Yeast or Bacteria?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

McHandbag

Active Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
41
Reaction score
0
Location
East Dallas, Lakewood
I racked my Rasputin clone yesterday and noticed that the inside of the carboy was covered with what looked like bacteria colonies. The beer tastes fine which leads me to think that it's yeast and not bacteria, but i've never had this happen before. I took some picures with my Gen1 iPhone, so the quality isn't great, but you'll get the idea. Anyone have any thoughts? Happened to anyone else?

IMG_0892.jpg


IMG_0893.jpg
 
I also would like to know the answer to this, I have had the same thing happen, but on the in side of bottles. Made the beer barely drinkable bitter. Along with this it was quite estery/fruity/banana like. To the op does it seem that all of that film is made from little dots? Does it take scrubbing to get it off? The stuff I had did not have any defined edges like those above, but just a even coating all over the inside of the bottle.
 
It was really easy to get out. Just swirled around the trub at the bottom before giving the carboy a rinse. Like i said the beer tasted fine, other than having some esters in it from fermenting at too high a temp. The edges were pretty defined. They do look like little colonies of SOMETHING. But no off flavors or aromas.


Hmmm.
 
All the beers I had tasted fine out of the carboy, but there was no film on the carboy, only in the bottles. I just opened one of my latest batches, and dawg gone it, it taste bad, and has the film on it. I have pictures, I will try to post them in a little while.
 
Hope this works:
If anyone has any Ideas, I have had this problem in a bunch of my batches, and I can't figure it out.

DSC_4589.jpg
 
really interesting looking. Not brewer's yeast. Doesn't look like any of the pedio, lacto or brett I've played with either.
 
It reminds me of the film left over after I racked a Berliner Weisse, which has used Wyeast 5335 Lactobacillus. But I didn't take any pix, and it could be totally different.
If the beer tastes fine, RDWAHAHB :mug:
 
It reminds me of the film left over after I racked a Berliner Weisse, which has used Wyeast 5335 Lactobacillus. But I didn't take any pix, and it could be totally different.
If the beer tastes fine, RDWAHAHB :mug:

But go ahead and declare total war when you go to clean and sanitize that thing.
 
Beer film? Dunno I never use clear bottles for beer. Is that a cleaned bottle or ?

That bottle has been rinsed, but I need to break out the bottle brush to get that film off. I don't use many clear bottles, but this happens on all the bottles in an affected batch. Not all batches have this. Someone has to have an idea, it is driving me crazy.
 
No one has any solid ideas? All of these batches have the same symptoms. Very bitter/dry flavor mouth feel. They vaguely resemble what they are suppose to taste like, but are over powered with a estery over yeasty flavor, like your Belgium style beers. They all have the film on the inside of the bottles. Not all of my batches have this, but it seems to run in spurts. The carboys don't have the film. I thought it may have had to do with fermenting at too high of a temp, so I built a swamp cooler, and my last batch, the one from the picture above, which was fermented at 66-68 degrees, had the same issue. one other batch smelled so bad I actually threw it out. That is a whole different story there.
Help me please, I need to get this figured out before I start another batch, just to ruin it.

Thanks
 

Latest posts

Back
Top