I think its infected...HELP!!!

Hey, I left the beer in a secondary fermenter for about a month. Was in primary for 3 weeks. I opened it up to bottle and I see this.

Is that what infected beer looks like?

Looks like a lot of head space for a secondary fermentor- or you using a 6.5 gallon bucket for a 5 gallon batch?

I've had a couple batches with that appearance which turned out just fine- must have been some yeast on the top. Draw a sample and taste it- if it tastes like beer than bottle it.

It certainly looks like there is an infection starting, but all is not lost. Just rack out from under that stuff, try to keep it out of your bottling bucket, and drink the beer quickly. The 3rd part should be easy

Ok I just bottled the stuff, tried to keep most of that crap out of the bottling bucket, but some may have gotten in. I tasted it and it tastes great. What should I watch out for from here on out? Also I stupidly used 2 different types of yeast for fermenting, champagne and ale yeast (added at different times...fail).

thx!

Hophead04 said:

Ok I just bottled the stuff, tried to keep most of that crap out of the bottling bucket, but some may have gotten in. I tasted it and it tastes great. What should I watch out for from here on out? Also I stupidly used 2 different types of yeast for fermenting, champagne and ale yeast (added at different times...fail).

thx!

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Just basic sanitation. Again I am not 100% that it was infection, but I sure looked like it. As far as using 2 yeasts, there is nothing wrong with this. However it is good to know that some strains of ale and wine yeasts are at odds with each other, and the wine yeasts will actually kill off the ale yeasts or so I've heard. A lot of people will use an ale yeast for primary, than finish it off with a high attenuating strain like EC-1118

Even very experienced brewers can get infected beer though. It just happens sometimes.

Hophead04 said:

Ok I just bottled the stuff, tried to keep most of that crap out of the bottling bucket, but some may have gotten in. I tasted it and it tastes great. What should I watch out for from here on out? Also I stupidly used 2 different types of yeast for fermenting, champagne and ale yeast (added at different times...fail).

thx!

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You should watch out for gushers and bottle bombs

duboman said:

You should watch out for gushers and bottle bombs

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Yeah, keep them in a big plastic bin or at the very least a box in a garbage bag. If they are infected there's a chance of bottle bombs and you don't want glass all over the place. I would keep them at room temp until they're carbonated and then keep them in a fridge to slow down any infection while you drink it quickly. In my experience, I knew it was infected pretty quickly after bottling based on the gushers within 3 weeks. Just watch where you open them and have a glass ready to pour into if they gush, I had a few open like champagne bottles lol.

What yeast you using? Looks like floating yeast to me...did things warm up while in the secondary?

How is the smell? If it smells like ass it's probably an infection of it smells normal your probably fine

Schumed said:

What yeast you using? Looks like floating yeast to me...did things warm up while in the secondary?

How is the smell? If it smells like ass it's probably an infection of it smells normal your probably fine

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I started with champagne yeast, then went to an ale yeast a week later. Sorry I cannot be more specific, I am in chile and the yeasts were not numbered as far as I could tell.

The beer smelled and tasted fine, I had about 1.5 pints left over after bottling so I just drank that..it was very good, but not exactly what I was going for (Sierra Nevada clone)

Thank you all for your help and advice!! I love this community

If it smelled and tasted fine, I would say it's most likely ok.