Post your infection

CornyKegs 728
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Yan said:
I'd say that ... it's yeast and lactobacillus living together. I've seen a lot of yeast, but I've never seen it make chunks like that.
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When you've noted that with kefir, does it clear up as the ferment progresses? As my krausen developed, the chunkiness went away.
 
Suthrncomfrt1884 said:
I see yeast clump up like that all the time. It looks normal to me.
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Have you seen this type of clumping with this particular strain WLP001? I haven't, that's why I thought it was abnormal. But, I don't really have enough experience to say what's normal.

I'm wondering if perhaps I selected a more highly flocculant variant of that strain when I used the last bit of yeast in the vial to build up the starter. I pitched the majority of a starter to a different wort, then used the little bit that was left to build this starter.
 
bspisak said:
Have you seen this type of clumping with this particular strain WLP001? I haven't, that's why I thought it was abnormal. But, I don't really have enough experience to say what's normal.

I'm wondering if perhaps I selected a more highly flocculant variant of that strain when I used the last bit of yeast in the vial to build up the starter. I pitched the majority of a starter to a different wort, then used the little bit that was left to build this starter.
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I don't use WL yeast since my LHBS doesn't carry it, but it's basically the same yeast as Wyeast American Ale 1056 and Safale US-05. I've seen clumping like that with both of these strains.
 
smackythefrog said:
this is my baby. not quite sure what to do. is (was) a raspberry wheat ale that was just moved to secondary to make room. all the fun stuff showed up after just one day.
DSC01404.jpg

DSC01399.jpg
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That's like a map to the universe, right???
 
jcarson83 said:
Just what I said. Post it. I put this in the beginners forum because I think it will show people what a real infection looks like and that its not anything what krausen looks like.

Oh and name it if you can.

4284-P1010501.JPG


Lactobacillus
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Kind of a "taboo" topic on here. Some time back I hunted the web for pix of infected brews, but the thread was killed. Here are the pix.
 
I don't know why I open up threads like this. All it does is make me worry about my next batch. Of course it could also make me continue to be obsessively anal about my sanitation procedures.
 
Weezknight said:
I don't know why I open up threads like this. All it does is make me worry about my next batch. Of course it could also make me continue to be obsessively anal about my sanitation procedures.
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The worst kind of infection is the one that isn't so obvious. I had one recently that I didn't catch before it was kegged and carbonated. The carbonation breathed life into it.

So pour that hydro sample into a wine glass, swish it around and breath it in. It can be much more subtle when flat.

Brian
 
I would say: Unhygienic brewing environment

It goes for the brewer, the tools, the room, yea pretty much anything that goes in contact with the wort.
You can't prevent the presence of bacteria 100 %, but you have to give them a hard start. If bacteria is the dominant microorganism you'll get a infected beer
 
Scratches in plastic buckets or vinyl tubing that leave places that harbor bacteria and resist sanitation is another common issue.
 
pjewell said:
What's the most common reason for an infection?
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The reason for most of these infections is adding the "infection" on purpose. This is how you produce sour beers. They're made on purpose and very tasty to some people. I enjoy them but have a hard time finding them locally.
 
IrregularPulse said:
The reason for most of these infections is adding the "infection" on purpose. This is how you produce sour beers. They're made on purpose and very tasty to some people. I enjoy them but have a hard time finding them locally.
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OH REALLY? Gee I never knew that. Derp. lol



But in all seriousness. Have you tried kombucha tea? It is a fermented beverage tea drink. It has a couple different cultures but one in particular is Acetobacter which gives its distinctive vinegary taste.
 
Went to check my gravity on my scotch ale today and found this :( Still tastes great but it appears to have stalled during a temp swing and probably picked up the bugs when the lid was off dealing with krausen EVERYWHERE. Anyone know how bad it may be?

As a note, it went in the fermenter on 12-17

 
Hi, is this an infection. My firts beer (stella clone) and it seems to be infected after 2 weeks in primary.
Thanks for any sugestions ?
eb3c4782.jpg
 
Pitimany,
This picture appears normal to me, just a little foam and bubbles. If it starts growing hair, then I would get worried.

BrewHerc.
 
I had this partigyle stout that I left sitting in the back of a closet in a Mr Beer fermenter for around a month and a half. This is what I saw when I opened it today to bottle:
20100228181947.jpg


It tastes pretty good. I went ahead and bottled it and figure I'll throw a stout party in a few weeks. It's only a total of 11 bombers.
 
sometimes beers will look like that when they're gassing off. kindof a secondary krausen. i think it looks fine.
 
Hey,

This stout had a 1.080 OG and I didn't make a starter (It was supposed to end up at 1.070)

The fermentation started liked 10 hours later and the krausen was gone in 2 days... now it has been looking like this for 5 days... it was still bubling 1 bubble per minute, but now it has almost stopped.

Is it infected?

After 14 hours:

PICT0029.jpg


Right now:

PICT0204.jpg


So doctor, is it infected?
 
Definately not infected. Just for future reference...most infections won't be noticeable until after at least a few weeks. The only time I had an infection show up was when I decided to use a bottle bucket to secondary since I had no free carboys. The infection didn't show up until about a month after brewing.
 
This has been quite revealing. Honestly I don't know if this scares me or makes me feel safer. So many of those people said ended up fine.
 
I had these weird bubbles for a while and then they went away. I think it is mold but I'm not sure. The Oatmeal Stout tastes great (so far). Any ideas?

Stout.jpg
 
what do you with an infected brew? just let it go till you rack in and rack from under it? or try to skim away all that crap? i would have a hard time letting that stuff sit on my drink
 
I skimmed the thread and couldn't see anything super flaky like this. It was an absurdly hoppy (ie expensive) American IPA. We were experimenting with late extract addition and didn't notice until afterward that one of our DME bags was torn open--probably the source of the infection. Anybody know what this is?

It tasted pretty delicious anyway so we went ahead and bottled it!

Edit: there was a LOT of this stuff accumulating in the blow-off tube, nothing really made it to the bucket at the end, though. There wasn't any growth I could notice after fermentation had subsided. Never racked to secondary since there was so much unidentified growth; just tasted some on a whim and decided to bottle.

uIhCh.jpg


Z33Oo.jpg


t8RiB.jpg
 
jeffeezy said:
I skimmed the thread and couldn't see anything super flaky like this. It was an absurdly hoppy (ie expensive) American IPA. We were experimenting with late extract addition and didn't notice until afterward that one of our DME bags was torn open--probably the source of the infection. Anybody know what this is?

It tasted pretty delicious anyway so we went ahead and bottled it!

Edit: there was a LOT of this stuff accumulating in the blow-off tube, nothing really made it to the bucket at the end, though. There wasn't any growth I could notice after fermentation had subsided. Never racked to secondary since there was so much unidentified growth; just tasted some on a whim and decided to bottle.

uIhCh.jpg


Z33Oo.jpg


t8RiB.jpg
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That looks pretty standard. I see a lot of hop material. If it tasted good I would say your good to go.
 
slomo said:
That looks pretty standard. I see a lot of hop material. If it tasted good I would say your good to go.
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Thank you for your reply.

Whoa. I've never seen all that (any?) hop material before, or sediment on the side of the carboy--but this batch didn't use any irish moss or gelatin--could this be what caused it?
 
Does anyone ever take the top off an Ale Pale during fermentation just to have a look or is that a bad idea?
 
SNPorter said:
Does anyone ever take the top off an Ale Pale during fermentation just to have a look or is that a bad idea?
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My first batch I couldn't wait. After about 3 days I had to know what was going on. No matter how many pics you look at on the net of other peoples, you still want to see it. I then went immediately to e.c. kraus and picked up some glass carboys. No more need to open it. ;)

It's not a good idea to keep opening it up just for SAG. Every time it is opened it is exposed to possible infection. You are going to have to open it for SG readings though. Just be sanitary when you do.
 
I've checked every batch several times (8 batches so far), and I don't seal the lid down after. No infection yet (knocks on wood), it's actually pretty hard to get in infection after fermentation has started if your sanitation methods are decent.
 

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