What to do with Infected Beer
 

So I"ve been lazy and never bottled an infected batch of beer. I have not tasted it either, for fear my instruments would be infected for other batches, so I just left it alone.

Awhile back, someone hinted that I could give it some bacteria and turn it into a lambic or perhaps a sour beer. It was orginially a Blonde Ale before it was infected.

Is this a possibility, and if so, how would I go about doing this? Any thoughts would help, thanks.

You'd have to taste it first. You have no idea at this point of what the infection might have done to it. Adding bacteria to a beer that tastes like vomit will only give you sour vomit.

I had my first infection about two weeks ago, and I pitched the beer into the compost. Hey, if it tastes great, bottle it up and enjoy it. Mine did NOT taste good, and life is too short to drink bad beer.

If you haven't tasted it, then how do you know it's infected?????

I was wondering the same thing. If it was mold on the top of the beer, as long as you turn it over relatively quickly (ie, don't age it for years), you won't have any problems.

While mold isn't something you really want, it usually doesn't affect the flavor. We usually describe an infection as an organism, such as lactobacillus, acetobacter, pediococcus or wild yeast, which negatively affect the flavor of your beer, or change the desired taste of the beer.

Kill slugs.

Many of us have had mold develop on the surface and the beer was fine, we just rack from below.

Edcculus is right, mold is not an infection....

Ughhh.

Not the reaction I wanted. Guys, I assure you it is an infection. As was discovered in another Post. Here are my pictures, I know that it is an infection.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinalf/3964276022/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinalf/3963500757/


Nowthen, I just wanted to know if I could salvage it by making it into a sour beer.

Nice colonies in those pics. A little overgrown for microbiology purposes, but still nice work. Wish my lab work would behave that well. ;)

Taste the beer. Until you know how good or "bad" the beer tastes no one can give you advice on what to do with it. I doubt your going to plate those bacteria colonies and submit them for lab analysis, so the only way you can find out if it's good or bad infection is to taste it.

It looks like a pellicle, but it's hard to tell. If you like sour beers, you'll probably like it. If it tastes good, and it's not fermenting any more (you'd have to take sucessive SG readings to ensure it's done, since often an infected beer will ferment lower than a regular fermentation), you can bottle it and drink it.

I don't like sours, but I didn't have a pellicle. I had a definite lacto infection- cloudy and sour with a definite lacto taste. I threw it out. But if you like the taste of yours, why not bottle it up and try it?