What to do with my infected beer?

I posted this in the infection picture thread.

Here's what my Bourbon Barrel Porter (from Northern Brewer) looked like coming out of primary:

Here's what it looks like right now after five days in secondary:

I'm ridiculously careful with sanitation too, so I dunno how this could've happened. I racked very carefully from under the first "thing", being careful not to transfer any of it.

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Now I'm wondering what I should do with it. I'm supposed to be adding 16oz of Bourbon & oak cubes to it in a couple weeks.

I'm thinking that I may continue as planned, but add a few campden tablets to try to stop the wild yeast. Then a week later, re-pitch & bottle. Any thoughts? Will that work, or am I just wasting my time? Should I just bottle it & drink it quickly?

Was it AG? How do you know it's infected? Have you ever made a bourbon porter before...could it be the normal after effects of krauesen you're seeing? I've never made a b.p. before and have never had an infection so I don't know what an infection looks like. The sides of your primary look like you've had a normal primary fermentation.

That does look like an infection, although I am not sure what kind. I would be very careful with bottling, since certain wild yeasts and bacteria will ferment a beer out completely, increasing the odds of bottle bombs.

I would probably just let it ride and see how it turns out. It might be a nice, tangy historic stout, it might turn into malt vinegar. In the latter case, you can always use it for cooking.

MacGruber:

It's extract. I'm pretty sure it's infected because it looks just like other pictures of infected beer I've seen. It's like spiderwebs on the surface. Granted I'm pretty new at this, but it sure doesn't seem right to me. The primary looked pretty normal, except for those bubbles looking kinda weird.

I'm just wondering if there's any way to stop wild yeast once it's taken hold. I figured adding Sulfites would stop them, then re-pitching later at bottling time would get some healthy yeast back in there. Dunno if that would work though.

ArcaneXor:

So you'd continue with the bourbon/oak & bottle as normal? I'm terrified of something like that growing in the bottles.

commonsenseman said:

ArcaneXor:

So you'd continue with the bourbon/oak & bottle as normal? I'm terrified of something like that growing in the bottles.

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If you can't keg, I would delay bottling and see what it does (gravity and taste-wise).

Yeah I'd taste it first before using the oak cubes.

Whatever it tastes like now, in terms of 'funk' or 'sour' is going to increase as it ages, especially if its not kept cold/serving temps.

Its sad when you have to dump a keg...hopefully its not too off, and salvagable.

I'll taste it & take a gravity reading tonight. Would campden tablets help keep it in check?

that's infection. i'd dump it.

I've never had an infection that looked like that, but I just dumped an infected porter a couple of weeks ago. It tasted funky at 1 week and downright nasty at 3 weeks in the fermenter. Why tie up money and equipment with a batch that probably won't recover and only get worse.

What did you do in your primary? What were your steps?

I'd hazard a guess that the primary was where whatever it was took hold. Racking out from under it would have had a chance to leave it behind, but it's not too likely. Just a little bit grows.

I don't believe it's yeast at all. Wild yeast acts like normal yeast. (*edit: I mean just yeast as Saccharomyces, compared to a combination of Lactobacillus /brett/pedio which are bacteria and are often included with wild yeasts.)

No matter what it is, I'd probably wait and see before tossing it. Check out the lambic threads since people do who knows what to their beers to get it looking like that. Also see http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-1.html

That looks like a brett pellicle to me, though I could be wrong. I'd let it ride and see how it turns out in a few months. You might have your own version of JP's Madrugada Obscura on your hands (which is a fantastic beer, by the way).

Here we go. I thought I saw a picture like that one before: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yet-another-my-first-infection-thread-134113/

Here's another (the first 3 pages are a joke, but then 4 happened) https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/my-beer-infected-pic-199206/index4.html

*edit: Oh, and they both turned out well from what it appears to say.

I've had that kind of infection before. I think first time I got it I was still bottling and after I bottled there was this kind of growth inside of the bottles. With time and kept at room temperature the infection changed the beer into very nasty stuff.

I have pictures of my infection and my cleanup steps (which worked btw, made 5+ batches with no issues so far) - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/recurring-infection-cleanup-here-my-plan-171704/

I had an experimental, gluten free, batch that had an infection like that. I couldn't dump it after all the work I put into malting my own grains. Over the next couple months it got worse and worse. I started bringing it out as a joke. Now two years later, I actually like the stuff.

BBBF said:

Now two years later, I actually like the stuff.

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That's the thing. One person's "infection" is another's "innoculation." If you at all like a sour beer(and really, there are only 2 kinds of people in the world: those who like sour beer and those who do, but don't know it yet), letting this ride may well make for an awesome beer.

Well, at least it looks like I'm not the only one who's had this particular "growth"! Glad to hear that it may turn out halfway decent, here's hoping

Like they say its worth the wait. Think of all that effort you put into it, it could very well turn out great. Age it and keep tasting.

Have you actually tasted this beer yet? Really about the only sure fire way to determine an infection is to give it a taste test. If it is indeed infected, there is no way to really "fix" it. I might put it in a keg for 2-4 years, and see what happens. You might have something pretty tasty and complex once the bacteria mellows out. Lambics are a great example of this. If you taste a Lambic while it is still young, it tastes like pure evil. However, once all those flavors mellow out and meld together, it is something truly special.

[email protected]. on tap: easy virtue blonde, fruity monk belgian wit. primary: American pale ale, American stout, blow your top steam, and heffewitzen

Lol, this beer is long gone now. Turned out pretty decent. A little sour, but still drinkable.

Having operated under the supposition that the bacteria that has infected the batch needs oxygen, I have salvaged beer in the past by siphoning the beer under the infection. I would siphon the bottom 2.5 gallons into a separate and sanitized carboy and taste it again in a few weeks. Pitch the remaining beer from the infected carboy.

It looks like a scum mold. If so, it forms on top of brine of fermenting pickles and sauerkraut. It needs air to grow and its a sign that CO2 level was not sufficient over the fermenting wort. It may be that you were in and out of the vessel too many times--dissipating the denser CO2 layer and letting too much O2 in. Picklers skim the mold off, it won't hurt you and because it requires O2 to grow, it won't infect deep into the wort.