direct link page before I found it. Be sure to click on your pic after you upload it and you should (eventually) get the page with the direct link to copy and use here.