My first infection? (pic)

Kinda freaked out when I started racking my belgian dark strong ale to secondary today. I opened the lid to the picture below. I decide to rack anyway because it smelled fine. I tasted the hydrometer sample and it tasted good. The top of the beer in the secondary fermenter after racking is clean, very clean. Does this look infected? If it shows up again should I dump it or bottle it? This my first time with anything sketchy at all so I'm kind of clueless.

If it tastes and smells fine, it is fine IMO. You'll taste it again before bottling right?

hopefully you racked cleanly from underneath the "stuff"
i have never had an infection either so i would just watch the secondary closely.
i would think the alcohol in a strong belgian ale should be protective.
good luck!

Really it looks fine to me. I am no expert but that looks like low flocculating yeast. If you are really curious, stop back by and drink a great beer that was racked off that looked just like that.

This guy is right at 8% abv and it's been in primary for 6 weeks. I suspect, maybe whatever this is started to form at the beginning, but maybe the alcohol knocked it out before it got crazy? I dunno, never seen anything like it.

i've got one in the secondary that has some weirdness on the top. it happened after i dry hopped. it's really freaky, but the beer smells ok. i'll post a pic of it when i get home.

in either case, i'll make my brother drink some of it before i put it in a keg.

I think it looks a little iffy. So, get it carbonated and drink it down before it starts to taste bad. Then make another beer. You can always let it sit around and see what happens, but my suggestion is funner.

+1 on thinking it low flocculating yeast.

Something similar to this happened to me on my first lager.

Brewpastor said:

I think it looks a little iffy. So, get it carbonated and drink it down before it starts to taste bad. Then make another beer. You can always let it sit around and see what happens, but my suggestion is funner.

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But it's a belgian and it should age a bit! But, I hear ya... if those creamy bubbles are there again when it's in secondary I'll throw it in a keg and drink it quick.

To me it looks like the start of a lactic infection. If it is, you will soon know. Those rafts of white bubbles will spead and cover the surface with spider-web like protein strands.

If it is a lactic, bring it up to 140 degrees for about half an hour and then keg. Voila, your first belgian sour.

damn man, something must be blowing around in the wind in Texas right now.

A pellacle would form fairly quickly if it was bacterial. It looks like mold to me. I think that racking under it and sacrificing some beer volume is the best bet. Clean that bucket really well after you finish though, so nothing stays behind.

mike

Did you use any spices? That's all it looks like to me...doesn't look that dark for a belgian dark strong, either

PseudoChef said:

Did you use any spices? That's all it looks like to me...doesn't look that dark for a belgian dark strong, either

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Nah, no spices, but yea it's probably gonna be more red. I'm not sure what category of belgian that would be, but it tastes awesome. I didn't filter my hops out real well either and I noticed that there was a good bit of hop shreds floating on top as well.

not trying to hijack yer thread flanni! this is what grew in my american ale after i dry hopped with amarillio pellet hops. i brewed this beer months ago.

it still smells fine, very hoppy. there's kinda a white skin on the top that looks like congealed fat when you cool homemade chicken soup.

not sure if i'm gonna dump it or make my brother drink it.

any help identifying it would be appreciated.

Wow, I thought mine looked wierd. You might want to rack out from under that ASAP, goat!

wow goat, personally I would dump it. I had to dump my simcoe and amarillo IPA. If you do a lot of searching here, you'll find lots of people have had similar infections after dryhopping. I still say it's due to the hops and I'm still looking for a way to sterilize the hops other than boiling them. I won't dryhop another beer until I find a way.

I'd have to agree on dumping that. I had to dump an Alt that looked like that in the past and it went out to water the lawn

it's been scumming around for the better part of seven months. i jsut don't have the heart to dump it, but when i took a sniff of it last night it smelled wonderfully hoppy....

looking back on my notes, i think i found the culprit. it wasn't amarillo i dh with, it was 1/2 oz of columbus pellets. i suspect they were not sealed up properly and left in the fridge. ahhh well, maybe i'll find an old barrel and age it for another year with some brett...

its ok buddy- Weve all hooked up with a burner at one point........

Here's mine.....its intentional though . Nice Brett pellicle looking for O2.

possible i stumbled upon this brett as well land honey?

uglygoat said:

possible i stumbled upon this brett as well land honey?

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I don't think so, the difference I see in all unintentional 'infected' beer's pellicles' are that they are never bubbly/rocky like Brett makes. All pics of pellicles on beers with Brett/Roeselare/etc. all look like mine, not the white carpet, spider, ropey(Pedio maybe), etc. of unintentional infections.
That to say, I don't know for sure.

MikeFlynn74 said:

its ok buddy- Weve all hooked up with a burner at one point........

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Laughed out loud.

That to say, I don't know for sure.

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me neither, which is why i want to keep it. i used this fermenter last in our old house, built in 1880's. it was an old spider infested cellar. however, the beer fermented fine and only showed this funk after i dry hopped it.

I know it's the dryhopping, wish I could figure more out about it, but I'm not going to sacrifice my beers to the cause.

Landhoney that looks disgusting. Do you just rack off the bottom?

Ó Flannagáin I've seen that happen on some of my secondaries before and they turned out fine, but I'd still be a bit concerned.

Uglygoat, you need to rack from under that mess on top ASAP otherwise it's goner, if it's not already.

I found the following post on another site concerning dry-hopping.

>Anyone out there have a way of sanitizing hops without destroying the
>aroma?

Firstly, I doubt that the hops were the source of the contamination,
assuming they were handled correctly. There has been some published
research done at UC Davis that showed there was no contamination risk from
dry hopping, and beers such as Liberty Ale and Sam Adams Lager (both dry
hopped) would have infection problems.

Anyway, if you are really concerned and want to "sterilize" the hops first
without destroying the aroma and/or putting something nasty in your beer, I
would suggest soaking them for a few minutes in some Everclear or 100 proof
vodka. Strain the alcohol, or add it, your choice. If you strain, don't
throw it away. It makes a tasty drink on ice, cut with some water.

mmm...hop infused vodka...or a hoppy vodka martini...

First of all, when I get home, I'm putting some hops in a mason jar with some gin and start infusing for a New Year's Eve hoptini.

Second, I don't know what in the world that is on top of your beer, Goat. I've never seen anything like it. I do think I would want to get my beer out from under it, though.

Third, just to add some data to the discussion, I've dry hopped a whole lot of beer and never had an infection from that. Hops have nice antiseptic properties. I suppose you could get some mold on them, though, but not if kept properly.

Finally, Ó Flannagáin, I tend to agree with the others that say it looks like a low flocculating yeast. If that's the sort of thing you pitched, then I would breathe easy. If not, then I might get a little more nervous. In any case, if it smells and tastes good, I doubt it's contaminated.


TL

z987k said:

Landhoney that looks disgusting. Do you just rack off the bottom?

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NO!, I want the pellicle to remain intact. I just pushed a pipette through to take a sample and it tasted really good, nice and sour funk. My pellicle is Brett looking for O2, I want/need it there to provide the flavor and protect from oxidation and acetobacter. It will be there for the many months sour beers need to develop.
BTW, if you brew a sour beer and there is no pellicle it doesn't mean the 'bugs' aren't working, just that there's limited O2 in the headspace so the Brett isn't 'going nuts' on the surface. If there's not O2 then you don't need the pellicle to protect from oxidation/aceto any way. But the Brett character in the beer may be more restrained(maybe not).

well I doubt you pour the beers with a fuzzy head like that, what do you do when it's time to bottle/keg?

MMMM hop vodka!

That sure looks like a lacto infection to me. The only hope is to sour it intentionally, or carb it up and drink it very fast.

mines had that skin on it for months. i just covered it and put it in the corner of the cellar. i kinda forgot about it, until i saw flani's post.

i'm gonna taste it tonight, and if it's palatable, it's going in a keg, to test out the new keg setup. i figure i won't cry too much if i loose alot of beer troubleshooting my first keging...

Looks like your yeast metabolized much the way the SWMBO metabolizes every 28 days.

Lacto would actually be welcome in this brew. I can only hope.

i have been trying to remember that word for 3 days now "pellicle"

saw a post 3 days ago "its not heavy, its my pellicle" something like and i have been beating my brains out about it trying to figure out what the crap that stuff is.....


thanks

I wonder if subjecting hops to ozone for a few hours would be enough to sanitize. A neon sign transformer, some aluminum foil and a sheet of glass and you're ozonin

Well, it's been a couple days and nothings grown in secondary. So far so good.

Virtuous said:

I wonder if subjecting hops to ozone for a few hours would be enough to sanitize. A neon sign transformer, some aluminum foil and a sheet of glass and you're ozonin

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Hope you do that outside.