Infected?

This is a stout I brewed 3 weeks ago. I left it in primary for 2 weeks and here it is after 1 week in secondary. I know I shouldnt stress over it but the thought of a ruined batch stresses me out to no end.

The white film is a classic sign of infection (ring around the neck). If you can see it, you should be able to taste it as well. If it passes the sniff test, it may be ok, or not as infected as it will be as time goes on. If you really want to know for sure, look at it under a microscope. If it is infected, it wont hurt you if you drink it. To avoid contaminated beer in the future, you need to do everything possible to reduce the risk. Besides the obvious sanitizing routine, use new pitchable yeast (everytime, with out a starter), pasturize all ingredients added after the boil, get rid of all platic parts that have come in contact with your spoiled beer. Do you really have to do these things? No, you can reuse your yeast, add fresh fruit into the fermenter and re use your plastic pail successfully without another infection...... but its just not worth the risk is it?

I don't think so Nanobru....I don't think that's a "classic sign of infection" I think the op had a bit of krausen forming on top of the beer because he racked it, or just the beer got sloshed around, a little higher than where the beer settled and that dried up a bit and that is what the ring is.

and the rest of it is just yeast rafts, which are perfectly normal on the tops of many beers, it's just yeast kicked up from co2, again because you racked the beer.

It really looks perfectly normal to me.

I would taste and smell it, but I really doubt it's an infection.

And as to not using a starter, that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.....

it's a really blurry picture, but i have to go with RDWing here. i don't see anything that looks out of the ordinary, just some rafting, that ring of bubbles looks like co2 nucleating on the rafts. if you're worried, take a gravity reading, smell and taste the sample. do the same in a few days, if something's going on, you'll have signs.
as far as not using a starter as a way to lower your risk of contamination..... that couldn't be further from good advice. you want to pitch enough healthy, viable yeast to ensure that yeast fermentation kicks off and nothing else takes hold. the rest of Nanobru's advice is solid, if you are in fact infected (which i doubt), ditch all the plastics that may have come in contact. sucks, but plastic will hold on to that $h!t.

Revvy said:

I would taste and smell it, but I really doubt it's an infection.

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Agreed. Your eyes can be deceiving. Gotta taste & smell it. The vast majority of the surface looks perfectly normal and I don't see much of a film on the beer itself - that's good. The white film could be a number of things from racking - and tough to tell without a crisp picture.. I do so little racking though that I may not be the best judge.

And infected and ruined are not the same thing. If it is infected, you have 2 options...rack from under the film and drink it quickly (takes a while for infections to funkify). Or leave it and forget about it for a few months. You may have something wonderful. But by no means is it ruined.

And agreed with Revvy & Nordeast on the starter.

I agree. This is yeast rafting. Looks more harsh in darker beers I find. Especially when the beer still needs to clear out a fair bit.
Put it away for another 2 weeks, and start another batch.
Use a starter, it's very easy to do. If you get stuck and have to dry pitch, then so be it, but I wouldn't think that would be a normal practice.

Looks pretty normal to me. But I'd let it go a bit longer. If it starts growing at the edges where the surface touches the glass, or you get large bubbles forming on the surface, that's bad. But floating islands in the middle is usually just yeast.

Take a good look at this thread and you'll see some telltale signs of infection Some of us try to get these kinds of infections.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/pellicle-photo-collection-174033/

I kind of took the first reply as sarcasm, feeding off the fears of new home brewers.

tchfunkta said:

I kind of took the first reply as sarcasm, feeding off the fears of new home brewers.

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Maybe, but I didn't read it that way.

OP, it definitely looks infected judging by the chunks of white stuff floating around in there.

Bottle it up and ship it to me and I'll dispose of it properly.



(See, that's how you do it!):cross:

Homercidal said:

Maybe, but I didn't read it that way.

OP, it definitely looks infected judging by the chunks of white stuff floating around in there.

Bottle it up and ship it to me and I'll dispose of it properly.



(See, that's how you do it!):cross:

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To clarify, the white ring is where it got sloshed when I pulled it out of the closet to take a closer look. Sorry the pic isnt clearer but thats the best one I have. I did smell it and it did not smell funky.

When I racked the beer it probably got more of the yeast cake than I intended. I was using a new racking cane that I am not used to.

Also, I have always used Wyeast Activator to great success. Thanks for all your replies. My mind is eased a little. I will update when I bottle it next weekend.

briflo said:

To clarify, the white ring is where it got sloshed when I pulled it out of the closet to take a closer look..

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I think I said something to that effect. You have yeast rafts, the beer is fine.

Thanks Revvy

NordeastBrewer77 said:

it's a really blurry picture, but i have to go with RDWing here. i don't see anything that looks out of the ordinary, just some rafting, that ring of bubbles looks like co2 nucleating on the rafts. if you're worried, take a gravity reading, smell and taste the sample. do the same in a few days, if something's going on, you'll have signs.
as far as not using a starter as a way to lower your risk of contamination..... that couldn't be further from good advice. you want to pitch enough healthy, viable yeast to ensure that yeast fermentation kicks off and nothing else takes hold. the rest of Nanobru's advice is solid, if you are in fact infected (which i doubt), ditch all the plastics that may have come in contact. sucks, but plastic will hold on to that $h!t.

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Instead of ditching the plastic, you can ship it to me

Overnight soak in oxyclean normally gets rid of any brett/pedio/lacto in the plastic. Maybe not in buckets, but definitely better bottles

I dont use plastics. I use a 6 1/2 gallon glass carboy for primary and 5 gall glass carboy for secondary.

briflo said:

I dont use plastics. I use a 6 1/2 gallon glass carboy for primary and 5 gall glass carboy for secondary.

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Plastics would also refer to racking canes, tubing, etc.

malevolent said:

Instead of ditching the plastic, you can ship it to me

Overnight soak in oxyclean normally gets rid of any brett/pedio/lacto in the plastic. Maybe not in buckets, but definitely better bottles

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i've never had a contamination, so i can't say exactly how i'd handle it. soft plastics would definitely go, same for things with small plastic parts, like a bottling wand, probably the thief as well. i'd have to read up on how to handle the fermenters, oxyclean is an amazing product. *knocksonwood* here's to hoping i'm not doing that research anytime in the near future.

As an update, I bottled this weekend and the beer tasted great.

I forgot to mention I added cocoa with 10 minutes left in the boil. Some other threads I've read said they have had the same thing happen to them when they added cocoa.

Thanks to all who replied.