Infection in Vienna Lager

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persianninja

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Oct 28, 2010
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I started brewing a vienna lager about 3 weeks ago and it has been sitting outside on my balcony. I brought it inside today to move it to a secondary. When I opened the bucket it smelled pretty sour and it looked like it could potentially be infected. I am worried that it may have gotten some wild yeast or something else from being outside. I tasted it, the taste was fine but the smell was pretty rank. I am planning on letting it sit in the secondary for another month or two.

dmCxs.jpg
 
Hard to tell with the quality of that picture, but if everything was done in a sanitary way, then infection shouldn't be a worry. You did have an airlock on it didn't you?
 
I did have an airlock. I know, I wish I had taken a picture with something besides my crappy camera phone.

I guess the 3 things that got me worried is that the fermenter was outside on my balcony, you cant tell from the picture but that gunk on top was bubbling, and when I opened it up, it had a funky smell which I had not smelled from any of my other batches.
 
honestly it looks like yeast rafts to me. Some of my fermentations smell pretty funky when they are normal so I personally dont think it is an issue
 
Yeast rafts, brews that are fermented cold tend to smell foul until you let them get a bit warmer. I have this crap floating in all my fermentors right now, it's a pain when you rack, but they're harmless.
 
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