Three years in and first infection

Three weeks ago I brewed an extract Brown Ale and had planned on bottling it this weekend. The entire time it sat in the primary undisturbed. I didn't even bother with any gravity readings, until last night. I was in my "beer room" and thought I would pull a bit out, check the gravity and have a taste. While filling the tube, I caught a whiff of the beer. Ugh, it smelled like vomit. I didn't want to believe it and took another hardy smell. Definitely something wrong with this beer. I took the gravity (1.010) anyways and decided to taste it. It wasn't as bad as the smell but still bad. It tasted very thin with no hint of the chocolate of black patent malts and very musty. Not good.

I looked back at my process and think I have figured out the culprit. The carboy I used was recently given to me and had sat in my grandma's attic for who knows how long. It was pretty clean on the inside and had a plastic bag over the opening. I scrubbed out any leftover gunk I could see in it and sanitized as usual but something had to have been left behind to infect this beer. In my three years of brewing, this will be my first batch that will be dumped due to infection

bummer man, I guess make sure you hit it really well with oxiclean then a no rinse sanitizer next time.

I'd still wait it out and bottle it, or at least let it sit in the carboy for a few more weeks. If it is in fact an infection, that's a real bummer.

What would be the advantage of letting it sit in either the carboy or bottles? I know it is not just a "green" taste I am getting, it is practically rancid. I am planning on bottling another beer this weekend so I will have a free carboy to brew another batch, so maybe I will wait on it.

Just to see if it changes, if you've got the space/time then I'd let it sit for a little while. Otherwise if you don't and you're sure it's infected then dump it.

I've got all the time in the world! With my mead (3.5 months in), Belgian Tripel (6 weeks in) and Midas Touch Clone (7 weeks in), the 3 weeks for this Brown Ale is nothing! haha

I had my first very bad infection last year too. I read what everybody said, and decided to let is age for a while to see if it was just "green" and needed time to bloom.

Well, I tapped off a couple mugs, and just about threw up, when I tasted it. It smelled, and tasted, like some sort of floor wax remover. Not that I have ever drank any of that stuff. But I even waited another month, or so and it was still just as bad.

I never did figure out what the culprit was. Definitely a sanitaion issue. The part that really got me, was this brew was brew number 6 out of 10 that I did between Christmas and New Years. None of the other brews had any problems. Very wierd.

This infection can only stem from 1 cause: the carboy. Like I said, before yesterday I didn't even pop the stopper to check the gravity. So there is no contamination there. This was the first time using the carboy and I had a few beers in me when I cleaned it so obviously something was left inside.

Funny, we brewed a batch of Vienna SmaSh on Friday and put it in an antique carboy that had been setting for years. I cleaned it this way:

1. Oxyclean plus water to the top, scrubbed with brush.
2. StarSan half way and shake the hell out of it, plus more scrubbing.
3. Dumped that, more Oxyclean to top.
4. Starsan, half way, shaking and let sit for 1 and half hours, shaking up ever 15 min or so.
5 Drain sanitizer 10 minutes before adding wort.

Hope that did the trick.

This weekend I brewed up a Dubbel in the same carboy. When I drained it the previous weekend, I filled it with a pretty strong bleach solution and let it sit for several hours. I drained and rinsed it. Before adding my wort, I did the bleach solution again, rinsed and then used my no rinse sanitizer. I'm keeping my fingers crossed because this dubbel seems like it is an awesome recipe.