Infected batch

It was bound to happen eventually. After nearly a year of brewing, I got an infected batch.

Today I found that one of the carboys from my recent batch of California Common had gotten an infection, as seen in the images below.






I have a pretty good idea what caused this: Unsanitized water (plain ole tap water) in the airlock, leaking into the fermenting wort. The damn airlock kept leaking and I kept stupidly adding water to it.


My question(s) are:
1) Can this batch be salvaged at all? Can I rack the fermented beer out from under this stuff and be OK? If so, when?
2) What should I do with this carboy now that there has been an infection in it?

TIA

I'd taste it and see what it's like. Maybe put some in a frisbee first and see if the dog will drink it... Actually, it doesn't look that bad. I had a mead that got moldy on top and it's fine.

I had a batch that looks exactly like this but it was not there until the beer was ready to drink. I dumped it.

Did you drink it? If so what was the results?

The answer should be pretty straightforward, if you went out for a beer and they served that to you would you drink it?

The Screwy Brewer

I actually had a 2 batches like that. dumped one. drank the other at bottling time and it tasted damn good for being flat and at room temp. Now it is sitting in the bottles I guess I'll see how it turns out in a week or so.

My LHBS recommends using Vodka in the airlock, which is what I use.

I say let it ride, it could be the best accident ever

Are you in a hurry to use that carboy? If not, I'd wait and see what happens.

MeatyPortion said:

Are you in a hurry to use that carboy? If not, I'd wait and see what happens.

Click to expand...

I'll second that, it could be the best damn beer you've ever had, but you'll never know if you toss it!

As far as your carboy goes if it is glass, clean it well, if it is plastic clean it and sanitize it extremely well.