Got infected..

Well, took a look at my pumpkin ale that had been in the secondary for about 2 weeks... and there are a few colonies of bubbles on the surface and around the edges..

these colonies are close together...

I think it happened when i used the port of my better bottle, without taking off the airlock..

I had some plain water in there.. and it sucked it right in.. ( so I am sure that 2 week old stagnet water isnt the best thing for beer...)

So.. lesson learned:

USE VODKA IN THE AIRLOCK

...crap

Don't be too quick to conclude it is ruined. Try to stick it out and see -- you have little to lose.

Can you post a pic?

colonies of bubbles aren't an infection.

Depending on where you live, a 1/2 gallon of cheapo vodka will cost 9-10 bucks and last over a year of brewing (except for Biermuncher, then it's only 3 months).

Money well spent IMHO.

Not to mention 2 weeks in the secondary! The stuff is pretty hard to contaminate at that point. That's why people throw peppers and fruit and things in the secondary, there is plenty of alcohol and not much sugar left.

I've had a brew in the secondary for 2 weeks now. Not sure what it is but it almost looks like a couple spots of mold on top or maybe something that hasn't settled yet. I hope its the later.. Can beer mold kill me

It may or may not be infected. Let it finish then give it a taste. I have a batch of Black Ale that somewhere along the line got infected somehow.

I've officially renamed it Black Jenkem and I'm sending it all to Evan. :rockin:

yeast can do some weird stuff. I wouldn't call it a goner yet. taste it, smell it...its prolly fine.

If they aren't discolored or moldy bubbles, they are just co2. Don't worry. I have colonies of tiny bubbles on top of my belgian that's in the clearing tank right now. I guarantee you it's not infected.

dilligas2u said:

Can beer mold kill me

Click to expand...

No. It'll just taste bad.

Unless, of course, you have an entire freeway covered with slick beer mold and you hit it at 90mph...then it might kill you.

Don't toss it out!It'll probly be fine.Time,time time will tell.Give it a wait.
Cheers

Take it from me, the infection expert. Keep it. I have had a few batches with what you describe and it does not affect the taste.

here are some pics...

notice the accumulation of bubbles against the plastic.

Looks completely fine to me.

Taste it.

Or, if you're gonna toss it...I'll just swing by and take it off your hands.

Looks fine to me. But hard to say for sure from the photos alone.

+1 to the idea of tasting it first. If it is infected, you should pick it up.

pseudo.. i may actually take you up on that.. let me taste it tomorrow when I brew..

I did a Pumpkin Ale this season.

I relaxed.

I didn't worry.

I had plenty of home brew.

I came to the conclusion that it was, 100% without a doubt, infected. All the symptoms were there. I even posted on it -- https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=40531

But I noticed something "weird"... The mold wasn't growing but it wasn't shrinking either.

I gave it an extra week.

It got a bit worse but just more of the same.

It wasn't infected. It just looked very, very bad. And it's even semi-tasty... I just don't like pumpkin beer, it seems.

Ha, just remember that bubbles are going to group together because it makes them happier surface tension-wise. It may still be attenuating just a tad, but probably not giving off anything through the airlock.

I have had that exact same look on a couple of my brews. I thought for sure it was an infection also but waited to see what would happen. The areas in question never got bigger but did seem to disperse given some time. I wrote them off as CO2 being given off.
Being a new brewer, I wasn't sure what an infected batch would taste or smell like. But the ones that have had this look didn't tast bad to me. Bitter, maybe but I attribute that to other new brewer mess ups. Like steeping grains over 170.
I would follow through with it and see what it ends up like. Let me know what you figure out.