wooden spoon infection

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qmax

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This was my first batch, a dark chocolate stout with lactose and cocoa powder in it.
It fermented fast in about 4 days and I bottled it after a week or so.
It went perfectly fine until after the bottling time.. So I was dumb enough to just dunk my wooden spoon in a sanitizer and then use it for mixing in the priming sugar in the bottling bucket.
The result was this infection. The beer is 8 months old now and it gushes out of the bottle and leaves no head.
My question is, can I salvage this beer if I pour it back into the fermentor, aerate it, and leave for a year? (I've heard pellicles can't grow without oxigen and there was none in the bottle). It doesn't taste too bad but still unpleasant though with a lot of cocoa powder in suspension and those awful bubbles. Maybe you can name this infection too?

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You might consider posting your recipe... then we could determine if in fact you have an infection....

All I see is suspended coco powder.

Coco has a lot of oil in it and can affect head retention... I add a bit of wheat malt to help with this when I do a "Milk Chocolate Stout" I also boild the choclat a long time in a effort to break up the oils.

DPB
 
By it doesn't taste to bad mean it's sour or funky but in a good way or it tastes like it should but just gushes? I would think by 8 months you would be getting some serious off flavors.

IMO if it is just gushing it may not be infected. I have had 1 gusher in my time and it was a beer that had lactose added. No off flavors, the beer just had a high FG purposely to give it more body. The beer would gush but then tasted great if you let it sit for a bit, no off flavors at all. Maybe that lactose is fermenting out just a bit more than you thought. If you look in the wiki it is listed as "not fully fermentable". I think that could be your culprit unless of course it tastes off.

Those bubbles are interesting though
 
Mate, what was your og and ferment temp?
It may just be that it was not fully attenuated at bottling.
 
No idea.. I broke my hydrometer before its first use.. ferment temp around 68`F (20`C). But I can't connect those bubbles with anything other than a full infection. And I think there was an off-flavor which I can't describe, more in some bottles. Maybe the pellicle and its off-taste could not grow much because of the lack of oxygen in the bottle. And those bubbles and cocoa or trub chunks floating around are off-putting enough.
 
If you didn't have a hydrometer, how did you know that it was fully fermented? 1 week to bottle seems pretty fast. Looks like just regular gushers to me. It looks "infected" because that's all the yeast and cocoa coming out with the CO2. I have a stout right now with cocoa in it and it did the same thing when I cracked one a little young (which causes gushers too). Obviously yours isn't young at 8 months, but I'll bet that's whats going on.
 
I added cocoa powder in the boil about 15 mins until flameout.
Without a hydrometer I was relying on the airlock activity. So it started slowing down by day 4-5.. and after a few days when it was not bubbling at all I considered it done fermenting. And it tasted very nice at bottling as well. Now it definitely seems interesting that so many of you doubt it being infected looking at all those photos. Especially the last one down the neck of the bottle. If you ask me this beer well deserves its place in the 'post my infection' threads.
 
Airlock activity doesn't mean anything. I haven't seen bubbles at all in several batches, even though they completely fermented. You probably bottled too soon and now you have gushers. I've never had an infection, but from what I understand, most true infections give a sour taste. When I've had gushers before, the CO2 seems to all come from the bottom of the bottle, and push all the yeast and sediment up. That's probably what you are tasting and why some have more of an off-flavor than others.
 
To me it looks like the bubbles when you blow through a straw into a glass of chocolate milk. Seems like all that CO2 rushing to escape is your "straw" blowing big cocoa and yeast bubbles. Maybe, maybe not.

Is the "pellicle" there before you open? A pellicle does not form instantly. Taste will be your guide, but I'm not sure if you're familiar with what to look for flavor/funk wise when it comes to this kind of thing either.
 
I agree that you probably didn't finish fermenting, and the off taste is from the yeast and coco powder being resuspended. Coca has oils regardless of what kind and they take some time to break down usually at least 6-12 months. By when they do it imparts a flavor unlike no other.
 
I agree with the group think on this. Even your last shot just looks like bubble nucleation. You probably have an over carb'd beer.

Post your recipe and dextrose measurements and we'll help fix the next batch. I've had much more success using cocoa nibs at the secondary rather than coco powder.
 
Thanks everyone for your input. I think you may be right that it's not an infection after all. But all this gunk in suspension is terrible nevertheless. If I'll ever use cocoa powder again I'll make sure to give it a full 90 minute boil. Maybe it would be a good idea to add it to the mash so that I can filter it through the grain bed.
 
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