Infection, now what?

I know there are countless threads on here about infections. I am not asking if I have one, the plastic bubbles that have formed I know is an infection.

I am asking, what now?

Should rack to another carboy, a "thirdary" or should I let the infection sit atop the beer for awhile.

Or thirdly, should I bottle asap?

First infection in 10 batches, i am fairly sure it is because the krausen got outside of the fermentation lock, as I did not have a blow-off on the carboy.

Take a picture, let's check this infection out!

HA, at work right now, so thats not a possibility. But I will try and post later. I'm just wondering if the infection sitting on top can cause further taste problems. Tastes fine now, so I"m wondering what to do with it.

If it still tastes good, chill it down and drink it quickly! Unless you like sour beers you probably won't enjoy it after another week or so.

Morkin said:

First infection in 10 batches, i am fairly sure it is because the krausen got outside of the fermentation lock, as I did not have a blow-off on the carboy.

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There is no reason at all why this would cause an infection. Unless you scooped up the krausen that escaped and put it back in the carboy. I am not convinced yet that you have an infection. They generally show up as a pellicle and from what you describe this is not a pellicle. Sounds more like fermentation bubbles trapped in fermentation by-product.

I too am slightly dubious about this infection - particularly because the beer tastes fine.

I assure you it is an infection. I will post pics in a couple of hours. There is a fine film over the beer and maybee 5-8 large bubles that apear to look like a buble that one would blow from gum (actually a very good description of what it looks like!)

Will post pictures later.

if you've got the fine film with bubblegum bubbles, that sounds exactly like an infection (lactobacillus i believe)... if in fact it is, i would rack that sucker out and drink it up before it gets any further along. be careful if you are bottling though, the infection could stick around and continue to ferment the beer causing bottle bombs.

Here are the pictures, sorry it was done on an Iphone, but nonetheless, you can see what I got.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinalf/3964276022/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinalf/3963500757/

Can I rack away from this and keep in in another carboy for a couple of weeks? I don't have enough bottles, need to drink more!

Morkin said:

Here are the pictures, sorry it was done on an Iphone, but nonetheless, you can see what I got.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinalf/3964276022/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinalf/3963500757/

Can I rack away from this and keep in in another carboy for a couple of weeks? I don't have enough bottles, need to drink more!

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The problem is that you're likely to just transfer the infection. You can try to rack to tertiary with this, but I think your infection will just spring up in the next vessel.

if you have a large enough brew pot, you could try to somehow pasteurize it, but then you'll have to figure out a way to carbonate it if you bottle. Maybe pasteurize then repitch with a big starter, then prime and bottle?

Beer Infection Porn!

Sorry for doubting your situation. I agree with the above poster - some sort of pasteurization. I am not sure if you keg or not, that would solve the carbonation problem. If not - perhaps some of those carbonation drops I've read about around the forum?

If the beer tastes good right now, maybe just bottle as much as you dare?

No way to get "rid" of it, if you have a year or so, you could think flanders or lambic depending on the recipe of the original brew. That is another story and sometimes complicated.

So what I'm gathering from here is that If I do bottle, there is a high chance for bottle bombs?

I read from other threads that I should just rack from beneath it, bottle, and be done with it. If it sucks, through it out, but if it's good, no one would ever know?

Damn, this sucks.... 2 months down the drain, should I just dump it?

Morkin,

I had a very similar looking infection in my last batch of cider. I was careful not to disturb the pellicle and then racked from under it. I stopped the siphon with about 1/2 gallon or so to go so as to transfer as little of the infection as possible. When I was racking most of the pellicle stuck to the sides of the plastic fermentor and didn't transfer as far as I could tell.

I transfered right into my bottling bucket and bottled immediately after. This was on 9/15 and I have not had any issues with bottle bombs. I have not checked them for infection yet.

I'd sit on it.
There's no need to do anything right now and those pictures haven't completely sold me on an infected brew.

Scut_Monkey said:

Morkin,

I had a very similar looking infection in my last batch of cider. I was careful not to disturb the pellicle and then racked from under it. I stopped the siphon with about 1/2 gallon or so to go so as to transfer as little of the infection as possible. When I was racking most of the pellicle stuck to the sides of the plastic fermentor and didn't transfer as far as I could tell.

I transfered right into my bottling bucket and bottled immediately after. This was on 9/15 and I have not had any issues with bottle bombs. I have not checked them for infection yet.

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I tried to clear my infection by carefully racking to a terciary. I left a lot of the beer in the secondary, but the infection showed up again in the terciary. I guess you can't really stick a racking cane through the the infected layer and not transfer it (damn micro organisms!). I bottled it from the terciary anyway (again sticking the siphon through the infection in a careful attempt to rack from under the infection). The infection has now shown up as a white film at the top of all my bottles. No bombs yet though. I have yet to try one.

If I had to do it over again I would have racked into my bottling bucket, let it sit for a week or so, then without moving it, bottle from that bucket and leave about 1/2 gallon in it. That way I wouldn't have to put the siphon through the infection and risk transferring it farther.

ThreeRatBastards said:

If I had to do it over again I would have racked into my bottling bucket, let it sit for a week or so, then without moving it, bottle from that bucket and leave about 1/2 gallon in it. That way I wouldn't have to put the siphon through the infection and risk transferring it farther.

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I might be wrong here, but isn't the "infection" present throughout the entire beer? Even if you don't disturb the pellicle, there's probably still bacteria in the beer itself.

garbs said:

I might be wrong here, but isn't the "infection" present throughout the entire beer? Even if you don't disturb the pellicle, there's probably still bacteria in the beer itself.

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Good question. I guess I always assumed it only lives on top of the beer because of all of the people suggesting that you "rack from underneath" infections when you get them. Anyone know the answer to this?

I think you are worrying too much. If you have reached your FG just bottle it up and drink it.