ColoradoXJ13

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Something is bugging me, pun not intended.

Many people refer to wild yeast or bacteria getting in a batch of beer as an infection, this is a misuse of the word. An infection explicitly involved the colonization of a host organism by another species, usually bacterial, viral, etc. Beer or wort is not an organism, as it is not a 'living' entity, and while some might consider fermenting wort a 'living' organism, it isn't. It is a contained colony of yeast that is slowly (or quickly in many cases) converting sugar to alcohol and CO2. The proper word to describe a scenario where bacteria or wild yeast somehow get into beer or wort and ruin it is contamination. We use sanitizer and clean techniques to prevent contamination, not infection.

Thats all, rant off. Flame on...

Evan!

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It took me all of 7 seconds to enter "infect" into my miriam-webster search tool, and another 15 seconds to copy-paste the first definition here:

Says nothing about a "host organism". It just says "to contaminate with [...] bacteria". I'm sure that there are many differing definitions, and yours is just one of them. According to m-w.com, it is acceptable to use "infection" in this context.

Or, go to dictionary.com and see the following:

That sounds like the correct definition for this context, to a T. Would you not agree?

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Bobby_M

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Yeah, but "disease" in that definition supports the idea of an organism being the target. Then again, it really doesn't matter what you call it that much. The beer tastes like sh!t.

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Drunkensatyr

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LOL......all I can say. Or is that Chuckle Out Loud, OR Laugh Out Quietly (dependent on the decibel of said laugh...)

RedSun

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All I know is that using the word 'taint' rarely means anything good, if you catch my drift.

Bernie Brewer

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You and Damn Squirrels need to get together for an exciting evening of semantics.


http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/homebrewer-vs-craftbrewer-30285/

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seanhagerty

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I dont care what you all call it, from now on I'm going to call all my infections "CARL"

Ex: "I got some carl in my beer. "

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chillHayze

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She's got a yeast carl again!

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