What to do with Infected Beer

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Morkin

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So I"ve been lazy and never bottled an infected batch of beer. I have not tasted it either, for fear my instruments would be infected for other batches, so I just left it alone.

Awhile back, someone hinted that I could give it some bacteria and turn it into a lambic or perhaps a sour beer. It was orginially a Blonde Ale before it was infected.

Is this a possibility, and if so, how would I go about doing this? Any thoughts would help, thanks.
 
You'd have to taste it first. You have no idea at this point of what the infection might have done to it. Adding bacteria to a beer that tastes like vomit will only give you sour vomit.
 
I had my first infection about two weeks ago, and I pitched the beer into the compost. Hey, if it tastes great, bottle it up and enjoy it. Mine did NOT taste good, and life is too short to drink bad beer.
 
If you haven't tasted it, then how do you know it's infected?????

I was wondering the same thing. If it was mold on the top of the beer, as long as you turn it over relatively quickly (ie, don't age it for years), you won't have any problems.

While mold isn't something you really want, it usually doesn't affect the flavor. We usually describe an infection as an organism, such as lactobacillus, acetobacter, pediococcus or wild yeast, which negatively affect the flavor of your beer, or change the desired taste of the beer.
 
I was wondering the same thing. If it was mold on the top of the beer, as long as you turn it over relatively quickly (ie, don't age it for years), you won't have any problems.

While mold isn't something you really want, it usually doesn't affect the flavor. We usually describe an infection as an organism, such as lactobacillus, acetobacter, pediococcus or wild yeast, which negatively affect the flavor of your beer, or change the desired taste of the beer.

Many of us have had mold develop on the surface and the beer was fine, we just rack from below.

Edcculus is right, mold is not an infection....
 
Nice colonies in those pics. A little overgrown for microbiology purposes, but still nice work. Wish my lab work would behave that well. ;)

Taste the beer. Until you know how good or "bad" the beer tastes no one can give you advice on what to do with it. I doubt your going to plate those bacteria colonies and submit them for lab analysis, so the only way you can find out if it's good or bad infection is to taste it.
 
It looks like a pellicle, but it's hard to tell. If you like sour beers, you'll probably like it. If it tastes good, and it's not fermenting any more (you'd have to take sucessive SG readings to ensure it's done, since often an infected beer will ferment lower than a regular fermentation), you can bottle it and drink it.

I don't like sours, but I didn't have a pellicle. I had a definite lacto infection- cloudy and sour with a definite lacto taste. I threw it out. But if you like the taste of yours, why not bottle it up and try it?
 
Ughhh.

Not the reaction I wanted. Guys, I assure you it is an infection. As was discovered in another Post. Here are my pictures, I know that it is an infection.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinalf/3964276022/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinalf/3963500757/


Nowthen, I just wanted to know if I could salvage it by making it into a sour beer.

My answer stands. You won't know until you try it. If it is an infection that is taking the beer to a place where it will just taste like ****, it will still taste like **** if you try to sour it. If that's something like pedio or lacto, you might be able to use that and combine it with another bug. But you won't know until you try it.
 
yeah, you're not going to be able to know anything without tasting it. It's not going to hurt you. As far as "infecting your instruments", give them a good wash/boil/bleach bath to ensure they're good after wards.
 
Kind of hard to tell, but it kind of looks like lacto. Which begs the question, have you tasted it??? It could be mold. I didn't really see any definitive answer in your other thread.

Here are your options. You must first taste your beer

1 - lacto infection. Your beer tastes sour. Go buy a Flanders Red if you want to know what lacto tastes like. If it is a lacto infection, you are going to have to let it sit for a while. Bottling now will result in overcarbonated "gushers" down the road. I wouldn't say there is anything else to do. I mean, you have already achieved similar results as pitching a lacto strain, or even a lambic blend. Give it a few more months. If it tastes good (as in ok with the sourness), bottle it up.

2 - its mold. Your beer tastes like beer. No lacto sourness. Bottle like normal and try not to suck up any of the mold when racking.

3 - its wild yeast and maybe some other bad stuff. Your beer will taste like absolute crap. Dump it.
 
Not ALL wild yeast will taste like crap. Just sayin'...

True. I guess i was making a generalization, having to do specifically with infections. Wild yeast have the potential to taste funny, not always like crap. It could be good or bad, depending on what you are looking for.
 
+1 on tasting... you really are in the dark without knowing what it tastes like. I'm sure it's fine... sours can be quite tasty ^_^
 
Distill it a couple times and drink it up. Off flavors don't seem to make it through distillation.
 
Took everyones advice and tasted the beer. While uncarbonated, it does not seem to taste off to me! It may have just a residual flavor of band-aide, but I think that can be attributed to me having random thoughts about it, pluss the yeast I used could have put the off flavors in it seeind how it has been sitting on the yeast for about 3 months.

So I"m probably just going to bottle it this weekend. Thanks for the advice though.
 

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