Post your infection

wyzazz said:

Gotta try it first, then decide if you like it. It's only going to get more sour from where it sits now. I'd keg/bottle it if you like the taste and drink it.

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I tried it. It was quite tasty. Hydrometer showed 1.007, so I bottled it and put them all in a Rubbermaid storage tote. I'll pop one in about 2.5 weeks and see how it is going. I may see if anyone in my brew club wants to trade for some of these since I don't think I should drink it all as fast as I can (that's a lot of 7% Dubbel), but want to make sure it gets consumed before any sour flavors try to take hold. I bleached my bucket, air lock, lid and the lid seal last night (since it developed in secondary, I think my plastic tubing and associated items are clean), but I may get rid of the stuff anyway. I haven't decided. I may also do a cheap, easy recipe just to see if any infection takes hold and if so, I'm not out a lot of money or time.

Hello guys I think Im Infected!! Please any help and to the point advice I will post pictures very soon!! Its a white cloudy film on top of my brew. It'ssuppose to be a bitter chocolate bock. Pics coming very shortly please help

jedi_2000_14 said:

Hello guys I think Im Infected!! Please any help and to the point advice I will post pictures very soon!! Its a white cloudy film on top of my brew. It'ssuppose to be a bitter chocolate bock. Pics coming very shortly please help

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Waiting on pic. Need info for when it was brewed and how does it taste.

Ok guys so here it is.... It's a bitter chocolate bock I used bitter chocolate. I mashed 1 pound of Chocolate malt at 150 for an hour nothing major I followed recipe but this milky tanker oil film on top I's worrying me anybody got any suggestions

Doesn't look quite like lacto... I would seal it up and leave it alone... I guess I would look at it again in 2 days and if it has a furry looking white layer, bottle and drink it fast. Otherwise, seal it well and leave it until you are ready to bottle or keg. I stopped fermenting in buckets because of infection, and just don't trust them.

Thanks appreciate ur advice! Its only been 5 days into fermentation so I'll wait another week see how's the progress...

Looks like oil from the chocolate, how much actual chocolate was there? How long has it been in the fermenter?

About 3/4 pound of chocolate.. Maybe the oil?

Yeah, it looks like oil not lacto or anything like that.

Guess I'll wait and see just that ugly oily film is just ugly ur mind just wonders what your done wrong.. Also given the fact that this is my very first brew with chocolate and also a bock I'm keeping my fermentor in a 50-55 degree water bath monitoring 24/7 I'm doing the frozen water bottle thing which isn't bad

Sorry my first bock I've done plenty others just never used chocolate anyway lol thanks appreciate I'll keep u guys posted Thanks so much

This batch was supposed to be a hefeweizen (WL 380), which fermented very very happily for the first few days:




When I returned after being away for a couple days, the top of the fermenter had been occluded by dried foam and the blow-off water smelled rancid. I figured the krausen had overflowed through the blowoff tube, changed out the sanitized solution and cleaned the line as best I could.

Today I noticed there's a new foam on top of the fermenter (very difficult to see due to the dried foam):



Which is pale white and has much larger bubbles than any krausen I've seen... Plus, globs of white goo shake free and fall if you move the fermenter (as seen in the pic). So now I'm thinking infection.

Million dollar question: wild yeast infection or an expected effect of the WL380 yeast? If the former, is it safe to use the equipment again, or will those yeasties (or bacteria) get into anything else that touches it?

Ok, so after a good looking primary, I racked to a carboy. After a few weeks, I noticed a white film on the top of the beer, but it was very localized and small. I racked to a new carboy and it tasted fine.

Now, after about 4 days, this is what it looks like.

Thoughts?

Bazin said:

Ok, so after a good looking primary, I racked to a carboy. After a few weeks, I noticed a white film on the top of the beer, but it was very localized and small. I racked to a new carboy and it tasted fine.

Now, after about 4 days, this is what it looks like.

Thoughts?

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Yeah. That looks infected to me. What is it? I dont know. I've seen it before on the surface of a bilge bucket I keep near my kegerator to catch overflow.

I've seen lacto look like that, but it can vary a bit. I'd say that's your best bet.

rearview said:

I read this thread last Thursday and Friday and started thinking about my Belgian Dubbel that has been in secondary for about a month, following about 4 weeks in primary.

It looked good coming out of primary and was actually supposed to go into a 55 gal barrel with some other people's recipes to age for a few months before we split it back up. I popped it open this weekend and saw this:

Consensus is that it is a Lacto infection. I haven't tasted it yet, but plan to soon.

Some advice I got: Add some bret and see what happens in a few months. I don't know that I want to try to go this route.

From reading on here and other places I'm more inclined to bottle it (if it tastes ok) and see how much I can drink/share before it gets too sour.

I used WLP510 if it matters. It was part of a cake from someone else, but his beer is fine (and my primary didn't seem to have any problems)

Thoughts/opinions? Thanks.

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No such thing as too sour

Schnitzengiggle said:

No such thing as too sour

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Funny. I put one in the fridge two days ago and I plan to try it tonight. I'll post back with my results.

There are two of these threads? Oh well I s'pose that just means there are more pictures to look through!

jwbeard said:

Million dollar question: wild yeast infection or an expected effect of the WL380 yeast? If the former, is it safe to use the equipment again, or will those yeasties (or bacteria) get into anything else that touches it?

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I think you will be okay. Looks like the yeast is just settling out. You can use the same equipment just make sure to sterilize as always.

ehedge20 said:

I think you will be okay. Looks like the yeast is just settling out. You can use the same equipment just make sure to sanitize as always.

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FTFY. Unless you're autoclaving with steam, you're sanitizing.

PseudoChef said:

FTFY. Unless you're autoclaving with steam, you're sanitizing.

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Got me there.

Well my Dubbel is quite tasty, though a bit undercarbed still (its only been two weeks). Perhaps it will sour with time. I'll just have to not let it last that long.

So I am very, very new to beer making. In fact I just picked up my first kit on yesterday and haven't even looked at it yet. Is infections common in beer making and with those that is made from scratch or can kits become infected too?

Okay, I looked everywhere I and I couldn't find a pic that looked similar so I'll post here to see if this an infection. This was the first time I tried to reuse my starsan and I had a overflowing starter with sticky yeast all over the opening of the flask so I'm a bit nervous.

That looks normal to me, unless it's into your 2nd week of fermenation or your secondary. Next time use a blowoff tube. If it overflowed on you, chances are the natural fermenation and CO2 would push out any bacteria anyway. I've had the top blow off and hit the ceiling it still turned out fine.

Chive on, NervousDad

P.S. How do you REUSE starsan? Did I miss something?

DeanMachine said:

That looks normal to me, unless it's into your 2nd week of fermenation or your secondary. Next time use a blowoff tube. If it overflowed on you, chances are the natural fermenation and CO2 would push out any bacteria anyway. I've had the top blow off and hit the ceiling it still turned out fine.

Chive on, NervousDad

P.S. How do you REUSE starsan? Did I miss something?

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I brewed it on Sunday (Moose Drool Clone). I'm hoping its just normal fermentation stuff. It immediately started to collect on the sides and has been growing. This was also the first time I used Irish moss so maybe it's why it looks a bit different.

I just left the starsan in the bucket that I used to clean my keg parts the day before. From what I've read it will start good for several weeks. I think that the last time I'll do that though. I'd hate to waste a $30 beer kit only to save about a $1 worth of santizer.

for now I will KCCO

Chive ON! I'm sure you got the BFM t-shirt also.. I sport mine everywhere lol.

I leave mine in the buckets and do not touch them until bottling. So i dont have to worry if something doesn't look right. Luckily i have not had a infection yet and hope i'll never get one. lol

I wear mine everywhere I go also

I'm pretty sure it's not infected after doing some more searching.

This is the thread wherein I tell myself I will never, ever, ever use a hop bag again to dry hop:

It's early, but definitely there. It's got, like, some kind of fin going down into the beer.

On second and third look, and after chatting with the FLHS, it seems like it might just be hop flecks fully-saturated with beer. Which gives me comfort. Gonna rack & bottle today and see what happens.

Yeast rafts? Hop particles? Its kind of greenish, just over 1 week after start of fermenting still bubbling pretty quickly. Never seen it before.

Looks fairly typical of yeast rafts to me. Might depend on the strain in use, but I wouldn't worry yet.

That is good to hear. Its US-05 in an IPA and I dump mostly everything into the fermenter so I figured it was the yeast hanging out on all the break material in there.

I'm also doing an IPA with US-05 and just opened my fermenter to check it out. Has similar looking stuff on the top of my wort. I'm hoping it is just the yeast.

US-05 does that. Happened to me. All is well.

jwbeard said:

This batch was supposed to be a hefeweizen (WL 380), which fermented very very happily for the first few days:

[CLIP]Today I noticed there's a new foam on top of the fermenter (very difficult to see due to the dried foam):

View attachment 48382

Which is pale white and has much larger bubbles than any krausen I've seen... Plus, globs of white goo shake free and fall if you move the fermenter (as seen in the pic). So now I'm thinking infection.

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For the benefit of any intrepid homebrewers down the line: I cold crashed this brew for a little over a week, racked to a keg, and carbed at 28psi@40... and it's delicious. If the globs were in fact an infection (I suspect they were not), they added no off flavors. I think it's more likely that the globs were hot break proteins that got racked to the fermenter and were stirred up and locked into the krausen by WL380's spirited fermentation (though I'm happy to be corrected on this point).

Take home point: despite a worrisome appearance, (does) not (appear to be) an infection!

Hey guys, I just dry hopped with pellets for the first time, opened up the fermentor and found this pulp-looking stuff. I was wondering if anyone's seen this before / knows what it is. It definitely has an off odor, so I'm guessing its something funky growing in there




Good or bad idea to bottle and drink?

jwbeard said:

For the benefit of any intrepid homebrewers down the line: I cold crashed this brew for a little over a week, racked to a keg, and carbed at 28psi@40... and it's delicious. If the globs were in fact an infection (I suspect they were not), they added no off flavors. I think it's more likely that the globs were hot break proteins that got racked to the fermenter and were stirred up and locked into the krausen by WL380's spirited fermentation (though I'm happy to be corrected on this point).

Take home point: despite a worrisome appearance, (does) not (appear to be) an infection!

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Nope,that just lookes like yeast rafts and some co2 spitting upward.

DJP00829 said:

Hey guys, I just dry hopped with pellets for the first time, opened up the fermentor and found this pulp-looking stuff. I was wondering if anyone's seen this before / knows what it is. It definitely has an off odor, so I'm guessing its something funky growing in there

Good or bad idea to bottle and drink?

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Slightly looks like lacto like you moved it around and it crumbled up together plus that haze looks supsicious but i can get that cloudy haze alot from dryhopping.I worry if i dont dryhopp and it is very cloudy like turning white cloudy then forming a crusty film. I would taste it and take gravity readings to see if it drops.If you like it bottle it. I would at least bottle it if it tastes decent. Rack from underneath it and try to avoid it maybe even skim some out but clean your equipement well.

I had some offishness in a few batches,im going to blame it on s-33 and t-58 and maybe a lacto carryover from them to my s-23 common beer i made because those had a filmy white stuff flakey paint-like iceberge like.It did well aging in bottles all of them. Even some with noticable filmy gell like stuff on the surface inside the bottle,alot of them even seemed to disapeer.I got no gushers and pretty good beers. And for the common which i blame on too high a ferment for s-23 which maybe was a reason for an off smell taste but that went away and turned out great. I always drink mine last bottled first because i think that stuff seems to survive on the surface (maybe with oxyegen?) Plus i feel if any were unevenly(unlikely) carbonated it would be the last ones bottled, once in a blue moon i get one a little more carbonated than the rest.
If you are certain its infected and still bottle it just keep an eye on them for overcarbonation.Im glad i didnt dump the few i thought were suspisious.

rearview said:

I read this thread last Thursday and Friday and started thinking about my Belgian Dubbel that has been in secondary for about a month, following about 4 weeks in primary.

It looked good coming out of primary and was actually supposed to go into a 55 gal barrel with some other people's recipes to age for a few months before we split it back up. I popped it open this weekend and saw this:

Consensus is that it is a Lacto infection. I haven't tasted it yet, but plan to soon.

Some advice I got: Add some bret and see what happens in a few months. I don't know that I want to try to go this route.

From reading on here and other places I'm more inclined to bottle it (if it tastes ok) and see how much I can drink/share before it gets too sour.

I used WLP510 if it matters. It was part of a cake from someone else, but his beer is fine (and my primary didn't seem to have any problems)

Thoughts/opinions? Thanks.

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Not gonna lie, it looks delicious. Rack it over some Cabernet grapes (not juice) and pitch a nice bug blend. You'll get a delicious beer/wine hybrid sour.