The third, and possibly the best batch, in tropical home brewing adventures, almost met its end in the moldy rainy season condition of June. The rainy season brings clouds of mold that drift invisibly through the air landing on everything. When I checked the carboy on the last day of the 15-day fermentation, I was horrified to find a layer of mold colonies growing on the surface.
I quickly devised a plan…don’t panic…syphon off the brew into a fresh carboy, leaving the offending layer of scum floating on top, and repitch new yeast if necessary. I won’t lie, I was worried- all that work and precious ingredients hand-carried down to Nicaragua going to waste. I decided after syphoning that I would just quickly bottle and hope for the best. One week later, the first bottle was tentatively cracked open and poured…dark as midnight with a thick creamy head. It tasted great, with perfect tones of cacao and java, delightfully bitter, no mold detectable, so good!
Ingredients:
6 lbs. dark malt extract
3 lbs. wheat malt extract
1 lb. chocolate malt
1 lb. black roasted barley
1 lb. Nicaraguan cacao (dried and ground)
4 oz. Nicaraguan Arabica coffee (dark roast and ground)
2 oz. Fuggles hops @ 60 minutes
2 oz. Kent Goldings hops @ 15 minutes
1 oz. Fuggles @ 0 minutes
1 packet Safbrew Britsh Ale yeast
hip-E habitat 
Where in Nico land does this mold condition appear? Everywhere?
Mold is everywhere, not just in Nica. Humid places and times of year just have better conditions for mold to grow and flourish. Yeast is in the air too and you can use wild airborne yeast to brew was well- just put some fruit and sugar water out for a few days and it will start to ferment. Enjoy
This is really cool, thanks for sharing! I can’t imagine homebrewing in that setting (though I’d love to try, lol).
Not sure if you brought a hydrometer with you down there, but what were some of your numbers (OG, FG)?
Keep it up man, very cool stuff!
Cheers