infection?

made a cream ale about 2 weeks ago. When I look at the bucket I can see that there is a separation at about the 2.5 gallon mark (5 gallon batch) the top is clear but the bottom half is very milky. when I taste some from the spigot it tastes like banana flavored cream ale and is very cloudy/milky. yuck!

ever run into this?

What kind of yeast did you use? And what temp did you ferment at. Some yeast strains are supposed and desired to give a banana flavor. Also if you fermented at to high of a temp or did not give enough aeration to your wort it can cause unwanted esters.

Perfectly normal. Not infected.

I'm a little confused. Did you ferment in your bottling bucket? Your beer is clearing, and the yeast is settling out. You are drawing your sample from the beer that has not cleared yet, and you're most likely tasting a lot of yeast. Let it set for another week. The yeast will also settle out when you bottle or keg. Especially if you keg and chill. Banana flavor sounds like esters produced from elevated fermentation temperatures.

fermenting bucket. I have never seen a separation like this b4 looks like 2.5 gallons of oil floating on 2.5 gallons of milk. just looks strange to me. the temp is about 68. I will let it go and give it some time,,just do not want to waste fermentation space if it is bad.

Reelale said:

Your beer is clearing, and the yeast is settling out. You are drawing your sample from the beer that has not cleared yet, and you're most likely tasting a lot of yeast. Let it set for another week. The yeast will also settle out when you bottle or keg. Especially if you keg and chill. Banana flavor sounds like esters produced from elevated fermentation temperatures.

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I agree entirely. Give it some more time for the yeast to clean up. If you're lucky, the banana esters will mellow out over time.

I'm also confused. There shouldn't be a spigot on your fermentation bucket. Also, if it's in a bucket, how can you tell if it's milky? Is it a clear bucket? My advice on this one is to leave it alone and start another batch to keep you occupied!

it's a williams siphon free ferment bucket. it has a drain and you can see thru it

Let the beer sit for a few more weeks and it should be fine. Infections typically present as a film of growth on the surface. Banana flavors usually come from fermenting at too high of a temperature.

Check out this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/post-your-infection-71400/

ok thanks guys,,,letin it sit..