Contamination

So, a couple weeks back me and my brewing partner (before he moved of course) brewed a RIS of sorts. High gravity stout basically. Now the first week went fine. OG was 1.074, it bubbled furiously. We got busy with some things and instead of letting it sit in prime for 1 week, it went for 3.... Taking a gravity sample yeilded a gravity of 1.030!! We tried everything to get it down farther, but it wasn't budging. At the same time it started having white floaties, kind of like the white floats you get in secondary. Well, it got worse and it was pretty damn obvious that it was contaminated. I mean the WHOLE surface was covered with a white crust. We thought, ok transferring it to secondary would rouse the yeast and finish it off and maybe stop what the white stuff is...

Transferred and let sit two weeks, well there was more white stuff on the secondary too... Didn't think to take a grav sample.... During the secondary we researched and read that dry hopping can stop what bacterias might be in there. So i dropped 1/4oz Columbus (17% AA) and 1oz EKG in a bag and dropped into the beer that was now in Tetriary hoping to still any infections. Well after transferring and dropping in the hops the top is solid white again.

If it got rid of the infection would any bacterias fall out like trub?
If the infection isn't stopped can i still bottle, it still tastes great no obvious off flavors?
What is the best way to still an infection?

Message acknowledged, but sorry I don't have a definitive answer for you. All I remember reading is that if you taste it and it's drinkable then bottle/keg it and choke it down, but if it tastes funny then it's time for a moment of silence as the remains of what would've been a great brew are scattered over the backyard.

Having never attempted to kill off an infection, I really can't answer your questions but I know what I would do in your shoes. If it tastes decent and and you want to salvage some, I would rack from under the crusty white gunk and bottle. Drink what you can and if/when it starts to exhibit off-flavors, dump the remainder.

...I would be more interested in moving the stuff along so that every piece of gear can be given a thorough cleansing and sanitization.

Well, it could be a myriad of things. From your post you seem to indicate it tastes good? The only thing you can really do, if you want to see how it ends up is to just let it ride its course.

Aside from pasteurization or possibly campden tablets (I would not recommend either course of action) the 'infection' will continue until conditions for whatever is in there become undesireable.

Usually it is the consumption of Oxygen, drop in pH, lack of food, etc that cause them to be 'finished'. If you bottle you certainly run the risk of bottle bombs. My advice would be to stay the course (you've gone this far...). You might just end up with something you actually like. :fro:

I planned on bottling anyway, it's just that the beer was made for someone else and i'd really hate for it to turn sour or have a couple monster carbed beers on him. Maybe carbing in the bottle will give it time to get rid of anything truly harmful to the taste.

Unfortunately I think I have had the second batch in a row get infected. It is a Raspberry cream ale. The top is forming a solidification of some sort, and I think it is developing a slight rancid smell. I did rack most of it to another carboy and leave 1/4 of it remaining in the old carboy, and saved them both to see what they would do. The one I racked has now seemed to start solidifying as well. Would It be possible to re-boil the beer to get rid of this infection?

Yes you could re-boil, but there goes all your alcohol.

For us keging folk, could we campden+sorbate it and that should remove any infection right?

LOL, old thread, this beer has been carbonated for a while now, i went ahead and bottled.... So far only one has been horrible, and of course it's the one i took to the LHBS guy, and it exploded on us both....