awww... my first infection!

So i opened up my ryePA today to take my FG and sample before bottling, and was greeted with this:





I'm pretty damn sure it's an infection, judging from other pics I've come across.
question is, what is it?

I'm almost positive it was caused by the cheesecloth i put the hops in (forgot to weigh it down, so it just floated), but I soaked the cloth in starsan before i put the hops in and tied it off... plus it looked fine after 3.5 weeks before i dry hopped. I pulled a small sample to see if it tastes off, but it just tastes like a green beer.

rack under it and see how it goes? or give it the ol' heave-ho?

Rack under! I've had that look in beers that turned out to be fine?

Yea, it's infected- perhaps some of the cheesecloth didn't get well exposed to your sanitizer, or maybe it just got infected at some other point. If it still tastes good, you need to keg it now and get it chilled as fast as you possibly can to slow the growth of the nasties. Even then, you should still drink it quickly. If you can't keg, don't bottle it- the junk in there could chew down farther than sacc. and give you overcarbed or exploding bottles. When I say keg it now, though, I mean NOW- my first infected batch tasted fine the first moment I saw the pellicle, but was undrinkable the next day.

This exact same thing happened to my girlfriends chocolate vanilla espresso stout. Racked under, bottled, and it tastes fine. Do it!

Go for it you have nothing to loose. It looks really cool btw. Thats the microbiology TA coming out.......love me some bacterial.

well, i bottled it... unfortunately kegging is not an option. i underprimed just to help ensure i won't end up with bombs, and then put them in a contractor grade garbage bag, just to ensure i don't have to wash my entire closet out. I'll update in a week when i pop the first sample bottle.

well, didn't even make it a week. the infection is in the bottles as well. i'm going to crack one this afternoon to see what it's like, but pretty sure it's going to be a wash.

Came on here to see if I could find what my first infection is. It is the same as yours. I stepped yeast and had multiple gallon jugs for my 16 gallon batch. Mine came from the starter, or my O2 stone. My question is, Is the fermenter a toss? Can some bugs beat StarSan? What a bumber!