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Ksosh · 09-05-2009, 01:43 AM

Think I've traced my latest infection to a frigging turkey baster. Buying a wine-thief next week to fix the problem.

Anyway, does this look like a lacto infection? Started with just a little bit, and grew over the last couple days into this. Going to siphon from under and bottle (assuming gravity is ok) tomorrow.
*edit - gravity was 1.024, high, but bottle-able I think unless someone disagrees*

The good news is it tasted like crap before the infection, so it can't get much worse. Damn hippie store malted barley!

bierhaus15 · 09-05-2009, 03:24 AM

The bubbles seem sorta normal (hard to tell from pic), though its that shiny film stuff that doesn't look good. It definitely has an infection, though probably in the early stages. How long has the beer been in the primary?

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I have had a few batches get that stuff and they all turned out fine after a month of aging. Actually, I recently had a batch of cream ale get a mild infection and instead of bottling it right away, I racked it to a secondary and then dry-hopped the hell out of it with some old hops. Interestingly, signs of the infection went away after a few days and the beer tastes pretty good.

batfishdog37 · 09-05-2009, 03:33 AM

I was just going to say I had this (see below link) happen to a batch a while ago and just let it sit and it turned out alright.

DSCN0827 - HomeBrewTalk Gallery

**Nurmey** · 09-05-2009, 03:33 AM

Hard to say but I think it looks pretty normal. I don't think I would call it an infection and it's way too early to judge the taste.

Ksosh · 09-05-2009, 03:36 AM

The beer was in primary for about 3 weeks and in a secondary (with fennugreek seeds) for a couple more. It's now sitting in a tertiary for another day until I get time to bottle, and I think I left all/most of the gross stuff behind. It smells VERY VERY strong, even though it was only ~1.06 OG and now 1.024, so I'm hoping that will mask or mesh well with whatever weird tastes come from the (maybe) infection.

**Nurmey** · 09-05-2009, 03:40 AM

Fennugreek seeds could be the cause of the floaty patches. I assume there is a certain amount of oils in them. They could also be a the cause of the flavor issue but I'm not sure about that. I'm not familiar with using them in beer.

Ksosh · 09-05-2009, 04:11 AM

Apparently they give a maple flavor, which was what I was shooting for. It wasn't *too* much (2 Tbsp/5 gallon?), but I think they did provide some type of strong smell, though maybe not 100% responsible for what I'm smelling. I also used hippie store barley malt extract, which is lower quality than brewer's malt extract, which might be part of the cause as well.

ThreeRatBastards · 09-05-2009, 04:12 AM

I had something similar to that in a stout I have bottled. I added Lactose when I racked to the secondary and within a day a white film showed up. I then "racked underneath" it into a terciary several weeks later hoping the film would go away. Next day, more film :-( . I then racked underneath that into the bottling bucket and bottled the beer. All the beer bottles now have a white film at the top and have had it for two weeks now.

Sorry for the sad story, but I guess from my experience it seems that it isn't possible to rack underneath this kind of infection. When you put the siphon through the infection, some of that infection travels down into the beer with the siphon and will get moved along with the beer into its next vessel. Is there anyway to prevent that?

mr_clean · 09-05-2009, 06:54 AM

Taste it,Tell us.

Arkador · 09-05-2009, 04:27 PM

I think lacto would look more milky color.