do i have an infection?

this is my first post. been brewing for about 8 months now so i'm not exactly a newbie but i figure this was a good place to post.

Anyway, i brewed a Belgian ale last night with my dad. It was a beautiful day, so we decided we brew outside and not get the house hot. process went very smoothly cleaned sanitized religiously. we threw in orange zest at flame out. when pouring into the carboy we used an empty hop bag to run it through to catch and zest that might come out in the pour. when i pulled the hop bag out it had a F*cking Japanese beetle in it. Basically, ran all my wort over a Japanese beetle. I checked it today and after about 14 hours no signs fermentation, which i know isn't unusual. But, now i'm really starting to worry about an infection. What do you guys think?

Only thing you can do at this point is to wait it out.


And of course you have to name it Beetle Juice.

I once read a blog post from a guy who purposefully did things to "try" to infect his beers. Most of them turned out just fine, even when he didn't sanitize his stuff. Some certainly did get infected, but the majority didn't.

My hunch is you will be just fine, especially of the beetle that was in the bag was sanitized with the bag

+1 for calling it Beetle Juice. Personaly I would just wait it out and see. It will probably turn out just fine.

Beetlejuice....Beetlejuice.....

Sorry couldn't resist. haha

I think your beer will be fine but only time will tell.

for the beetle juice

If the beetle was boiled you're gonna be just fine. Even if it wasn't boiled, I think you'll be fine. Its small and you removed before fermentation. I wouldn't even worry about it.

Wring his ass out and carry on.

When I was a kid my dad always had a garden. Sometimes there would be ants in the lettuce we ate from the garden.. Dad's response. "It's just extra protein kids, eat it"

BEETLEJUICE

BRILLIANT

On my very first batch, I accidently poured about 3.5 gallons of cooled wort into my primary and poured it directly over my sweaty hand. I was so sure that this beer was going to suck that I named it Cat Ass Ale before I even tried it. It turned out to be the hit of my beer club last fall.

That's when I found out that it's really hard to kill a beer. I've done it, but you almost have to try to get er done.

thanks for the responses everyone,

I thought it might be ok, but i wanted some second opinions. i am more confident it'll turn out alright. unfortunately the beetle was not boiled he musta flew into the hop bag without me noticing. He was still alive after he got doused with 5 gallons of wort. I flicked his a** shoulda killed him i hate those jap beetles those f'ers bite... Still no fermentation, but as said only time will tell.

beergolf Beetle Juice is definitely sticking. brilliant name.

If a little beetle sweat can kill fermentation you might not want to tell anyone. You might be on to a profitable discovery. Not sure what yet but that would be potent stuff.

The only contribution I have to make to this thread is to note that Mill Street Brewing in Toronto actually has a Belgian GS called "Betelgeuse" as well. Just wanted to share

Just an update if anyone cares to know, fermentation began after approx 36 hours. Looking healthy nothing that I can see different from my experience. Now to play the waiting game.

Good to hear all is well. You should label it as including Japanese Beetles, limited production, etc and sell it for $20 a bomber. I'm only partially joking.

It'll be fine... And when it is, here's a label for ya. We got slow at work today, so I had to fill a few minutes with something!

Hellosluggo said:

It'll be fine... And when it is, here's a label for ya. We got slow at work today, so I had to fill a few minutes with something!

Click to expand...

Awesome label!