Diagnose this

What ever is going on here wasn't a problem last night, this was brewed 2 weeks ago. Its a brown ale, I've never seen this happen, anyone have any experience with this?

that looks pretty scary.

Never seen that before, how does it smell?

It looks like some brett maybe. I'm not sure- it's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like you're getting the beginnings of an infection.

I noticed that you have saran wrap over it- have you kept it airlocked in a sanitized container until now?

Oh man, that looks like a damn jellyfish in there.

I would guess brett, best case scenario. Worst case scenario... some weird ass infection... I hope the beer still turns out well for you.

Is that beer... or a batch of LSD???

Sorry man... I'm no expert... but it doesn't look good at all. Also... looking at the saran wrap... there are some strange brown spots as well.

I'm curious what it smells like. Also... if you taste it... is there any vinegar taste?

Ive read a few posts on here where people have had this and just carefully racked their beer out of there by gently inserting the racking cane in there and racking it and most of the time the stuff sticks to the side of the carboy and if not just leave that behind.

Smells like it should. Haven't gotten to taste it yet. LSD wouldn't be so bad. What exactly is brett?

Dave the Brewer said:

Smells like it should. Haven't gotten to taste it yet. LSD wouldn't be so bad. What exactly is brett?

Click to expand...

Brett walks into a bar.

The bartender says: "We don't serve your kind."

Brett says: "Why, I'm a fun-gai?"

Get it?

Landhoney's the expert around here on Sour beers and Brett...There are a couple of good threads on the topic (Including one from a couple of days ago that I tried to find via search, but couldn't. It actually explained it pretty well)

Here's a good one... https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=44148

Can Brett mutate from any strain of yeast? The yeast is Wyeast 1056 and Ive washed and reused it way too many times. I used it on my IPA its probably infected too! With 9 months of brewing, Ive never had an infection. I will try to rack out the brew and hope to empty a keg soon. I refuse to dump a brew!

I'll mention what's probably obvious. Please sanitize everything with extra care before you make your next brew! I've only heard of what you have when folks make lambic beers.

Dave the Brewer said:

Can Brett mutate from any strain of yeast? The yeast is Wyeast 1056 and Ive washed and reused it way too many times. I used it on my IPA its probably infected too! With 9 months of brewing, Ive never had an infection. I will try to rack out the brew and hope to empty a keg soon. I refuse to dump a brew!

Click to expand...

Brett doesn't mutate from a strain of yeast - it's a different strain/genus all by itself.

Normal, every day yeast: Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

Brett's full name is Brettanomyces and has multiple species such as bruxellensis or lambicus.

That said, if it is Brett, it got in there some other way. Make sure to give all your transfer tubing a thorough PBW soak followed by a bleach soak. Then rinse and sanitize with a no rinse as usual. Either that or spend $5 to get new tubing.

I'd replace all tubing....and do a "slash and burn" sanitization of everything else with bleach water rather than regular sanitizer.

But don't pitch the beer yet...I PMned landhoney with the link to this thread to come in and give you some advice/info on Brett.

I'll pose the question again... why saran wrap when airlocks are like $1

Dave the Brewer said:

What ever is going on here wasn't a problem last night, this was brewed 2 weeks ago. Its a brown ale, I've never seen this happen, anyone have any experience with this?

Click to expand...

You mean last night nothing, and the next day this? I've never seen something that solid pop up so quickly. It also looks spidery, not bumpy/rocky like something intentionally infected with a specific Brett strain. Of course, you can' tell just from a picture. The other question/concern I have is that the vessel looks blue, is it a water bottle?

It's definitely a water bottle, you can read the bottled on date on the neck.

I think you should sanitize a vaccum attachment, then fire up the old 1 hp wet/dry shop vac and shove it in the carboy to blast off the top 3 or 4 inches of beer, that pellicle would not have a chance in hell... then definatly attach an airlock with stopper...

Its almost pretty......

That looks like autolysis to you? Autolysed yeast is typically just black and wouldn't form a pellicle since they are dead. Also, if you are getting a vinegar aroma, it is almost certainly acetobacter.

It sounds like your yeast was invaded by a few outside bugs.

ChrisKennedy said:

That looks like autolysis to you? Autolysed yeast is typically just black and wouldn't form a pellicle since they are dead. Also, if you are getting a vinegar aroma, it is almost certainly acetobacter.

It sounds like your yeast was invaded by a few outside bugs.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the dreaded saranwrapsycossis brought on by the imsopooricantaffordanairlock blues or "ISPICAAALB" for short...

I had an infection like that many, many years ago, only once. Just make sure it doesn't have any dangling tenacles. I racked the brew off if it and left about 1/2 -1 gal in the fermenter.

I fermented it out and it did not have any off flavors to it. Even after 6 months it tasted good.

I apologize for the delay in response to posts, I have not gotten on for a few days. The Saran wrap was laziness due to the fact that I had never had an infection; I have air locks. Now that I have an infection I know my limits. Anyways. The pellicle appears to already falling back into the beer or going away. It had grown thicker after I had posted the thread, now its much thiner and it looks like its disappearing. I still have not tasted it, and I don't plan on tossing it; at least until I know its completely disgusting which I doubt is the case.

...and now you have something for a brew swap too!!!...

In case anyone was wondering, this brew turned out great. Its even better than I thought it would be. No strange flavors, nice, crisp and clean.

KILL IT ! ! ! ! ! Before it gets to the children ! ! ! !

whip you are looking at OLD threads.. This one is from 2008!