Chili Beer Contamination

Still a little green to home brewing, looking for a bit of help

I have been working on a Chili Beer, partial mash and I am concerned about a bacterial contamination

Everything started out fine, batch was brewed and put into primary

OG 1.062

After 7 days in Primary I transferred into my secondary

SG 1.04

7 days later I washed, sanitised, and added the meat of a Anaheim, jalapeño, garden chili, and poblano chili pepers.

5 days after I checked gravity and flavor

Gravity: 1.02 Flavor: strong Chili, no Heat

I sanitized and added the seeds and pits of a jalapeño and 1/2 a habanero

2 days later a krausen formed (slightly milky in appearance) and the whole carboy has been off gassing like crazy, no foul smell is detected from my airlock, just a spice smell

I am unsure if I am still ok, or if when I added the Chili Pits I introduced a bacteria that is eating the beer?

UPDATE:

Bottled 5 days after posting

FG 1.01

Taste is amazing! Delicious Chili flavor, with a nice light heat. Its still not a spicy as I would like it, slightly below Billy's Chilies, and way to dark, but it was the first run at a Chili beer from a recipe made up in my head.

Will post pictures after bottle carbonation

How did this end up? I'm throwing around the idea of using Anaheim chilies. How did you sanitize the chilies you added.

I'm looking for a faint chili note, with little to no spice.

Any learning you'd like to share?

The Chili Beer ended up great! I need to take a picture of the beer but it has been one of the best brews I have done yet.

I washed my chilies and dipped them in bottling conditioning water (sparkelbrite) so that the cleaner would not affect the yeast. Bout inside and outside of the chili.

If you just use the meat and discard the seeds and pits, there is minimal to no heat, but a beautiful flavor.

Hope this helps

How do you "sanitize"?

I roasted my habaneros and tossed them in secondary stil sizzling hot. worked fantastically.

It's a bad idea to dip cut chilies in cleaner. It's not a sanitizer & could've made someone sick. a soak in vodka for the outside only would've been fine. Even a rinse in hot water would do it. Think of sporatazoa & wild yeasts as microbe size dust. They don't cling very hard & are not saber tooth corn borers!

unionrdr said:

It's a bad idea to dip cut chilies in cleaner. It's not a sanitizer & could've made someone sick. a soak in vodka for the outside only would've been fine. Even a rinse in hot water would do it. Think of sporatazoa & wild yeasts as microbe size dust. They don't cling very hard & are not saber tooth corn borers!

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Even no rinse would be a bad idea, I would think. Roasting brings out the chili flavor IMHO and is a win/win for sanitizing.

Just keep them covered while cooling down,or nasties settling downward can get on them again. The point is to clean the outside of any contaminents (sanitize) quickly with regard to food safety. Science without concience is treason to science.

unionrdr said:

Just keep them covered while cooling down,or nasties settling downward can get on them again. The point is to clean the outside of any contaminents (sanitize) quickly with regard to food safety. Science without concience is treason to science.

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Agreed! A good point.

Mine were still literally "sizzling" when tossed in secondary.

OK, so don't use cleaner - check.

cheezydemon3 - when you roasted your Habaneros, did you cut them, slice them, score them or do anything to allow the "meat" or inside of the chili to be exposed to the beer; or was only the skin in contact with the beer?

I would think that you would gain more flavor per chili by exposing the "guts" (meat or whatever you want to call the insides) to the beer. But, that is purely a hunch.

DerekWalter - How do you get just the "meat"? Did you cut away the skin and scrape out the seeds?

What about adding chilies at flame out or the last few minutes of the boil? Anyone ever compare this vs. adding to the secondary?