What is on the top of my beer in the bottles?!? with PICS

Ok, I thought these beers were just carbing up and I was seeing the carbonation, but it looks like something is growing on top. When I gently swish the bottle the top "scum" breaks up and floats on the top. Is the beer in these bottles infected?

The first picture is a picture of an undisturbed bottle. The other pictures are various angle shots. It was hard to take the pictures due to them being in bottles and the light being low, but hopefully you can sort of see how the scum broke apart and floats on top of the beer and on the walls of the bottle.

What did you prime the bottles with?

The bottles were primed with 4oz. of corn sugar that had been boiled for about 10 minutes in a cup of water.

I've seen this before myself. I do not have high hopes for these bottles. In my case the beer was bad, all two cases. Two years later still bad. Well maybe good from stripping spray on bed liner.

Just my experience. Hope it works out better for you.

How long ago did you bottle?
What's in the beer?

There's an interesting looking bubble in the second picture, could be infection or something else.

I just had a batch of beer that (I think) was infected. I let it run it's course in bottles, and although I got gushers with no head retention, it's not bad beer. I think it largely depends on what it's infected with though

unionrdr said:

Just looking at them,I was wondering if the caps are on tight?

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The caps are all on tight as far as I can tell. In fact I opened one up and poured it into a glass to see if I could see the "scum' better.

To complicate this story more I dry hopped this beer. WHen I was bottling the beer I noticed that there were little "ice glaciers" on the top of the beer. You know, the way the ocean filled with small, broken ice looks when viewed from a plane. I thought it was just yeast that was clinging to the hops that I threw in. But I guess not. The top of the beer also sort of looked like an "oil slick" which I thought was the hops' oil or something.

Here some pics of the beer in a glass. also, I tasted the beer and it tasted fine. It's a cascadian dark ale and there was no sourness to it at all.

I bottled this puppy on New Years Day. It's been 3 days. When I opened the bottle there was already carbonation. Not fully carb'ed but drinkable.

I had the same thing happen a few months ago. Didn't affect the taste of the beer, but they were a little overcarbed. I put all of them in the fridge as soon as they started to get overcarbed, and it kept me from getting gushers. Most definitely an infection.

slarkin712 said:

I had the same thing happen a few months ago. Didn't affect the taste of the beer, but they were a little overcarbed. I put all of them in the fridge as soon as they started to get overcarbed, and it kept me from getting gushers. Most definitely an infection.

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Ok, if it is an infection; which I too think it is, I just want other to tell me what they think, where should I go from here?

Do I need to replace my autosiphon, airlock, tubing, bottling bucket, bottling spigot, plug/bung (wth is that thing called that you put the airlock into for carboys?) or do I just need to star san them all really well several times?

Also, what about the bottles? Should I toss them or just clean them really well?

You can clean everything real good once, and see if the infection persist before replacing anything. Also just wanted to make sure you are aware starsan is not a cleaner. You must clean items before using starsan on them. (not trying to be a jerk here)

509inc said:

You can clean everything real good once, and see if the infection persist before replacing anything. Also just wanted to make sure you are aware starsan is not a cleaner. You must clean items before using starsan on them. (not trying to be a jerk here)

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Right, no offense taken. Any suggestions on good cleaners besides dishsoap?

Oxiclean is the real deal. cheap, last forever and has never steered me wrong.

As a matter of fact every brew related activity for me starts with two buckets. One with hot water and Oxiclean and one with the 2.5gal or more mix of Stansan I keep at all times.

509inc said:

Oxiclean is the real deal. cheap, last forever and has never steered me wrong.

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+1 Generic, Target Up and Up brand Oxyclean is the best. I love it. Brew kettles, carboys, etc. all get it.

Maybe last question, but we'll see how this turns out. Is this "safe" to drink? I just drank a bottle of it and it taste great, but it has that white "scum" on it and I'm not really sure what it is. Will this kill me? haha.

But seriously, should I just pop the caps off, drain and clean? Or will I be ok to drink and clean hoping that bottle bombs won't go off if I keep them stored in my garage that's about 40-50 degrees.

It may give you some extra time on the toilet, but it wont kill you. However if it taste good I would drink a few.

Do not dump them. They cannot harm you in anyway, other than over consumption of alcohol. Keep them cold and drink them fast before they turn into gushers.

I had the same thing happen-I noticed the same glacier effect upon pulling my primary out of the fridge(cold crash)-I thought the beer had started to freeze.

Even though I think most of the white stuff ended up staying in my bottling bucket I did notice a small amount made it into my beer bottles, to be seen at the top, like your photos. I have to say that not as much of the gunk would end up in my beer glass, as has shown up in yours ( I tend to think that stuff settled out slightly as time went on ) but my beer was drinkable, tasted fine, and didn't make me sick at all. I wouldn't worry too much.

Those are tiny pellicles. Lactobacillus. Won't make bottle bombs, but might add some sourness over time. Might not, too. I have had those types of pellicles form when I bottled a berliner weisse.

cool. I feel less worried now. If I'm reading this right I've basically got a potential lambic on my hands?

bizarrojosh said:

Ok, if it is an infection; which I too think it is, I just want other to tell me what they think, where should I go from here?

Do I need to replace my autosiphon, airlock, tubing, bottling bucket, bottling spigot, plug/bung (wth is that thing called that you put the airlock into for carboys?) or do I just need to star san them all really well several times?

Also, what about the bottles? Should I toss them or just clean them really well?

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If this stuff wasn't there when you bottled, I'd be very surprised. 3 days is a very short time for an infection to take hold.

MC