Post your infection

Agate said:

If it's still sitting in that bucket for secondary, the brett is likely to start throwing some acetic acid on you due to the oxygen in the headspace. You might want to get it transferred to a carboy as soon as possible. Time heals many things, but not acetic acid.

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I don't own a carboy, only buckets, but I will try and get my hands on one tomorrow!

Thanks for the heads up!

My brewing buddy just sent me this pics of the Passion Fruit IPA we brewed last month. RIP 10 Gallons of deliciousness.

joe_four_strings said:

My brewing buddy just sent me this pics of the Passion Fruit IPA we brewed last month. RIP 10 Gallons of deliciousness.

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Pitch some sour dregs and let it ride!

I went away for a week and left my chocolate stout to get from 1.018 to 1.012..... Came back to this.

View attachment 1438501991682.jpg

OhCrap said:

I went away for a week and left my chocolate stout to get from 1.018 to 1.012..... Came back to this.

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Dry hopping with white chocolate is a good way to kill the head on your beer.

Brew_G said:

Dry hopping with white chocolate is a good way to kill the head on your beer.

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Wasn't white chocolate....used coco nibs

Brew_G said:

Dry hopping with white chocolate is a good way to kill the head on your beer.

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Wasn't white chocolate... I used coco powder in the boil

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1438520306.929906.jpg

This is a pic of the top of my Mosaic IPA after 15 days fermenting with safale US05. FG 1.027 down from OG 1.052.
Sample tastes ok. Any advice/thoughts?
Thanks in advance!

Definitely infected, but looks different than the usual slimy/fuzzy white bubbles. And at 1.027, it's got some points to knock off yet.

Bad news. Wondering whether to bother bottling it now. I'm finding all my BIABs are finishing at around the same high FG but none have had this funny top layer before. This is my eighth batch. Just started brewing in January. This batch was the first attempt using a Hop Burst technique. Wonder if a large late hop addition contributed to this. I didn't star San the hop sack.

Volcano said:

Bad news. Wondering whether to bother bottling it now. I'm finding all my BIABs are finishing at around the same high FG but none have had this funny top layer before. This is my eighth batch. Just started brewing in January. This batch was the first attempt using a Hop Burst technique. Wonder if a large late hop addition contributed to this. I didn't star San the hop sack.

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You aren't by chance measuring FG with a refractometer are you? If so use the brix scale on the refractometer - and this calculator:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/learn/resources/refractometer-calculator/

You might need this to get brix from SG
http://www.winning-homebrew.com/specific-gravity-to-brix.html

I get 1.011 from this.

Wish I was but no, just a standard hydrometer. I might try mashing at a lower temp in future to try to increase fermentable sugars. Might need to go back and simplify everything until proper control has been established. Trying to run before I can walk! Wonder if my pic shows mould rather than bacterial infection.

Volcano said:

I didn't star San the hop sack.

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hop sack at boil stage, primary or secondary?

Tough to see, but ai dry hopped 3 days ago with pellets and now I see these large bubbles. No white or slimey looking stuff...just big bubbles. Just CO2 or something worse? Any thoughts?

View attachment 1438633780458.jpg

Well, adding the hop pellets does create nucleation points to release Co2 out of solution.

Daggers! Didn't star San at boil stage. But all my hop additions were late. In future I will boil the hop sack anyway. Even before any hop additions just to sterilise it properly. Think I just got really sloppy in my procedure during that batch. Teach me for being lazy. A contaminated batch is such a downer! What do you recommend for dry hopping?

A fresh pack of hops, spray outside of pack and scissors with 70% isopropyl, cut, and dump hops directly in fermenter.

Volcano said:

Daggers! Didn't star San at boil stage. But all my hop additions were late. In future I will boil the hop sack anyway. Even before any hop additions just to sterilise it properly. Think I just got really sloppy in my procedure during that batch. Teach me for being lazy. A contaminated batch is such a downer! What do you recommend for dry hopping?

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I personally throw the pellets in naked and drop my temp to ~13C, the hop material will crash out at this temp or you could cold crash to 0C which will do the same. Takes about 10 days to clear.

Vanilla Stout

This looks like something went wrong & I assume this wan't from the oils in the vanilla beans. Looked ok in primary, racked to secondary after 2 weeks and left for 3 more. This was after popping the lid.

1) Can anyone tell me if this is an infection?
2) I did taste it. It doesn't taste bad like the one I fermented too warm. Might have a bit more bitter in it than it should but not sure. I skimmed the top and filtered the beer (1 micron filter) I assume its ok to carb and drink?
3) Anything I should do to it? Plan was to throw in keezer set at 39F and leave for 2 - 3 weeks.

Definitely an infection by that broken ice pack look. Filtering might've helped, but idk...never tried that.

Looks infected. If you keg, might want to just drink it quick and dedicate that line to infected beers.

Hello! I have some Saison that I think is infected. That first run on WLP566 and my Anniversary 20th batch. Beer finished on 0.1 Plato deg. Taste and smell ok but this look weird. I never occured that. I thinking about bottling that, there almost no sugar to be eaten by bugs so I don't actually worry about bombs and I would drink that pretty fast. Also I assume I cannot harvest yeast Logic says not to do this, but I would rather ask.

What do you think guys?

wich3r said:

Hello! I have some Saison that I think is infected. That first run on WLP566 and my Anniversary 20th batch. Beer finished on 0.1 Plato deg. Taste and smell ok but this look weird. I never occured that. I thinking about bottling that, there almost no sugar to be eaten by bugs so I don't actually worry about bombs and I would drink that pretty fast. Also I assume I cannot harvest yeast Logic says not to do this, but I would rather ask.

What do you think guys?

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I had the same issue with WY 3711 French Saison twice recently. Two different batches using different strains of 3711, but same results: fermented normally and then a thin film appeared near the 3 week mark. I haven't had this happen with any other beer, just twice with the 3711.

First time, I dumped the yeast cake due to infection concerns. Beer was great though. When it happened the second time, I harvested it. I have another batch going right now with that very yeast and fermentation is proceeding normally. Krausen has fallen and I'm waiting to see if the film appears again. Even if it is a lacto infection, it seems the yeast is able to out-compete it. Just my experience and YMMV.

EDIT: I should mention, I did skim that layer off the top and discard before packaging the beer and then harvesting yeast.

Definitely the start of an infection. Skimming, in my opinion helps, when done right before bottling. It seems to slow it down some for an interesting bit of flavor complexity.

I found this lining my fermenter after I racked into secondary. It's a scotch ale aged for 30 days with WLP028 Edinburgh yeast at 64 degrees.

Dr_Mantis said:

I found this lining my fermenter after I racked into secondary. It's a scotch ale aged for 30 days with WLP028 Edinburgh yeast at 64 degrees.

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Whoa. It looks like they are trying to get out.

I had that happen with my last batch of Whiskely stout. That's what the infection looks like as the better bottle (in my case) empties. It moves toward the sides & sticks as it empties. Problem trying to solve itself, or so it seems? And I even boiled the hop sacks I used for the bourbon-soaked oak chips & dipped them in starsan before filling. I gotta get a 5 gallon BB for secondary purposes...

I had no idea that it was infected since I never opened the lid. I was a bit surprised when I cracked the lid to pour out the yeast slurry for reuse. The sample I tasted was a bit thin and had a brackish taste like yeast bite. I have a 100% Brett wheat beer fermenting beside it so I'm wondering if those bugs got in somehow. At any rate I'm going to let the beer sit in secondary since I already racked it onto rum soaked oak and see just how weird things get.

rhys333 said:

I had the same issue with WY 3711 French Saison twice recently. Two different batches using different strains of 3711, but same results: fermented normally and then a thin film appeared near the 3 week mark. I haven't had this happen with any other beer, just twice with the 3711.

First time, I dumped the yeast cake due to infection concerns. Beer was great though. When it happened the second time, I harvested it. I have another batch going right now with that very yeast and fermentation is proceeding normally. Krausen has fallen and I'm waiting to see if the film appears again. Even if it is a lacto infection, it seems the yeast is able to out-compete it. Just my experience and YMMV.

EDIT: I should mention, I did skim that layer off the top and discard before packaging the beer and then harvesting yeast.

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interesting! I'm about to use 3711 this weekend D:

daggers_nz said:

interesting! I'm about to use 3711 this weekend D:

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This is a saison from that "infected" batch. Turned out nice and surprisingly clear for a low floc yeast.

View attachment 1439424600621.jpg

rhys333 said:

I had the same issue with WY 3711 French Saison twice recently. Two different batches using different strains of 3711, but same results: fermented normally and then a thin film appeared near the 3 week mark. I haven't had this happen with any other beer, just twice with the 3711.

First time, I dumped the yeast cake due to infection concerns. Beer was great though. When it happened the second time, I harvested it. I have another batch going right now with that very yeast and fermentation is proceeding normally. Krausen has fallen and I'm waiting to see if the film appears again. Even if it is a lacto infection, it seems the yeast is able to out-compete it. Just my experience and YMMV.

EDIT: I should mention, I did skim that layer off the top and discard before packaging the beer and then harvesting yeast.

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Unfortunately i had the same phenomenon yesterday when I was bottling a batch or 3711.....strange....

my LHBS didn't have 3711 and I wasn't going to bother with the unreliable 3724 (Belgian) so I got 3726-PC (Farmhouse)

that beer above looks pretty clear! nice work

daggers_nz said:

my LHBS didn't have 3711 and I wasn't going to bother with the unreliable 3724 (Belgian) so I got 3726-PC (Farmhouse)

that beer above looks pretty clear! nice work

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Cheers

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1440101018.943036.jpg beneath that "film" is cocoa nibs. This looks gross and smells....weird. A pb milk/sweet stout

yeah, cacao nibs are known to get infected if above the alcohol line, same with fruit.

and also they do smell weird.

it's probably ok to drink.

IJesusChrist said:

yeah, cacao nibs are known to get infected if above the alcohol line, same with fruit.



and also they do smell weird.



it's probably ok to drink.

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Idk man, it seemed to be mildly infected before the nibs (when I added lactose and pb powder to secondary). I think I aerated too much while mixing them in. The nibs sat in some bourbon so idk.

Aerating in secondary is likely the culprit?...

Dr_Mantis said:

I found this lining my fermenter after I racked into secondary. It's a scotch ale aged for 30 days with WLP028 Edinburgh yeast at 64 degrees.

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Wow this looks like stratified goodness: yeast, lactobacillus, yeast, trub, dead cells/cold/hot break?

Hey guys,

I've finally gotten to the point where I'm ready to pull my hair out. I've had major diacetyl issues for the last 4 beers or so, which I've attributes to an infection, since I have proper yeast management, pitch rates, and I perform d-rests. The diacetyl has been present in an IPA, a pale ale, a German Pilsner, and a blonde Ale. I couldn't detect it in a split batch of brown ale I did, but my buddy had some serious bottle bombs off those batches. I bottle off of a keg.

I've PBW'd and star san'd the hell out of everything multiple times. My fermentors are glass. I've replaced all tubing twice. I clean my ball valve before every brew.

With that said, this brew is the first time I've noticed something "off" visually, i.e. the little white floaters and bubbles. This is my Marzen, which has been sitting at 63 for the d-rest for the last 2 days.

Lacto starring to take hold?

Holybarfly said:

Lacto starring to take hold?

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Does look a little bit like lacto, but hard to tell at this point.

What's your chilling method?