Identify the funk

is it glow in the dark green? hard to tell from the pic.

might be pediococcus.

 

Impossible to tell just by looking at it.

 

Please, get another picture

 

You dumped it? That seems like a knee-jerk reaction unless it tasted like battery acid.

For the record, using tin foil instead of an airlock will not cause any problems. I haven't used an airlock in a long time.

 

Yeast does some weird things sometimes. How did you pitch and with what? What strain? Starter? How long after pitching was the picture taken? That might have been a good beer with an awkward yeast start. Or it could have been the beginnings of a great malt vinegar...

Seriously, an airlock is actually pretty optional during primary, and can sometimes be more trouble than its worth in a particularly vigorous fermentation. Lots of traditional breweries use open fermenters. (But they have access to massive amounts of active yeast). Since you (like most of us home brewers) probably under pitched, a foil top is a good idea, but it's probably more than sufficient to keep weird critters from taking effect. The truth is, no brewer - amateur or pro - has truly sterile conditions. So every fermentation is essentially a race between the desired critter (your yeast) and the undesirable critters (wild yeasts and bacteria) to establish a critical mass, as it were. The more healthy yeast you pitch and the healthier the wort, the easier the race is to win.

An airlock's job is to keep things clean and pure after active fermentation slows down and for secondary.

I've had a few go wrong in my day. In my experience, most critters don't create weird visual signatures early in primary. Lactobacillus is the fastest of the common infections, but it does not do that, which I might describe as a kreuzen for lack of a better word. Pediococcus, Bretannomyces, and Acetobacter are the other common beer infections, but they are typically slower acting and take several months to make themselves at home. The other fast acting critter is wild yeast, but I've never seen a wild yeast start and create a weird kreuzen like that. Pediococcus can create what is often described as a "ropy" fermentation though.

It almost looks like there are ants on the top of each of those nodules. The black dot thingies seem more disconcerting to me...

 

i have a lambic going. its 70 days in and i have a whiteish shiney film on the top. i assume its pedio. might be wrong.

 

You dumped it? Pray for forgiveness from the beer gods.

Seriously, you probably should have considered keeping it around to see what it developed into. It is a scientifical fact that nothing that can harm you can live in beer, so it's not like it would have been dangerous to taste it. You might have had an excellent sour in the works.

Anyway... the pic does not look normal, so you probably do want to review your sanitation.