Off Odor and Very Cloudy

I just brewed a bitter, I keep getting a waft of a sour, almost malt vinegar aroma from keg when I vent the CO2. The beer is also super cloudy. The funny thing is that this beer tastes just fine.....obviously it is infected.....or is it?

I have never used the Halycon malt before, maybe that is the culprit...I don't know. I have a tasty, but cloudy bitter. I am hoping the cloudiness goes away, but from what I can tell it isn' chill haze. I warmed it up and it is still cloudy in a glass.


Funny thing though. I used this yeast cake for an india brown ale. I guess the high ABV and IBU killed whatever bug, if it was a bug, off..because it is not present in the IBA> Wierd.

UPDATE: I just did a little research and found this to be common with the TF Halycon malt, I guess they have poor quality control. NOTE TO SELF, use Marris Otter for my next bitter.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-1.html

Cause 1: Bacteria In this case, it probably is. Aceto bacteria (vinegar producing) and Lacto bacteria (lactic acid producing) are common contaminates in breweries. Sometimes the infection will produce sweet smells like malt vinegar, other times they will produce cidery smells. It will depend on which bug is living in your wort. Aceto bacteria often produce ropy strands of jelly which can be a good visual indicator, as can excessive cloudiness, after several weeks in the fermentor (although some cloudiness is not unusual, especially in all-grain beers).
Cure: If you don't like the taste, then pour it out. Lactic infections are desired in some beer styles.

It sounds like lactobacillus to me, too. If it gets worse (and it will if it's lacto), it's better to drink it sooner rather than later. A bit of lacto is ok, at least in taste.

After this keg, make sure you really clean and sanitize your lines and kegs. The rubber and plastic will hold onto the lacto and infect future batches.

crap, it is just a bitter with maybe $15 woth of ingredients. Maybe I should just dump it, sanitize and call it a loss?

I wonder why the IBA that I pitched unto the cake is showing ZERO signs of this infrection. Are lower gravity beers more suseptable?

Not sure if they are more or less suseptable, but dump it?

You said yourself that it tastes just fine, the arguement is that its going to get worse, but it isnt bad yet?

some styles of beer lambics etc this is a favourable infection, it isnt going to harm you.

Just make an effort to drink it fast, how horrible

Man, I saw no visually signs or ropiness. Just the odd aroma and cloudiness. I am only 3 days into the kegging after a two week primary fermentation. We'll see what happens, but I am going to pour pint after pint until it is gone. That is for sure.

Too add insult to injury, it appears as if one of the tea balls I used to dry hop in the keg opened up, so I have hops in every glass too.

Well, I really made a champions effort to dent that keg last night, and the consensus was that the beer is good. It cleared up and got better after about the first 1/2 gallon was gone. I wonder if the bottom of a fresh keg might just be cloudier and "different" so to speak.

I am going to give it another week before I taste again and then the final verdict will be made....infected or not infected.

permo said:

Well, I really made a champions effort to dent that keg last night, and the consensus was that the beer is good. It cleared up and got better after about the first 1/2 gallon was gone. I wonder if the bottom of a fresh keg might just be cloudier and "different" so to speak.

I am going to give it another week before I taste again and then the final verdict will be made....infected or not infected.

Click to expand...

Good plan! I've only had one keg with lacto infection, and it was ok for a few weeks before getting sour tasting. Maybe it's not infected, if it's improving. If it is infected, keeping it cold will slow down the process enough that you could finish the keg.

I had similar results from an American Pale Ale bottled on 7/16. The difference is that the beer has a definite sour or acidic taste, but not bad. I can't figure out how it happened, as I used the same sanitizing steps I always do. I am killing off that batch as quickly as I can, but it's pretty strong. 3 pints is about all I can handle before its sleepy time.

permo said:

Well, I really made a champions effort to dent that keg last night, and the consensus was that the beer is good. It cleared up and got better after about the first 1/2 gallon was gone. I wonder if the bottom of a fresh keg might just be cloudier and "different" so to speak.

I am going to give it another week before I taste again and then the final verdict will be made....infected or not infected.

Click to expand...

Any yeast that settles out settles to the bottom of the keg. So, your first few pours will be cloudy and may have some flavors that won't be present once the yeast clears. If you naturally prime this will probably be even more pronounced.

permo said:

Well, I really made a champions effort to dent that keg last night, and the consensus was that the beer is good. It cleared up and got better after about the first 1/2 gallon was gone. I wonder if the bottom of a fresh keg might just be cloudier and "different" so to speak.

I am going to give it another week before I taste again and then the final verdict will be made....infected or not infected.

Click to expand...

Just a thought, could the "infection" (if that is what it is) have happened after you harvested the yeast from the first batch like during secondary or racking to the keg?
It seems like the issue could have come after you harvested the yeast and not from the yeast. Just my 2 cents

I am not sure what happened with this one. It was cloudy and had a wierd aroma, but it is no longer a concern. A buddy of mine pulled a beer off of the keg and left the tap on...drained the entire thing onto my garage floor. I didn't have the heart to tell him what blasphemy he commited....the beer Gods will catch up to him eventually.

I don't think anything happened during the transfer, it had a bad smell right out of the fermenter. A smell I have never experienced with the bells yeast before. I am not sure what it was, but after I transfered the beer off of the primary yeast cake, I put a brown ale right on top of the yeast cake and I have no off aromas from this fermentation. The OG of the bitter was 1.044 and the brown ale is 1.064 with much higher IBU. My guess is that the yeast just out reproduced the lacto in this beer and the higher alco and IBU have just killed it off basically.

Regardless my beer lines are currently soaking in sanitzer, and i have sprayed my entire keggerator with sanitzer.

I kegged this after only two weeks primary. I am thinking that the cloudiness and off odors were a result of taking the beer off of the primary cake too early and not allowing enough cold time for yeast to floculate.

The brown ale I pitched unto the cake is doing just fine, surely no infection after 12 days primary, but is still cloudy. Heck the two hearted clone I brewed 12 weeks ago is still on the cloudy side. Bells yeast is just super "fluffy".

I contacted the supplier of the grains, and he tasted the halcyon and said it is just fine, so my guess is the yeast at this point....fermentations can smell odd.