Infection????

So I have a sweet stout that has been sitting in the secondary for about a month, patiently waiting for me to bottle it. All airlock activity stopped about three weeks ago. Then, suddenly, bubbles started appearing in the beer. There isn't really any airlock activity but there is a small ring of carbonation-like bubbles at the top and you can see plenty of bubbles rising up. Has the ferment picked back up for some reason? Or has some alien invader rendered my precious brew undrinkable?

Hard to say without pics, but you probably don't have anything to worry about. The bubbles you see are probably just CO2 coming out of solution. This can happen for a variety of reasons including moving/jostling the fermenter or a change in ambient temp/atmospheric pressure.

tempature swings can cause carbonation to leave the beer but pics would help

Here's a pic of the action.

Just bubbles and no floaters- looks like CO2. I think you're okay.

Rdwhahb!

You should be fine. Do a search for infections and pellicle. You'll see what a real infection looks like.

-sigh of relief-
Thanks for your help. This beer is supposed to be for my wife once our son is born. I think she's more relieved than I am.

ya I think you are fine.

Yea, what you're seeing is bubbles. Infections look more like a skin across the entire beer or huge connected bubbles. There's a pellicle identification thread around here. Yours is one of the cleanest looking fermentors I've ever seen.

daksin said:

Yea, what you're seeing is bubbles. Infections look more like a skin across the entire beer or huge connected bubbles. There's a pellicle identification thread around here. Yours is one of the cleanest looking fermentors I've ever seen.

Click to expand...

I was JUST thinking this when I looked at it again. Mine always have a good amount of nasty floaties and hop/yeast gunk on the edges. Perfectly normal anyhow.

Thought I'd give an update. It ended up being an infection. It started growing a stringy film on top as well as around the carbonation bubbles at the top. It smelled a bit like nail polish remover and tasted quite sour. I decided to dump it instead of pioneering the sour milk stout style. Pretty bummed about it...

You could have a midget stuck in there and he is drowning, possibly drinking all your beer.

bummer, sorry to hear that