I recently decided to try and make a cranberry stout for a Winter Seasonal Ale, and have run into an intriguing problem. Everything has been going well untill I transfered my beer into the seconday. I steeped a pound of bruised/crushed cranberries at 150F for 10 minutes, let it cool (covered) and dropped them into the carboy. Then I transfered my beer from the first stage, which tasted good and had about 5% alcohol, over the cranberries.
So it's been sitting there for about 5 days now and I've noticed some "growths" slightly under the cranberry layer. I can't determine if it's an infection or part of the cranberry. Certainly doesn't look like it, but I'm trying to hang onto some hope. Have you guys ever seen anything like this/have any experience doing something similar? I'm going to try and keep an eye on it and see if it gets bigger.
I guess i've always assumed that if you have a healthy ferment in the first stage, then it's pretty tough to infect a beer in the secondary. This is why I put the cranberries in, instead of using an extract. Is this a bad assumption to have?
pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Alex.Popesco/SuspiciousBeer
hmmmm.
So it's been sitting there for about 5 days now and I've noticed some "growths" slightly under the cranberry layer. I can't determine if it's an infection or part of the cranberry. Certainly doesn't look like it, but I'm trying to hang onto some hope. Have you guys ever seen anything like this/have any experience doing something similar? I'm going to try and keep an eye on it and see if it gets bigger.
I guess i've always assumed that if you have a healthy ferment in the first stage, then it's pretty tough to infect a beer in the secondary. This is why I put the cranberries in, instead of using an extract. Is this a bad assumption to have?
pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Alex.Popesco/SuspiciousBeer
hmmmm.