A fly. Oh my!

Today, I pitched a fruit fly into my beer. I saw it in my starter. The shape of the vessel and the location of the (dead) fruit fly made it impossible to remove, so I pitched the little bastard. Haters gonna hate, but I'm hoping some of you out there have had a fly in your wort/beer without incident? If so, please tell me your fly survival story so I can sleep at night.

I think the lesson I learned this evening was that I should always have a pound or two of Safale-05 in the fridge for just such an emergency.

Thanks guys! Watch out for flies!

that can't be good.
Or can it?!?!?!?

I mean, the extra protein can only aid in head retention, right?

as long as you sterilized the fly you should be ok haha

Ok....I'm not saying this is going to happen to you....But, I had an apa 2 years ago with 2 dead druit flies sitting on the wort before krausen. It fermented as normal but remained cloudy for weeks (used s-04 yeast). Very slowly the flavors went from normal to acidic, to pretty much vinegar. Fruit flies are loaded with acetobacter. I'd like to say don't worry, but keep in mind it could happen.

ilikethetrees said:

please tell me your fly survival story so I can sleep at night.

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hate to break it to you, but i don't think that fly is gonna make it.

WVbrewer said:

Ok....I'm not saying this is going to happen to you....But, I had an apa 2 years ago with 2 dead druit flies sitting on the wort before krausen. It fermented as normal but remained cloudy for weeks (used s-04 yeast). Very slowly the flavors went from normal to acidic, to pretty much vinegar. Fruit flies are loaded with acetobacter. I'd like to say don't worry, but keep in mind it could happen.

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So I have heard! I'm hoping that the fly was introduced to my wort because it landed into an open bucket full of sanitizer that had my autosiphon in it. I went to rack the starter beer off the yeast I had going, and that's when I saw the ****er. So perhaps the fly was indeed sanitized, or perhaps I am completely screwed. Lesson learned. Always have extra yeast.

This will be way easier to deal with than the time I found Jimmy Carter stuck in my air lock.

Well, I have a similar problem. My starter has been sitting out for about two weeks (didn't have room in my fridge), couldn't get the batch brewed as soon as I had planned. Today I noticed that a white layer had grown on top of the starter, about 1/16th of an inch thick. What did I see floating on top of that film? Three fruit flies.

So I'm assuming that weird white layer was from them buggers. After reading this thread, there's no way I'm pitching that. Good thing I have two packets of S-04 in the fridge. Not my favorite, but you can't beat dry yeast for emergencies and rush brews.

Fly in beer, I'd probably roll with it. Fly in starter, no way I'm pitching it. Good luck.

If you end up with white crawlies in your fermentor, you'll want to refer to this very excellent thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/yellow-white-creepy-crawly-things-my-beer-130714/

I read it and cried. Not really, but shucks. I'll keep a close eye on this one. I still have a good clean 15 or so gallons fermenting away, so at least I won't run out of beer!

Don't worry. They don't drink much.

Did a Marzen and saw one go into the foam while I was aerating my before pitch. 48 hours in I realized my lager yeast was not viable and had to re-pitch w US-05 (emergency spare yeast on hand).
Tasted a little tart at bottling time. 7 days in the bottle I noticed a little film on the beer surface in every bottle. Chilled and tasted ASAP and confirmed lactics and god knows what. First batch I ever had to dump.

Poured a bottle of RIS from the bottle my old brew buddy 'washed' and had a roach in it. The beer still tasted good after picking him out and giving the glass to my buddy. I told him afterwards. Serves him right for not cleaning the bottles all the way, and checking to see if any crap was left in them.

You said this was in your starter? I say, if the yeast was active in your starter you are more than likley ok. Your beer will be in contact with countless organisms no matter how cautious you are about sanitation. fermentation is a race where the good guys out number the bad so that the good guys win - all the time.
Your yeast will not allow this to become a problem.
- my $0.02

Brewskii said:

You said this was in your starter? I say, if the yeast was active in your starter you are more than likley ok. Your beer will be in contact with countless organisms no matter how cautious you are about sanitation. fermentation is a race where the good guys out number the bad so that the good guys win - all the time.
Your yeast will not allow this to become a problem.
- my $0.02

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I hope you're right! Within 10 hours of pitching the beer was chugging along like a fat man farting in a bath tub.

And it smelled a lot better.

Welp, update time. So far, the beer tastes ok! Didn't take a hydro reading, but most of the krausen has dropped so It's mostly done as far as I can tell. I tasted it of course, and I don't notice any sour/acetic notes to it. It's a pretty light orange-brown color, still hazy, but I'm deeming this one a success thus far. Guess I'll keep an eye on it for the next month and see what happens! No need to dump it just yet.

I always cover my starters with cling film and keep the lid of my FV tightly on - anything else is asking for trouble...

Read Brewing Classic Styles. Jamil has a recipe in there that specifically calls for the spider that always seems to make it into his equipment. This is pre-boil though so I am sure he thoroughly sanitizes the spider during the boil.

I've never pitched a bug in a starter. But I did get a regular fly in my fermenter whille I was oxygenating once. It seemed like more trouble (and potential exposure) to try to fish him out than to just ferment with him in there. The beer turned out fine.

Been there. The result was "Gnat's Ass Blonde Ale". No worries.

Good luck! I bet it's fine.

My kitchen was invaded by fruit flies about three weeks ago. I had to bottle in the middle of the infestation because I had racked on top of some peppers and didn't want to overdo it. Despite my best efforts to keep them away from the bottling bucket, I found one floating on top of the last half cup or so of beer in the bucket. I was scared ****less of creepy crawlies coming out of my bottles. So far, it's been a good batch.