Post your infection

Yakima 728
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Microbiology is fascinating at times, looking at these pictures. I monitor my first ever brew in secondary (now) every 6 hours looking out for a similar stuff, but so far so good, soon or later I most likely will contribute to this thread. :tank:
 
i havnt tasted it yet, just trying to find out whats wrong with it, what happens when the beer gets infected? is it still drinkable?
 
sorefingers23 said:
i havnt tasted it yet, just trying to find out whats wrong with it, what happens when the beer gets infected? is it still drinkable?
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It can still be very drinkable, although some infections take the beer south pretty quickly so you'll want to drink it fast.
 
So I added some oak chips to a batch of dry stout I made recently. This was the result!

http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/ad312/rflagg024/IMG_3288.jpg

http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/ad312/rflagg024/IMG_3289.jpg

I've got a few questions now for you lads and would appreciate any help you all can give.

Is this lactobacillus? If so, what the hell should I do with it? Can I rack underneath this and still use it, or should I strain it off the top first? How sour will this make my stout if I rack it quick-like? Any equipment used to touch this should only be used for beers using lacto in the future right? Thanks for your help guys!
 
r_flagg said:
I've got a few questions now for you lads and would appreciate any help you all can give.

Is this lactobacillus? If so, what the hell should I do with it? Can I rack underneath this and still use it, or should I strain it off the top first? How sour will this make my stout if I rack it quick-like? Any equipment used to touch this should only be used for beers using lacto in the future right? Thanks for your help guys!
Click to expand...

Looks like lacto to me, but I'm no expert. Taste it first and if you like it I'd rack from underneath the infection and keg/bottle and drink fairly quickly. Technically you can re-use whatever equipment you want from this batch but you'll want to ensure that it's been cleaned sufficiently, if it's plastic then it's probably cheap to replace and that's the route I'd take.
 
Sweet thanks for the help! I'll probably just mark the equip for lacto use only and replace what I need to. Can anyone else confirm that this is lactobacillus? I'll give er a taste when I get home and bottle it asap. I'll be givin er a try one way or the other.
 
That all looks like krausen from a very vigorous fermentation to me. The white stuff looks to be just foam. Yiou'll know brett when you see it. It shows up months after fermentation has winded down and it'll form a thin white smooth layer across your entire carboy. There's no mistaking it for krausen.
 
bottling right now and this is what I see when I crack open my primary. I'm still going for it! A Belgian Pale Ale brewed on 9/2/2010. Yummy!
:ban:
P1050256.JPG
 
1.009. I just sampled the beer and it tastes amazing. Not sour at all, spicy and slightly hoppy. Hopefully it's not ruined. If it tastes as good as it does now in 3 weeks when it's carbed up, it wont last too long!
 
imprez25 said:
1.009. I just sampled the beer and it tastes amazing. Not sour at all, spicy and slightly hoppy. Hopefully it's not ruined. If it tastes as good as it does now in 3 weeks when it's carbed up, it wont last too long!
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That beer is definately infected. Make sure you put a garbage bag around the bottles incase one blows.
 
Here's a brettanomyces infection:

1510-brett-pellicle-after-one-month.jpg


The infection is intentional in this case. Notice that the yeast caked above the surface of the beer has even formed a biofilm. Pretty cool.
 
photo-1.jpg


Racked a gallon of sweet stout on top of some cold-brewed coffee two months ago.
This is what is on top.
 
Yea... this is a funky pineapple and orange peel ale. I moved this beast into a 1/2 bbl sanke a few days ago it is at about 68F ATM. I shot a dozen pics trying to get a good one and this is exactly what this looks like...

infection.jpg


any ideas? what shall I do? What will happen if I RDWAHB for say 1 month? this stuff needs to have a serious flavor change...IDC if it will sour as long as it is drinkable I will be happy...It needs to be ready in February if possible. I can/will force carb it...what are my options?
 
funkyfunky.jpg


Brett Brux.

This is brett brux about after a month in the secondary and a week of dryhopping (had to break the pellicle to dryhop, but it sealed right up again :) )

Just bottled it yesterday, amazing how much brett flavor can come through in a month.
 
Zamial said:
Yea... this is a funky pineapple and orange peel ale. I moved this beast into a 1/2 bbl sanke a few days ago it is at about 68F ATM. I shot a dozen pics trying to get a good one and this is exactly what this looks like...

http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/yy261/zamial73/infection.jpg[/IMG

any ideas? what shall I do? What will happen if I RDWAHB for say 1 month? this stuff needs to have a serious flavor change...IDC if it will sour as long as it is drinkable I will be happy...It needs to be ready in February if possible. I can/will force carb it...what are my options?[/quote]

Looks like lacto to me. I'd let it ride for a while personally. Pinepple and orange peel might turn out well.
Click to expand...
 
SO I grabbed a carboy with tshirt out of the closet and carry to the table to prepare to bottle, and what do I find? My very first infection! Yippee!

Here is the photo - wish I had looked, I kinda broke it up....gonna let it settle/ float before I rack into bottle bucket. No off smell that I can detect.

IMG00363-20101228-0911.jpg
 
any ideas? what shall I do? What will happen if I RDWAHB for say 1 month? this stuff needs to have a serious flavor change...IDC if it will sour as long as it is drinkable I will be happy...It needs to be ready in February if possible. I can/will force carb it...what are my options?
Click to expand...

I had the same thing happen to a robust porter. I've been sitting on it since September trying to decide what to do with it. I've decided to let it ride in the secondary for 3 more months, then make three new batches to mix in with it. When the time comes I'll brew a dunkelweizen, a Munich dunkel and a Scottish 80/. I plan on mixing 3/4 of each dunkel with 1/4 soured beer and end up with two different mixes plus 1/4 batch of the dunkels. I'll mix half of it with the Scottish 80/ and have 1/2 the Scottish and another mix. I wish it was all done so I could tell you this is a good idea but I'll just have to wait and see!
 
r_flagg said:
I had the same thing happen to a robust porter. I've been sitting on it since September trying to decide what to do with it. I've decided to let it ride in the secondary for 3 more months, then make three new batches to mix in with it. When the time comes I'll brew a dunkelweizen, a Munich dunkel and a Scottish 80/. I plan on mixing 3/4 of each dunkel with 1/4 soured beer and end up with two different mixes plus 1/4 batch of the dunkels. I'll mix half of it with the Scottish 80/ and have 1/2 the Scottish and another mix. I wish it was all done so I could tell you this is a good idea but I'll just have to wait and see!
Click to expand...

That sounds like a quick way to end up with 4 bad batches of beer instead of just one.
 
infection.jpg


This one ruined it, ended up bottling anyways but got bottle bombs and a nasty aftertaste in the one I managed to open without injury.
 
Kegging that will not help.

The flag at my brewery will fly at half mast for your loss.
 
Ok I have an update on mine. It tastes a little sour but since it is a lighter beer and has pineapple + orange in it, it does not taste horrid. I will be moving into buckets for gelatin and to adjust the gravity. Oddly it is to be paired at a party with a super sweet mixed drink, so it should all work out in the end.

Hooray for weird snowflake beer!
 
I posted a picture of my infection looking very similar to yours. While I have been able to force myself to drink it. I always regret it and would not wish it on my enemies. I bottled mine and it has been sitting for quite some time. If I hold a bottle up to the light I can see the "snowflakes" in the bottle. I would bet that taste most foul very astringent and will only get worse over time.
 
r_flagg said:
Do you speak from experience and have some more worthwhile input on the situation? Do you like sour beer?
Click to expand...

If you want sours, then blend away my friend! It sounded like you were attempting to salvage the infected batch by blending it, which obviously would not work out so well.
 
509inc thanks for the additional information. I am trying to find your post but not having much luck right now. I will be sure to taste it if I'm really going to consider kegging it, but I don't think that is happening.. doesn't look tasty lol.
 
BrookdaleBrew said:
If you want sours, then blend away my friend! It sounded like you were attempting to salvage the infected batch by blending it, which obviously would not work out so well.
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Yup love the sours! I'm trying to take a cue from Petrus for this one. I know they get their flavor and sourness from oak barrel aging, so maybe I'll throw in some bourbon soaked chips while I wait. I'm excited to see what kind of blends come out of this and I'll post results when I'm done.
 
BrookdaleBrew said:
If you want sours, then blend away my friend! It sounded like you were attempting to salvage the infected batch by blending it, which obviously would not work out so well.
Click to expand...

+1. All you're going to do is infect everything else you add it to. Although I've only had one infection since I started brewing, I would bet that 99% of the time, your beer won't be infected by a good yeast.

It's worth saving things to see if they get better, but they probably won't. Don't risk ruining another few batches just to save one.
 
I posted links to my infection (here: http://s960.photobucket.com/albums/ae88/WakeMikey/Random/) and I wanted to update. I poured a mug from the bottom of the bucket. It smelled and tasted musty and made my living room smell the same. It's a toss-out for sure.

The bucket is a bottling bucket, I only use OneStep for cleaning & sanitization and I may have failed to OneStep the airlock after pulling it off another fermenter that was no longer in use (and dirty). So these are my suspected culprits. I think it was the airlock personally. The bottling buckets have only been used as fermenters maybe 3-4 times.

I have never used StarSan, but I was idly wondering, what would happen if you had a spray bottle of SSan and if you opened the bucket to check on the brew you could spray a couple squirts of SSan right into the bucket. Would that possibly help prevent any sort of contamination? Just a newb thought lol
 

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