my breakfast stout has acquired some sort of infection - either bacterial or a wild yeast. after a month of stability and normal appearance in secondary, it spontaneously started fermenting again. tiny little bubbles started rising through the beer and would create large bubbles on the surface as they got caught in the oils of the brew (due to coffee, chocolate, etc). airlock peaked at 5 bubbles per second, and gravity dropped 12 points.
the beer doesn't taste horrible now, but this may be because it's hard to taste much given intensity of stout's flavors. it is slightly astringent but could be because of the ingredients: black patent, roasted barley, coffee, etc. the beer's body is getting thinner as one would expect with an infection that took me from 1.027 to 1.015. the predicted FG for this beer was 1.023, so we are well below what sacc can achieve. and it appears that we are heading lower:
i recently needed the fermenting vessel so i racked to a smaller tertiary carboy and bottled 15 bottles. i'm keeping an eye on the carboy, if gravity drops more than a few points i will be refrigerating & drinking those 15 bottles ASAP.
it appears that racking - i.e. exposing the beer to oxygen - kicks up fermentation. things had stabilized in secondary, or at least slowed way down, but after racking to tertiary the little bubbles appeared again. see video here: http://bit.ly/QB9QBQ (crank up the resolution to 480). the last 5-6 seconds contain the best view of the bubble rising up the neck of the carboy. remember, this brew is over 3 months old!
i fear that this infection will take the beer down to some ridiculously low gravity and leave behind nothing interesting. thus, in short order, i am considering one (or several) of the following solutions to kill whatever is in there and salvage whatever is left:
1) campden tablets: nuke with 1 tab per gallon, then let the beer sit for several weeks before re-yeasting and bottling.
2) heat: bottle, let carbonate, then pasteurize with heat by submerging the bottles in hot water. there are several threads on this board (like https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/)
3) freeze: we've all had the experience of forgetting a beer in the freezer (beercicle). i'm thinking that a good freeze after bottling might kill whatever is in there. it should kill any wild yeast, at a minimum. not sure about the bacteria.
i could also let it run its course and wait for some ridiculously low FG (1.000 or less), but i'm concerned that the resulting beer will be too thin. currently it's still decent so i'm hoping to save what's left. maybe i can add some malto if i go the campden route.
all thoughts/comment appreciated. thanks!
the beer doesn't taste horrible now, but this may be because it's hard to taste much given intensity of stout's flavors. it is slightly astringent but could be because of the ingredients: black patent, roasted barley, coffee, etc. the beer's body is getting thinner as one would expect with an infection that took me from 1.027 to 1.015. the predicted FG for this beer was 1.023, so we are well below what sacc can achieve. and it appears that we are heading lower:
i recently needed the fermenting vessel so i racked to a smaller tertiary carboy and bottled 15 bottles. i'm keeping an eye on the carboy, if gravity drops more than a few points i will be refrigerating & drinking those 15 bottles ASAP.
it appears that racking - i.e. exposing the beer to oxygen - kicks up fermentation. things had stabilized in secondary, or at least slowed way down, but after racking to tertiary the little bubbles appeared again. see video here: http://bit.ly/QB9QBQ (crank up the resolution to 480). the last 5-6 seconds contain the best view of the bubble rising up the neck of the carboy. remember, this brew is over 3 months old!
i fear that this infection will take the beer down to some ridiculously low gravity and leave behind nothing interesting. thus, in short order, i am considering one (or several) of the following solutions to kill whatever is in there and salvage whatever is left:
1) campden tablets: nuke with 1 tab per gallon, then let the beer sit for several weeks before re-yeasting and bottling.
2) heat: bottle, let carbonate, then pasteurize with heat by submerging the bottles in hot water. there are several threads on this board (like https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/)
3) freeze: we've all had the experience of forgetting a beer in the freezer (beercicle). i'm thinking that a good freeze after bottling might kill whatever is in there. it should kill any wild yeast, at a minimum. not sure about the bacteria.
i could also let it run its course and wait for some ridiculously low FG (1.000 or less), but i'm concerned that the resulting beer will be too thin. currently it's still decent so i'm hoping to save what's left. maybe i can add some malto if i go the campden route.
all thoughts/comment appreciated. thanks!