Is this mold?

[Billiamos]

Hello everyone,

Hoping to get some help with this one. I've been scouring threads but cannot quite find anything like this.

I started a traditional batch of mead about a week ago. 3lbs of Great Lakes honey, spring water, D47 yeast and some yeast nutrients. About half of the honey was crystallized but the bottles were sealed.

Fermentation was normal, if not a bit more quiet than normal but still actively fermenting.

About 6 days in I noticed these white patches forming on the glass in the headspace. I don't see any on the brew, just glass.

Everything was sanitized with a no-rinse sanitizer and was not exposed to air except to add nutrients on day 2 and 5. I've swirled the mead about once a day to degas for the first week. I'm hoping it's not mold but I'm not sure what else it could be. Any help would be great.

 

[4give]

Hi - Are you referring to the tiny white specks on the glass itself? Or just the stuff at the top near the stopper? If so, mold would likely be growing fairly quickly. You can watch it for a couple days to confirm. Do you shake these to 'stir'? I'm asking because it could just be particles in the must that got stuck.
Raw, unfiltered, honey can still have flecks of pollen and wax in it. I 'strain' the honey I extract from my hives just to remove any 'hive particles', and I still get plenty of tiny wax, pollen, etc., particles that generally float to the top of my honey buckets. I have honey gates at the bottom of my buckets, so when I get down to the 'bottom' of a bucket, it's actually the top where many of these particles are. I've had batches of mead where I ended up with quite a few of these tiny particles that I ID'd as comb wax for sure. Never hurt a thing in my mead.
That's my best guess from what I can tell in the pics and your description.
There's always some loss when racking, but you could try racking out the must from the bottom just to make sure. Obviously, take as much of the must as you can if it's still fermenting.

 

[Billiamos]

Hi - Are you referring to the tiny white specks on the glass itself? Or just the stuff at the top near the stopper? If so, mold would likely be growing fairly quickly. You can watch it for a couple days to confirm. Do you shake these to 'stir'? I'm asking because it could just be particles in the must that got stuck.
Raw, unfiltered, honey can still have flecks of pollen and wax in it. I 'strain' the honey I extract from my hives just to remove any 'hive particles', and I still get plenty of tiny wax, pollen, etc., particles that generally float to the top of my honey buckets. I have honey gates at the bottom of my buckets, so when I get down to the 'bottom' of a bucket, it's actually the top where many of these particles are. I've had batches of mead where I ended up with quite a few of these tiny particles that I ID'd as comb wax for sure. Never hurt a thing in my mead.
That's my best guess from what I can tell in the pics and your description.
There's always some loss when racking, but you could try racking out the must from the bottom just to make sure. Obviously, take as much of the must as you can if it's still fermenting.

Thanks for the reply!

I am referring to the white specs on the glass. There's a thin layer on the top of the must as well. I've swirled them in the carboy to stir, not so much a shake but the must has touched the sides in the headspace.

I'm still very green to brewing and havnt had to dump one yet but there's always a first time.

I appreciate the help. I planned on adding peaches but I might let this play out. I'll update this thread as it goes on. Fingers crossed everything is good.