Emergency... Need advice

Last week I checked the gravity of my Bitter, The reading was almost perfect and the beer looked good.

Tonight I decided to keg it and after taking the lid off the bucket I found this...

What is it???



It smells ok... and other then not carbonated it tastes ok. Do you think its infected, should I even bother to keg it?

Rack from underneath it and keg that sucker.

Nice subject....

How did you check the gravity? Was the procedure sanitary?

I am pretty sure it was sanitary. I had a small bucket with about 2 gallons of Iodophor (correct amount). I have a plastic turkey basting bulbs that I used to pull the sample. I only popped the lid enough to get the bulb in and pull the sample, then closed it back up.

I used DCL S-04-SafAle English Ale dry yeast. First time I every used it, so maybe that's what it looks like when done.!?!?

Appears to have an infection of sort.
Keg, Carb and Drink it before its to late.

Gregscsu said:

Appears to have an infection of sort.
Keg, Carb and Drink it before its to late.

Click to expand...

What makes you think this is an infection? Looks like yeast rafts.

looks like yeast poop, no big deal

Just I have never seen that in any of the batches I have brewed. Could it be the brand of yeast (DCL S-04-SafAle). First time I have used it.

Thanks

I don't think it's the yeast, I've used S-04 a number of times and haven't seen this. I agree with the rack under it and consume quickly. Then give your bucket a good soak and scrubbing just in case.

Looks like it got infected, I had the same thing because I forgot to reseal the fermenter properly. Just rack underneath and enjoy it.

That is definitely an infection. I had a similar looking pellicle form this summer, in a bitter actually. I followed the same advice on here, racked from underneath and bottled. Each bottle still formed a little pellicle. Nothing crazy like you see over in the wild brewing forum. The beer tasted fine, a hint of sour to it. I didn't finish the last one until 5 months after bottling and that was probably the best tasting out of the batch, no bottle bombs at all.

RDWHAHB!

Get that sucker in a carboy and forget about it for 6 months. You'll have a great sour beer.:rockin:

If you do decide to go this route, make sure to sanitise the hell out of your racking equipment and bucket. Hell, it might be time to replace the bucket, too, depending on how long you've had it and how vigorously you scrub it during cleaning.

Wiezer said:

What makes you think this is an infection? Looks like yeast rafts.

Click to expand...

Nah, that's definitely NOT yeast rafts! That's the start of a pellicle.

It looks quite a bit like lactobacillus actually.

Keg it quick, keep it cold, you can even hit it with some campden if you want. But drink it fast. It's going to get sour.

And then, make sure you clean the heck out of anything that ever touched that beer, including bleach bombing any glass and throwing away all plastic. I'd even get a separate (disposable) beer line and picnic tap for that keg.

The good news is that I had a beer that looked just like this and racked out from underneath it, and over a year later the bottles still tasted great.

Thanks for all the input... I kegged it last night, so will see how it taste's.

Thanks again

Well it looks like I have another batch thats starting to get infected. It's a smaller batch that I brewed a few weeks after this batch. They were brewed in 2 different locations and both looked fine when I took the gravity reading. The only thing in common between the 2 is I took the gravity readings at the same time. I had soaked my turkey baster in Iodophor solution, I just don't remember if I before the second sampling. So I could have transfered it.

SH*T

PS Does anyone get condensation in their glass carboy's? I'm thinking that might be evidence of a pending infection.

Cregar said:

SH*T

Click to expand...

You can say that again!


I had a similar issue- no infections in years. Then I got a lacto infection in a California common. That required the "big guns"- I threw away all plastic, bleach bombed all glass, got a new turkey baster, new autosiphon, new tubing, etc.

Once you get some lacto, it's tough to get rid of. But a good thorough cleaning and sanitation should fix you up for the next batches.

Keeping infected beer cold is one way to "save" it, too- the infection will grow much more slowly in cold temperatures and you can probably drink most of the batch before it gets too bad. You'll have to replace your lines, though, probably because lacto/pedio/etc is a bugger to kill. (Get it? Bugger? Never mind).

Cregar said:

SH*T

PS Does anyone get condensation in their glass carboy's? I'm thinking that might be evidence of a pending infection.

Click to expand...

Yes, I occasionally get condensation in my carboy....but have never unintentionally gotten a lacto infection. I did just make an extra foriegn stout in which I soured 1/2 gallons of unfermented wort. It was quite a nice colony of white that was forming on the top by the week's end. So that the infection wouldn't spread when I was ready to pour the sour batch, I boiled the batch for a minute. There might still be some bacteria that survived, but it shouldn't take hold. The sample I've pulled tasted great! I'm definitely going to grow some more mold in the future for my stouts.

The best thing to do about your situation is to disinfect whatever equipment comes in contact with your "soured" beer. Iodophor turns into a disinfectant when you use twice the concentration as the normal recommended solution amount. Once it's a disinfectant, you need to rinse with water.