Fruit flies

I don't worry too much about the final product normally, but 4 weeks ago I've brewed a modified version of EdWort's Pale.

Tonight I open my ferm chamber (refrigerator) and I saw 2 fruit flies. Noooooo !

I ferment with loose lid. Remove the lid and see a dead fruit fly sticking on the inside of the lid due to the condensation.

This is annoying. But I take a sample, gravity is fine, smells is niiiice and it taste good right from the primary, very hoppy I have to say. Didn't know it will turn out that hoppy following the recipe.

Can someone tell me if contamination due to fruit flies show signs of degradation AFTER primary or if this kind of contamination show symptoms at the early stage of fermentation ? Should it be ok if it seems fine now ?

I don't know if there is a concrete answer to your question. Most likely the fruit fly suffocated once it got inside the fermenter due to lack of oxygen and high levels of CO2. Contamination is a numbers game, it all depends on what bacteria or wild yeasts were present on the little bastard when he flew in, and whether they can gain a foothold and multiply in the environment. Chances are with the alcohol and hop oils you should be fine. It is possible that the contamination could grow with time, but that's anybodys guess... I would say if you're worried about it, start drinking it soon!

I'd drink it sooner, rather than later.

Generally, fruitflies carry aceterobacter. That's the bacteria that is used to make vinegar. The interesting thing about that bacteria is that they eat alcohol, and produce vinegar, c02 and water-, so unless the beer was like 10%+ abv, acetero bacter would do very well in that environment. It needs oxygen to do this, so a bucket with lots of headspace (and especially a loose fitting lid) would help it along.

If if doesn't taste like vinegar, that's great and a good sign. But again, drink it sooner rather than later.

Interesting

I had this in a recent half batch of hard apple cider, fruit flies (4-6 of them) got into the loose-lidded bucket, inside my ferm chamber, and I didn't realize for a couple weeks.

When I checked it they were dead of course, but there was like a sludge in the cider, I could only assume they laid eggs. Even if they hadn't, that's all I could think of and wouldn't be able to drink or serve it, so had to dump it. My first dump batch in 2.5 years of brewing.

Normally I agree with everything Yooper says. But . . . (you saw that coming, didn’t you?) Maybe there was a problem with the coffee. Maybe the spellcheck went crazy.

The name of the bacteria is acetobacter aceti, not aceterobacter.

But yeah, drink it quick.

I've got fruit flies around my house now grr. Do you plan on bottling or kegging? Kegging is easier, just make sure to not contaminate any lines if this is slowly turning to vinegar. Bottling... you might end up with bombs.

Also to capture them I make a trap like this
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M7fVGx8XS...k/HVZxdKEwBOc/s320/IMG03280-20110613-1107.jpg

We have some concord grape wine working right now and Apple cider vinager seems to work pretty well for these pests. My $0.02

THEUKRAINIAN said:

We have some concord grape wine working right now and Apple cider vinager seems to work pretty well for these pests. My $0.02

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So apple cider vinager helps kill them? What do you do just spray them or what??

integra93ls said:

So apple cider vinager helps kill them? What do you do just spray them or what??

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A small glass near the carboys or your fermenter and they will flock to it.

integra93ls said:

So apple cider vinager helps kill them? What do you do just spray them or what??

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It attracts them

THEUKRAINIAN said:

A small glass near the carboys or your fermenter and they will flock to it.

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And a drop of liquid dish soap if it's a open glass will pull them to their death or a piece of plastic wrap with a pin hole will trap them!

edmanster said:

It attracts them And a drop of liquid dish soap if it's a open glass will pull them to their death or a piece of plastic wrap with a pin hole will trap them!

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I added a bit of dish soap to my death trap, let's see if it works.

Ok thanks to everybody.

I'll keg it and carb it this weekend, hope it will be ok. From the sample I took yesterday, it taste just fine but after reading a little bit on the subject, it looks like I'm a lucky guy if everything stays fine.

Just got rid of these buggers a couple of weeks ago. It took two weeks. I had glasses filled with apple cider vinegar with a drop of dish soap everywhere.

One thing I realized is that it's important to find the main source of breeding. I found a bunch around an empty bottle in the kitchen that I forgot to wash out. I thought that was it till I went into the basement and saw a ton flying around an open garbage container next to the dryer. Usually just lint goes in there, but I think the wife must have thrown some food items in there. Luckily that did the trick, and they're gone.

I had the same thing 4 months back on a 1.065 beer that was liberally hopped. Tasted fine at racking but at two weeks in the bottle was straight up vinegar. I have one bottle in the fridge still that I've been saving just to see if it's also the same, hoping the other bottles I tried were just me not sanitizing THOSE bottles very well, but I'm scared to try it still. Hope yours works out.
One thing I noticed was a definite oil slick appearance on top of the beer at bottling, if you noticed that or not. Good luck!

The exterminator said they breed in open drains. The fix is to pour bleach down the drain followed by boiling water, then plug the drain. The fumes will kill the eggs.

I don’t use bleach, but ammonia works. For the traps, I use a little wine vinegar in a jar with a paper funnel above it. I don’t find that the dish soap does anything. The critters can’t swim. Once they hit the liquid they’re done.

Callacave said:

One thing I realized is that it's important to find the main source of breeding.

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In my case, it happens very often to see those buggers in the house when we buy some fruits at the grocery store

sundaypapers said:

Tasted fine at racking but at two weeks in the bottle was straight up vinegar.

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This is what I'm afraid of. Did you have many of them in your ferm chamber ? I only saw 2 or 3 flies in the refrigerator.

I had a loose lid like you. When I looked inside at racking time I only saw one, but figured after 3 weeks fermenting that it'd be noticeable at the time. Don't know how long it takes, but it didn't take long for me. I am not optimistic, but lesson learned. Don't dump it just yet, check it early though and see how it is. Hopefully you lucked out.

Oh hell, another source of contamination to worry about. I had one buzzing around my bottling bucket today.

Brewtah said:

Oh hell, another source of contamination to worry about. I had one buzzing around my bottling bucket today.

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Nothing to totally worry about. Proper sanitation and a little apple cider vinegar works wonders.

THEUKRAINIAN said:

Nothing to totally worry about. Proper sanitation and a little apple cider vinegar works wonders.

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I'd like to add that I'm a sanitize FREAK, and I still had the problem. I have a fly trap too but it's their decision to go to the ferm bucket or the trap, unfortunately.

callback79 said:

I'd like to add that I'm a sanitize FREAK, and I still had the problem. I have a fly trap too but it's their decision to go to the ferm bucket or the trap, unfortunately.

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Lol, I'm probably going to get chastised for this, I had a massive swarm around my apflwein this morning, i didn't get time to shoo them off, so i left them.

Let the pests have their way with a "Jack D filled," S type Airlock :rockin:

(I did not have cheap wodka, so I used the next best thing)

To the loose lid fermenter brewers: I leave the lid loose for the first few days in case of excessive kraeusen, but I put a weight (a pound or so) on top to keep any gaps to a minimum. No fruit flies in the fermenter so far.

I get them all the time in my airlock when I ferment in my basement in summer. They are attracted to co2 coming from the airlock. You would be surprised by how many we probably eat in our sleep..lol..

edmanster said:

I get them all the time in my airlock when I ferment in my basement in summer. They are attracted to co2 coming from the airlock. You would be surprised by how many we probably eat in our sleep..lol..

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Protein!!

Somtimes I enjoy the fact that I live in cold Canada. Fruit flies season is only July-August-September and I don't see them again for 9 months

I use carboys, so I have never had this problem. I do see some ff occasionally, I then boil water and dump it down drains. It seem's to work for me.

Got a bunch of these buggers around the house and in my garage in and around my fermentation fridge. Think I'm getting ahead of them by doing some heavy cleaning, beer/dishsoap traps and some RAID. But, I had some in my fermentation fridge. I sprayed the chit outta the outside of the buckets and inside of fridge with StarSan. Have airlocks in place and no loose lids. Hope they didn't get into the beer some how. It would suck to lose 11 gals of Oktoberfast Ale.

Yooper said:

I'd drink it sooner, rather than later.

Generally, fruitflies carry aceterobacter. That's the bacteria that is used to make vinegar. The interesting thing about that bacteria is that they eat alcohol, and produce vinegar, c02 and water-, so unless the beer was like 10%+ abv, acetero bacter would do very well in that environment. It needs oxygen to do this, so a bucket with lots of headspace (and especially a loose fitting lid) would help it along.

If if doesn't taste like vinegar, that's great and a good sign. But again, drink it sooner rather than later.

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Out of curiousity what ABV % would kill them and their bacteria?

Taste it again this evening. It was horrible. Dumped !



I now have airlocks on my primary for my next brewday. Lesson learned.

edmanster said:

I get them all the time in my airlock when I ferment in my basement in summer. They are attracted to co2 coming from the airlock. You would be surprised by how many we probably eat in our sleep..lol..

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Just found one in my air-lock. How do they get in? Has this ever caused problems?

I always add a handful to my fermenter before putting the airlock on. First, it will warn others that certain doom is upon them for entering the fermenter, and second, it gives my beer a smoother, more full-bodied mouthfeel.

brewmcq said:

I always add a handful to my fermenter before putting the airlock on. First, it will warn others that certain doom is upon them for entering the fermenter, and second, it gives my beer a smoother, more full-bodied mouthfeel.

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Lol! It also gives the rough and gritty sensation to the palate as one swallows the tiny morsels down their gullet.

Lmao!