tomoncanterbury
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Thanks for the reply. The beer smelled and tasted fine so I bottled it. I'll have to keep an eye on it over the next few weeks.
Post your infection
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Thanks for the reply. The beer smelled and tasted fine so I bottled it. I'll have to keep an eye on it over the next few weeks.
Thoughts on the attached photo?
Have had this pLambic sitting around for 2 years, noticed the airlock was dried out, probably for a few days, maybe even a week during the temperature jumps we've had this summer, probably caused some crazy suction and pulled in the starsan. Anyway, not sure if it's worth keeping around.
Picture isn't great because of overhead lighting, but it's kind of like a greyish-chalky substance, doesn't look hairy or green. No hops, or extremely small amount in the recipe, can't remember at this point.
Have had this pLambic sitting around for 2 years, noticed the airlock was dried out, probably for a few days, maybe even a week during the temperature jumps we've had this summer, probably caused some crazy suction and pulled in the starsan. Anyway, not sure if it's worth keeping around.
Picture isn't great because of overhead lighting, but it's kind of like a greyish-chalky substance, doesn't look hairy or green. No hops, or extremely small amount in the recipe, can't remember at this point.
CezarJozay
Member
Belgian blonde has been in the fermenter 5 days now. Infected? Or just some floating krausen?
View attachment 1506645898534.jpg
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Gagunga
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Looks like Krausen remnants, possiblely carbonation. Hard to tell. I had a similar looking slick on top of my first batch from a brand new kettle. I didn't clean the kettle well enough. Residual oils had boiled off into the brew. I'm still new so maybe someone with more experience can give a better diagnosis. Good luck and cheers!
Buckeye_Brewer1
Well-Known Member
Dark portion of Krausen on Irish stout
Is the dark area of the krausen normal?
View attachment IMG_0985.jpg
Is the dark area of the krausen normal?
View attachment IMG_0985.jpg
Rolster77
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Hi all, im just looking for some advice please. I am wondering if my beer is infected I am brewing a festival IPA it has been fermenting for around 15 or 16 days now so a few days longer than it should have been. It has no off smells or flavours I sampled the gravity sample but on the surface of The brew there seems to be a very slight film you can see a ring around the top and a couple of strange bubbles could just be where the hops were I guess but the skin or ring on the surface is worrying but like I said no off smells or flavours can anyone help or advice as to what I should do dont really want to tip this as it does smell fine. The smaller ring in the middle of the brew is just a reflection of the lid as Ive lifted it off Im actually referring to the large ring thats very close to the edge of the fermenter
ESBrewer
Well-Known Member
Probably not contaminated, at least it is too early to say it. It may be bacteria that will grow and fill the surface but it could be some oil-like compounds in the beer or detergents that remained in the bucket after the wash.
Brownalemikie
Well-Known Member
Yep, dark area of krausen is totally normal. I only brew stouts, porters and brown ales and ALL of them have those dark areas. No worries!
First post! I've been trawling through this whole thread and now that I have a photo I'm pretty sure I'm being paranoid, but is the whiteness of these bubbles a bit off? It's a mead that's been going for about 3 weeks and is at 1.00 from an OG of 1.062. Tastes incredibrew and smells only of honey...
I used star san to sanitize which I've not much experience with and have been adding wine yeast nutrient to keep the bubbler going so it could just be some leftovers from one of those?
I used star san to sanitize which I've not much experience with and have been adding wine yeast nutrient to keep the bubbler going so it could just be some leftovers from one of those?
Didn’t think I’d have to post in this thread yet but here it is, 80 schilling ale, all grain, wlp028, 1 month in fermenter, 10 gallon batch in 2 separate fermenters, both looked similar, no funky smell or taste, kegged both anyway. Is it infected?
M
M
Chocolate milk stout. Og 1.085, seems to have stopped at 1.024. I put 1 cup of lactose and almost as much cocoa powder in it with 10 minutes remaining in the boil.
Been in fermenter for 2.5 weeks. I've only had 1 infected batch ever and it sort of looked like this . I've never used lactose before and was told it can add to this film on tto. Thoughts? It tastes pretty good.
Been in fermenter for 2.5 weeks. I've only had 1 infected batch ever and it sort of looked like this . I've never used lactose before and was told it can add to this film on tto. Thoughts? It tastes pretty good.
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BrianK3721
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So I know this is hard to make out, but it's confusing me it looked like a infection after I transferred it to secondary, there was little bubbles coming up from the bottom of the fermenter (I figured it was the yeast) and made a off color foam (yellow, but only around the edge it was white in the middle) and an oily looking color floating on top around the foam but then after three days it's completely gone
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Brewed August 2016. I checked it two weeks in and it was sour, so I didn't bother bottling it. I ended up leaving it in the fermentor until today. The smell is hard to describe, it's very fruity and sweet, almost pleasant but overwhelming at the same time. It stunk up half of the house when I popped the lid. There's green mold on top of it. I don't think I'll taste it.
Yup, sadly, it looks like the beginning of an infection, but it's a bit hard to tell for sure. That covering haze and the "slimy" bubbles on the side by the diptube are my tell tale.
Now sour stouts can be very good to drink, so you may be lucky. They tend to get more sour with time, so drink up when it's good.
Have you tasted it yet?
Any clue what may have caused the infection?
beervoid
Hophead & Pellet Rubber
No taste yet. It smells fine..
Well what I think what happened is I mashed too high resulting in stuck fermentation at 1.031 (OG 1.056) in combination with a leaky fermentation keg as I haven't seen any bubbles out of the airlock ever. It's passed 2 weeks now.
I think I have opened the keg about 4 times to check and do a gravity reading and considering there was no CO2 to protect it, it was probably exposed too much to oxygen and ended up getting infected?
This is approx 5 days after pitching another package of US05 to try to get fermentation started again.
Any other suggestions what might have went wrong are welcome!
Mashing high can certainly keep the final gravity high too. 1.031 from 1.056 OG (43% attenuation) is definitely not expected or normal.
Have you measured the current gravity with a hydrometer or a refractometer? The latter is not accurate once alcohol is present, and a correction formula must be used to calculate the actual gravity. A hydrometer reading, however, should be close to the real current gravity.
Opening and closing a keg is no different than opening a bucket, except you can purge (with CO2) the keg's headspace much easier and more completely after closing it up. But it's so much easier to take a gravity sample from a keg without opening... just dispense a little beer with some CO2, or siphon some out through the airlock hole in the lid, which I assume you use
Now that keg is very full to be used as a fermentor. If fermentation really took off well, you would have a tremendous messy blow off.
Most infections come from unclean post boil (cold side) equipment and/or pour sanitation habits.
If this is a milk stout, and you added lactose at some point, was the lactose sanitized?
beervoid
Hophead & Pellet Rubber
I didnt add lactose, working clean with starsan on everything.
Im using a hydrometer to measure everything sprayed with starsan before putting it in.
I read something about infection forming a protection layer so, or this mold im looking at? I'm really not sure why this is happening.
Are you saying that leaky keg and too much exposure to oxygen can't be the cause of this?
Im using a hydrometer to measure everything sprayed with starsan before putting it in.
I read something about infection forming a protection layer so, or this mold im looking at? I'm really not sure why this is happening.
Are you saying that leaky keg and too much exposure to oxygen can't be the cause of this?
Oneiroi
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One from a few months back, beer was almost drinkable but left a definite and slightly unpleasant funk.
Was a 1.072 Belgian blonde with WLP530 Abbey, Hydro sample just before this started tasted damn good too
Similar infection (by taste & smell at least) had happened on a prev brew, but bottling before it got really stuck in seemed to stop it.
No repeats since thankfully (after lots of cleaning and throwing out the old siphon tubing)
EDIT: added some details
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Starsan is a sanitizer not a cleaner. Items need to be clean first (using a cleaner like PBW, Oxiclean, Washing Soda, etc.) before you can sanitize them. Spraying may not be thorough enough or allow enough contact time (min. 60 seconds). Dunking or mopping it on with a small wash cloth can be more effective. Read up on proper cleaning and sanitation, and review your processes. Maybe you've missed something.
Infections often form a pellicle, a barrier layer on top of the liquid. That layer protects THEM from other organisms getting in easily. What you're seeing is not mold. Mold is often clumpy and fuzzy.
If you have a healthy fermentation, not much else will be able to compete or get in. There's a strong flux of CO2 moving out and a fast build up of alcohol helps fight off other bugs. A tardy fermentation however allows other microorganisms to take foothold before the brewer's yeast does, causing off flavors and/or infections.
Opening a fermentor or racking always carries the risk of bringing an infection in. A dirty lid, seal, O-ring, hands, air, contaminated objects dropping or liquids dripping in, etc. Omit secondaries for that very reason, they are truly not needed or even wanted in 99.99% of all brew processes.
Scrub and wash everything thoroughly with an alkaline cleaner (or acid cleaner, but they are much more dangerous and should be left to the pros), rinse, inspect, and repeat if necessary. Give ample contact time in Starsan and reassemble wet. After being stored, immediately before use, resanitize again with Starsan or other non-rinse contact sanitizer. As long as the surfaces are wet with Starsan or the foam it remains sanitized.
Maybe the yeast you used was old or poorly stored. Dry yeast can be frozen, but should at least be refrigerated when stored for longer times
It is also advised to re-hydrate dry yeast per manufacturer's instructions before pitching. Then swirl up and pitch the yeast slurry into the well aerated or oxygenated wort. That way the majority of yeast cells will survive and are in good shape to carry the fermentation process to the end.
Keep an eye on those mash temps, use a calculator for estimating your strike volume and strike temperature for your amount of grist. Make sure your thermometer is accurate. If mash is too hot, quickly add some cold water, stir well, read temp, repeat if necessary.
Wishing you good fortune with your next brew, don't give up, learn from your errors.
In the meantime, maybe drink that beer before it does turn (too) sour. Perhaps mix with another, more attenuated beer so it won't be as sweet.
applescrap
Be the ball!
That bottom left bubble has a face and is creepy.
shanecb
Well-Known Member
Had a few gallons of raw cider from a farm spontaneously ferment on me before I was able to do anything with it. Haven't done any gravity or pH readings on it yet. It tastes surprisingly clean, and really just has a dry cider tartness to it mostly. It's not really funky or lactic or anything like that. Anyone with a better eye than myself able to identify? There was about a 2in krausen line from when it fermented, and this layer appeared probably a few weeks after that. Whatever it is I'm going to keep some to use in the future.
60acresbrewclub
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(happened about a week after I added apricot puree from a bottle directly to fermenter which was already at around 10days)
...probably fine
I think i'm going to cold crash this one for a month or so before I even taste it.
...probably fine
I think i'm going to cold crash this one for a month or so before I even taste it.
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venatorscribe
bucket chemist
Yep agree. For example I attach a photo from a Saison brew that I undertook last year. The key when using a top fermenting yeast is to remove the 'head' daily during primary and every so often during secondary. Don't let it fall to the bottom as it creates off flavours.
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venatorscribe
bucket chemist
As a suggestion, I would scrape the mold off the surface before storing or cold crashing. You don't won't it dropping to the bottom of your carboy. As is likely to create off flavours and perhaps fusel alcohols.
venatorscribe
bucket chemist
Ref your cider photo. This looks like a malo-lactic fermentation. Which is quite ok. I tend to get similar with my Pear Cider. The benefit of this is that it does produce a more mellow tasting wine or cider. It is a wine makers friend. Craig
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That's not mold, it's called a pellicle. The bacteria in the liquid (e.g., Lacto) form this protective barrier, so nothing else can enter the liquid and compete with them. It's made up mostly of carbohydrates, and is very thin. You can't scrape it off, it's pulls together a bit, then starts to disperse in the liquid below. It's harmless. It will regrow when broken.
BrianK3721
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I had 3 infections in a row in my 2 conicals (2 at the same time and 1 immediately after before I realized I had infections). The infected beers were a Saison, an Oatmeal Stout and a Red Ale. The Saison and Stout are still aging in kegs and are about 5 - 6 months old. The Red Ale I aged for about 3 months then said, what the heck, I'm putting it in the keezer and seeing what it tastes like. Wow, it was fantastic. Tasted like a young Flanders Red! Tart, but not too sour; just right. I wish I could duplicate that batch. After the infections, I threw away all of my hoses and replaced all the washers/O-rings on my conical fermenters, ball valves and other equipment. I then ran everything that would fit through my dishwasher's "sanitize" cycle (I didn't realize it had this feature until now). No more infections! It will be interesting to see how the infected Saison tastes this summer and how the infected Stout tastes after a year.
Heere joo go!
It's a Flanders Red, "infected" with Wyeast's Roeselare Blend (Saccharomyces, Brettanomyces, and Lactic bacteria). If your beer looks like this, it's probably infected with brett, lactic bacteria, or some other kind of similar stuff.
And here's the thing: it's very rare to "accidentally" create a sour beer that's any good. You need to start off with a good base for the style, use the bugs intended for that style, and age it accordingly. As with oak, many people think that, if they have a crappy batch of beer, they can "save" it by oaking it or adding bugs. Garbage in, garbage out, as the saying goes. Others accidentally get infected and people think they've made a lambic. Nay-nay. It's possible, but the odds are stacked against you in almost all possible ways. First, chances are that the base beer had too much bitterness and hop character to be a good base beer for a sour style. Second, the chances that you're accidentally infected with a bug that makes good sour beer are also minuscule. FYI.
Did you find it like that? It looks like a pellicle that was stirred up, which would mean... there may be "bugs" lingering. Be careful to bottle. Can you keg it perhaps?
Or if you bottle, keep checking regularly to prevent over carbonation. After they carb up just enough, you could keep them in a cold fridge, like around 34F. Still a bit dicey though.
I don't know about all saison yeast which I believe can sometimes be a blend of yeast and bacteria. But ale yeasts are top fermenting yeasts and it is not necessary to remove the krausen. I would bet that very few actually do remove any. I have been brewing for almost 7 years and have never skimmed of the krausen.
BrianK3721
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I already bottled it. I did find it like that, there were no bugs or anything I looked closely.
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