What to do with this infected beer?

This is a RyePA I brewed with a buddy. Kinda sad his first batch gets infected like this. I'm pretty sure I need to give my beer thief a thorough scrubbing.

Anyways, does anyone know what to do with this? It smells kinda like chemical treated leather... Is this a Brett strain? We were about to bottle this in a couple of days, FG was 1.020.

Whatever you do, don't bottle it at 1.020.

what was OG? That doesnt look so good... try it and if its bad toss it.

OG was 1.064. It was brewed three weeks ago.

my first ever batch was an extract that was supposed to have a FG 1.012. It only got down to 1.020 and I was lost. I was afraid to bottle, having heard of the infamous bombs. Had to net order another packet of yeast. FG turned out to be 1.020.

On to your question. Why don't you just bottle it and see if it matures to a normal beer?

Put less sugar if you are afraid that it will bomb. I had a few infections and most of the time the beers came out ok.

If that was extract then the FG shouldn't be a problem. If it was grain, do not bottle.

I think you should ride that out. You'll probably lose out on the hoppy flavor, but you might instead develop a very interesting, funky rye beer.

When I got back into brewing i had a big problem with secondary's going bad like this. I threw away a number of batches. I left one sitting in the corner forever and even let the airlock dry out. After months I went to dump it and thought maybe try it first, I literally had it balanced on the edge of the sink dumping it. It tasted oxidized but otherwise okay. So I kegged it and enjoyed.

Let it sit until the infection is done then sample it and if it tastes drinkable bottle it. If not let age further and sample again. I have yet to have another infections since but will at least sample before dumping.

Photopilot said:

Let it sit until the infection is done then sample it and if it tastes drinkable bottle it. If not let age further and sample again. I have yet to have another infections since but will at least sample before dumping.

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This sounds like a great idea. I have the bottles and I have the space.

This is an all grain recipe, that was mashed pretty hot so the FG isn't particularly problematic at 1.020. Would putting the carboy in a warmer spot speed up this wild yeast? I hear these guys can take quite a while to finish.

Time heals all wounds.


My third batch was funky when I tried it 2 months after it bottled...made me loose hope and I didn't make another batch for about 5 months. Just found a case of the old brew and cracked it open (Roughly 2y after bottling)...its a great ale. It wasn't hoppy to begin so everything just mellowed to a nice brown ale.

I had a similar thing happen to a batch last year. I let it sit in the carboy another 4 months and then kegged it. It was fantastic. If you're bottling, I would proceed as normal (you can bulk age it or not, up to you). Use the correct amount of priming sugar and when they are carbonated, put them in the fridge. That will prevent the bacteria from continuing to consume sugars which could result in bombs or gushers. I see no reason why this won't turn out to be a great beer. Good luck.