My Questions First w/ Background below:
1) Is it possible to have an infection without noticeable visible signs of infection? I am assuming Yes but would like some confirmation.
2) Can an infection take hold and have a flavor impact in a week? What I mean is, can I pinpoint the infection to kegging or is it something that crept in on the front end and took 5 weeks to bloom? Beer tasted great wk 4, kegged by week 5 it was sour.
I used an Octoberfest Grain Bill w/ WLP 036. Fermented in High 50s Lows 60s, until beer attenuated then stored at room temp around 68* in my basement. I left in primary for 4 weeks. Upon racking to the keg the beer tasted great (wk 4). I racked into a keg and added some priming sugar to give it a little jump start carbonating while it waited its turn to go into the kegerator. I got a little curious after about a week and popped open the lid and tasted the beer (wk5), It was rather sour at this point. I am guessing I have some sort of infection maybe lacto.
This is my first infection ever, it sucks. It almost tastes oxidized but without the sweet sherry flavor but more sour. Plus I think I can rule out oxidation as I have a pretty good process for kegging and purging o2 in addition I naturally carb so the yeast probably would have metabolized the o2 when I introduced the sugar.
1) Is it possible to have an infection without noticeable visible signs of infection? I am assuming Yes but would like some confirmation.
2) Can an infection take hold and have a flavor impact in a week? What I mean is, can I pinpoint the infection to kegging or is it something that crept in on the front end and took 5 weeks to bloom? Beer tasted great wk 4, kegged by week 5 it was sour.
I used an Octoberfest Grain Bill w/ WLP 036. Fermented in High 50s Lows 60s, until beer attenuated then stored at room temp around 68* in my basement. I left in primary for 4 weeks. Upon racking to the keg the beer tasted great (wk 4). I racked into a keg and added some priming sugar to give it a little jump start carbonating while it waited its turn to go into the kegerator. I got a little curious after about a week and popped open the lid and tasted the beer (wk5), It was rather sour at this point. I am guessing I have some sort of infection maybe lacto.
This is my first infection ever, it sucks. It almost tastes oxidized but without the sweet sherry flavor but more sour. Plus I think I can rule out oxidation as I have a pretty good process for kegging and purging o2 in addition I naturally carb so the yeast probably would have metabolized the o2 when I introduced the sugar.
