Post your infection

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.
I just can't see how you do it. I mean, I don't eat anything or drink anything with mold out of my fridge, I think it would just be hard to drink something with visual infection on top.

If it's intended for added flavor, that's one thing. But to pick it up randomly and drink it...that's another :confused:
 
I just can't see how you do it. I mean, I don't eat anything or drink anything with mold out of my fridge, I think it would just be hard to drink something with visual infection on top.

If it's intended for added flavor, that's one thing. But to pick it up randomly and drink it...that's another :confused:

Have you ever had a Flemish style beer? Grab a Jolly Pumpkin La Roja to start, you'll change your mind.
 
It does kind of get into your head that it is infected in the keg, and that there is something on top of the beer, but you are pulling from the bottom, and you never really know how low the beer is in the keg, so I just told myself that there was a half a keg left the whole time. Actually i finished the keg and even drank the last beer, but wasn't even thinking about it by then. Mine was a white beer, so i feel that the sourness was right in line with the style, when it started to show just a touch.
 
Guess I'll be forced to try something that is meant to have an infection like these to really form an appreciation for it. Still gives me the willies!
 
Guess I'll be forced to try something that is meant to have an infection like these to really form an appreciation for it. Still gives me the willies!

I haven't brewed one (yet), but I have had some different Lambics and they are great. Give one a shot and if you like it, you'll look at the pellicle as just another form of krausen. Or maybe search the interwebz for "lambic brewing" and check out some pics. There is some very interesting info out there. There's also a page on Facebook called "Embrace The Funk" with some interesting info.

I'd love to do a lambic someday, but I'm just not sure I want that stuff anywhere near my brew gear and I'm not ready to dedicate a setup for lambics only.

:mug:
 
How does this look? Just checking if this looks like an infection or not. This is just the 3rd batch I've ever brewed. It's a Brewers Best Holiday Ale kit. It's been in the primary for 2 and a half weeks. I still bottled it last night. Hopefully it will turn out ok. It seemed to be the most active fermentation I've had yet. The yeast used was Nottingham. I was very careful with sanitation so I'm not sure what could have gone wrong if it is an infection.

DSCN1351.jpg


DSCN1352.jpg
 
So what do you think of this. Is about three weeks in primary Founders Breakfast stout clone. Thanks.

image-2589244115.jpg
 
I looks normal to me. Looks like yeast. I would taste and smell to see if it's sour, if it's not then it's a keeper!

beerloaf
 
It's really, really hard to tell with those pictures. Have you done the sniff-test yet? Unless it's absolutely rancid, I'd still bottle it. Actually, I might bottle it anyway.
 
Ewww, WTF is that thing on top? Looks like a giant mussel. If it is, that's probably where your infection came from.
 
Nah, a grain bag, though still probably where my infection came from. I boiled it for 5 minutes along with some marbles for weight, then dumped some raspberries through it which had been frozen, thawed, brought to 160 for 15 minutes. Racked beer on top of it.
 
It doesn't smell or taste bad and at this point I want to let it ride to see what I get. It's a raspberry stout to begin with without a ton of roasted grains, I still smell and can taste some roasted flavors, but a ton of tartness on top of it. I can't tell if the tartness is from the raspberry or infection or both.
 
Hmm... that one could be relatively normal. I'm not sure, myself. Looks weird, but not "infected" weird in my book. Just like old yeast rafts from a flocculant strain.
 
My beer hasn't had these symptoms when I bottled no fungus, stink, or anything of that sort, looked totally normal but I am noticing a slight sourness to my beer three weeks after bottling, I shelved them for three weeks and they spent a couple of days in the fridge..

The beer has a slight sour smell too it, nothing off putting.. it doesn't smell like rotten milk but theres a tang to it that I never experienced before. Perhaps its still green or is it an infection? Its a Stout btw.
 
The silt in the bottom of my carboy is dark like mud. I have only seen white looking silt. Is it an infection or is it just the ingredients?
 
I just want to say don't worry...If your beer has all the classic signs of contaminated culture but still tastes good then get it in the keg and drink it ASAP.

I worked in a tiny brewery that had one open top fermenter. It was always growing the classic signs of mold and infections. If it was kegged fast and consumed fast there were no problems and everyone lived.

However...some of the kegs had a terrible solvent like smell and taste. Just awful...terrible...but we all lived. This was after a few weeks into the keg.

Believe it or not some customers claimed the contaminated beer served was the best thing they had ever tasted...Others knew right away that it was contaminated with other stuff.

Currently my low gravity beer is sitting in my filthy hobble bedroom and it's looking good. I hope it will continue to be smelling rasin like and spicey for the next few days. Bottling it will be a real chore but so fun.
 
This is a belgian wheat beer. I just noticed some orange spots floating up. Im pretty sure it got infected.

photo.jpg


photo-1.jpg
 
I boiled the zest then strained it as I put it into the primary. So its not likely that its zest. I pitched on thursday and the fermentation was intense. It slowed down last night and today this is what I found.
 
grouperdude: Infection- a big NO. Besides an infection that early is an even bigger NO.
 
While researching what is the infection I got in my Red Racer clone secondary, I stumbled on this loonnnggg thread! It sure looks cool but I don't think it is THAT cool. I smells ok but haven't tasted it it. It was dry hoped 2 weeks ago after successful primary (tasted f*ing great!), now I just want to know what it is. I will dump it cause I rather get this mentality in check cause our brewery is opening up commercially in June 2012 and if it happens at that time, down the drain it will go. I will grab a microscope tomorrow and see what it looks like.

Fermenter #1 http://www.casselbrewery.ca/graphics/IMG_2320.JPG
Fermenter #2 http://www.casselbrewery.ca/graphics/IMG_2321.JPG

Thanks for any idea of what it might be!
 
Hi All,

I've just finished a Festa brew European Pilsner kit, and upon opening it up for bottling today, i noticed some little nasties floating on the top of the wort.

This has been sitting on the yeast cake since Nov 27th, I did not rack into a secondary actually "because" I am cautious about infecting my beer.

I am way overly cautious, I soak my bucket, carboy and equipment in TSP (trisodium phosphate) for usually an hour or so before and after use, and then sanitize with iodophore.

The fact that something sneaked in makes me really wonder how it got in there.

I make sure nothing that is not sanitized comes into contact with any of my utensils or equipment, and make sure my hands are clean enough almost to do surgery...lol.

I tasted the beer out of the graduated cylinder when I took a sample for the FG, and it tasted fine, nothing weird or off tasting, so I guess the question is "is it ok", or will something grow in the bottles now??

Take a look and tell me what you think, it's not much, but it's in there, so I just want to make sure it's gonna be ok.

Thanks!!

Chris ;)

pilsner-infection-2.jpg


pilsner-infection-1.jpg
 
Looks fine to me, just cause there's stuff floating on top doesn't mean there's a problem. Some of the big time top croppers will stay on the surface and never fall.
 
I have seen this lately in my beers. I have some funky stuff on top of my porter. Looks like that last pic. We will see. Hopefully nothing. The brew day went awesome. Looking forward to drinking it.
 
Now that I rack it I can see that the floaters are merely the yeast crap that fell off the side of the bucket. Smelling good!
 
Looks fine to me, just cause there's stuff floating on top doesn't mean there's a problem. Some of the big time top croppers will stay on the surface and never fall.

I don't know "what" it is, but I can tell that it is some kind of a culture growing, at least the few fuzzy spots are anyhow!

I've got a high power microscope, and could have probably gotten a good picture through it of the organism, but I was SO freakin tired after all the cleaning and bottling, I just dumped out the crap when I was done...lol.

I get the impression by reading everyone elses posts in this thread is that if it tastes OK, the it is ok, is that the golden rule?

Is there ever a case where you just shouldn't drink a beer because of infection, less the nasty obvious taste of course?

:)
 
I don't know "what" it is, but I can tell that it is some kind of a culture growing, at least the few fuzzy spots are anyhow!

I've got a high power microscope, and could have probably gotten a good picture through it of the organism, but I was SO freakin tired after all the cleaning and bottling, I just dumped out the crap when I was done...lol.

I get the impression by reading everyone elses posts in this thread is that if it tastes OK, the it is ok, is that the golden rule?

Is there ever a case where you just shouldn't drink a beer because of infection, less the nasty obvious taste of course?

:)

It looks like something to me. I'd skim it and bottle cuzz I have no fear and have been to TJ.:drunk:
 
I am assuming my last batch was infected (gushing bottles and bad taste). All of my nice swing top bottles have a film that won't budge after a day of soaking in water. Any suggestions about how to get my bottles clean is greatly appreciated. Also, would a switch from StarSan to iodophor be an issue? This is the first time I have had this problem.
 
Iodophor and Starsan require different handling for proper sanitation; iodophor requires longer contact time, as I recall.

Regarding cleaning the bottles, are you just soaking in water? If so, drop some PBW or Oxyclean in there and you'll be golden. A 24-hour soak in either gets just about anything off.
 
Back
Top