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jojacques said:
So I guess this is it. My first infection after 15 batches. Am I paranoid?

It seemed fine until a couple of days ago, about 4 days after dryhop.

I had a problem with my bucket fermenter with a spigot... when I was handling it, the spigot simply fell and I had to use my unsanitized hand and duct tape to temporarily cover the hole, and quickly transfer fermenter. This hapenned 2.5 week ago, and probably how it got infected.

So I am sceduled to bottle on tuesday of this week. It smells good and I will taste it, and if its good, I'll bottle. Oh and I started to cold crash 20minutes ago as soon as I noticed the possible infection.

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Definitely late responding, but someone might benefit from this:
Your brew is not infected. You have nice remnants of krausen and interactions between hop oils and gases from fermentation. Regardless of whether fermentation is "complete" in a hoppy beer with an alpha/beta imbalance, you'll get this in porters and stouts. (Especially if you have added any flavorings into the primary that contain oils.

You weren't infected in my opinion, and it probably turned out to be delicious!
 
IslandLizard said:
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.
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already bottled it, no kegs yet. I did find it like that, there were no bugs or anything I looked closely.
 
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BrianK3721 said:
I already bottled it. I did find it like that, there were no bugs or anything I looked closely.
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Closely, as with a microscope?

Sometimes it's safe, since you didn't get any off flavors. "Sulphur" is often a byproduct from Lager/Pilsner fermentations. It usually dissipates.
 
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BrianK3721 said:
Could I still harvest the yeast if it is?
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You could, but if there are bacteria or wild yeasts present, there's a risk they can infect your next beer(s).

As I said, it may be OK, but those white patches looks like the remnants of a pellicle, not yeast rafts. The large (slimy) bubble on the side is another tell tale something else may coexist. It's possible the Pilsner yeast out crowded them at some point, but they may still be in there.
 
pvpeacock said:
View attachment 570589 View attachment 570590
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.
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I had a red get infected on me a while back. I let it ride and kegged it. Personally it has become my favorite beer brewed thus far. I tried starting a 'lucky accidents' thread centered around beers that accidentally went sour that people let ride but there's been no other posts on it.
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You should soak the cubes in whisky or vodka for at least 24 hours to kill unfriendly organisms maybe this is the root of your problem. Did you do this last time as well
 
This was at two weeks into fermentation of a saison. This is the second batch I've ever done and I think it tastes ok. Not sure if this is bad or not...
 

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I’ve not added yeast yet, it doesn’t look good..?
 

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I don’t like the look/ smell of this, yeast not even added as wort was too hot....
 
I don't have any pictures handy but I bottled a beer that hadn't attenuated properly and the bottles hadn't been cleaned of Brett B properly. Well, they started fermenting so I let it go for about a month before I slapped them in the fridge, and I was surprised with the result. I am definitely going to try brewing it again.
 
First post here and pretty new to brewing as I’m on my 10th 5gal batch.

This is the first time I’ve felt like something is a little off as the fermentation didn’t kick off as fast and usual and then once’s it did it was not as vigorous as usual. The color/clarity of the beer also changed during fermentation, which I have noticed happens but not normally to this degree.

Fermenting catalyst fermenter in a chamber held at 67°, sanitized at every step and everything that hit the wort was wet with star san solution. The only difference this time was I used a buddies propane burner and brewed in the garage, first time.

This is during active fermentation

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This is once the krausen dropped

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It is only my third batch in the catalyst as I was using buckets previously, so still taking note of the visuals of each stage of fermentation.
 
bornandraisedlv said:
First post here and pretty new to brewing as I’m on my 10th 5gal batch.

This is the first time I’ve felt like something is a little off as the fermentation didn’t kick off as fast and usual and then once’s it did it was not as vigorous as usual. The color/clarity of the beer also changed during fermentation, which I have noticed happens but not normally to this degree.

Fermenting catalyst fermenter in a chamber held at 67°, sanitized at every step and everything that hit the wort was wet with star san solution. The only difference this time was I used a buddies propane burner and brewed in the garage, first time.

This is during active fermentation

View attachment 573842


This is once the krausen dropped

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It is only my third batch in the catalyst as I was using buckets previously, so still taking note of the visuals of each stage of fermentation.
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I let it go and bottled it last night after about 3 weeks in the fermenter. Everything seems fine with it and does not appear to be infected in any way. Will see in a few weeks time when I pop one open.
 
Doubt its infected from those pictures, looks like yeast rafts and some bubbles from off gassing are normal.

2nd pic looks good. heck if that's an infection every one of my beers were infected so far, but they came out delicious :D
 
bornandraisedlv said:
I let it go and bottled it last night after about 3 weeks in the fermenter. Everything seems fine with it and does not appear to be infected in any way. Will see in a few weeks time when I pop one open.
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Totally agree, this isn't infected- despite the slow start. Looks like normal fermenter trub from hops and residue.

It'll be fine :thumbsup:
 
infection_beer_not-sure.jpg
infection_beer_not-sure.jpg I would appreciate any comment on what this may be. I cooked up 10 gallons, split to 2 fermentors, and I am weirdly insane about sanitation and both batches have this. I kegged the first last Wednesday and the other yesterday, no off flavors and nothing bad smell wise. Not my best American Honey Wheat but very drinkable, just freaking me out.........
 
kdaz said:
View attachment 575656 View attachment 575656 I would appreciate any comment on what this may be. I cooked up 10 gallons, split to 2 fermentors, and I am weirdly insane about sanitation and both batches have this. I kegged the first last Wednesday and the other yesterday, no off flavors and nothing bad smell wise. Not my best American Honey Wheat but very drinkable, just freaking me out.........
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Pretty sure ya' got a pellicle going there, those little bubbles under a filmy membrane. Prolly got something funky.

Definitely see if anyone else has a second opinion though!
 
Thanks! I looked around the internet about pellicle and found that I should be OK , I transferred off most of the beer and left of as much of the top layer/nasty as I could, but Im guessing their still in the beer, just the top is obvious, hopefully the cold will kill them. Thanks for your help! 18 batches and the first infection, will have to find the source, probably the siphon....
 
So, I’m a rather new homebrewer, but i’ve Been doing one gallon batches often enough to think this isn’t quite right... having said that, it’s a new style, and a yeast I haven’t used before. Any idea what this might be?
 

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Drewjb88 said:
So, I’m a rather new homebrewer, but i’ve Been doing one gallon batches often enough to think this isn’t quite right... having said that, it’s a new style, and a yeast I haven’t used before. Any idea what this might be?
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Hi & welcome!

I feel silly asking this, but is that a bag in the carboy (containing hops, fruit/spices, oak, etc)?
If the answer is yes, then what in the images is concerning you?
 
RPh_Guy said:
Hi & welcome!

I feel silly asking this, but is that a bag in the carboy (containing hops, fruit/spices, oak, etc)?
If the answer is yes, then what in the images is concerning you?
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That’s the problem. There was nothing in the carboy but wort and yeast as of last night. Came home from work today to this. I only brewed and pitched The yeast last night!
 
Drewjb88 said:
That’s the problem. There was nothing in the carboy but wort and yeast as of last night. Came home from work today to this. I only brewed and pitched The yeast last night!
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Well, I'd agree it's "not quite right".

I've never seen anything like that. Might just be break material.
Based on how clear the bottom portion looks, it doesn't appear to be fermenting.
 
I think I’m going to toss it, bleach and sanitize the carboy, and try again. Already bought new post boil equipment, and it definitely looks like something I wouldn’t want to drink, or realistically even taste. Chalk it up to the first infection I guess.
 
Looks like a SCOBY in kombucha, which likely means it’s a mixture of bacteria and yeast and other nasties. I’m not even sure that’s something that would be totally safe to taste...
 
Drewjb88 said:
So, I’m a rather new homebrewer, but i’ve Been doing one gallon batches often enough to think this isn’t quite right... having said that, it’s a new style, and a yeast I haven’t used before. Any idea what this might be?
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I'd say it's a dumper
 
kdaz said:
Thanks! I looked around the internet about pellicle and found that I should be OK , I transferred off most of the beer and left of as much of the top layer/nasty as I could, but Im guessing their still in the beer, just the top is obvious, hopefully the cold will kill them. Thanks for your help! 18 batches and the first infection, will have to find the source, probably the siphon....
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Cold wont kill it
 
So this sneaky little pellicle? Appeared on a Belgian fruit ale (probably due to too much head space) a few months ago, I let it ride about 4 months and after tasting it’s actually quite good!Sour, tangy and dry. Just wondering if anyone has seen something similar and may be able to help narrow down exactly what type of beasty has caused this? Cheers!
 

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Chrispy92 said:
So this sneaky little pellicle? Appeared on a Belgian fruit ale (probably due to too much head space) a few months ago, I let it ride about 4 months and after tasting it’s actually quite good!Sour, tangy and dry. Just wondering if anyone has seen something similar and may be able to help narrow down exactly what type of beasty has caused this? Cheers!
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Definite pellicle.
Can't identify the organism by looking.
More info: http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Pellicle

Sounds tasty! Glad it worked out for you!
 
Hi, after 4 weeks in conical ferm this is going on...
Can someone predict if its infected? Its been dryhoped 2 weeks ago.. Some funky bubbles and white film on surface..
 

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