Weizonbock Contamination

hey there,

I recently brewed what I envisioned to be a nice weizenbock (50% wheat, lots of munich and caramunich for malty goodness).

9 days into primary it hit terminal gravity (nice) but also has a distinctive acidic tang that cuts through the malt and leaves a rather unpleasant taste in the mouth (not nice).

although fermentation appeared to kickoff to a vigorous start within 2 hours of pitching, the blowoff tube became loose at some point and may have exposed the wort to the air. additionally, I noticed a fair amount of black bread mold growing on the outside of the fermentor (nothing found inside) due to wrapping a wet towel around it.

from what it looks like, people have claimed pasteurizing the beer (170F) for 10 minutes and re-pitching has stopped bacterial growth and prevented things from getting worse. anyone have some experience with how it worked out for them or if the heating ruined the flavor?

likewise, could cold crashing the beer work in a similar fashion? thoughts on just bottling and carbonating ASAP then getting it into the fridge to stop further nastiness?

nothing gets sadder than the prospect of having a beer that may be destined for the drain.

burkecw said:

9 days into primary it hit terminal gravity (nice) but also has a distinctive acidic tang that cuts through the malt and leaves a rather unpleasant taste in the mouth (not nice).

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And it's how old now?

If it's still near the age to which you last alluded, it's green beer. It will taste sour, thin, bitter, hot, chalky, and/or worty until it has cleaned itself up.

...unless it's infected. Taste it again in a week. If it's worse, you may have a drainpour. I doubt it though.

If you have fermentation so active it blows off your blowoff tube, it's definitely pushing away any airborne nasties.

Attempting to pasteurize homebrew sounds like a horrible idea all around.