Do I have an Infection?

None of my beers have looked like this before, I am guessing that it is an infection. If so I am gonna be pretty dissapointed because I was really excited about this beer. Let me know what you think. Thanks

I used this recipe

Black Pearl Porter

The only changes I made was added some toasted unsweetened coconut (in a grain bag) and a little bit of chocolate to the boil at about 20 minutes.

I sanitized with StarSan. I made a starter which did not seem infected and took off with a pretty solid looking fermentation within 12 hours.


ALL GRAIN - 5 Gallons
8.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
2.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)

0.50 oz Fuggles [4.52%] (60 min)
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.20%] (2 min)

0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)

1.00 cup Malto-Dextrine (Boil 20.0 min)
4.00 oz Lactose (Boil 15.0 min)

1 Pkgs London Ale (Wyeast Labs #1028)


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 13.00 lb
Mash In Add 4.06 gal of water at 170.5 F 158.0 F 45 min
Mash Out Add 2.50 gal of water at 206.7 F 175.0 F 15 min

Here are the pictures I took.

Gnarly. How's it taste?

yea. I would say that's an infection.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Gnarly. How's it taste?

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I took a small taste and it is not terrible, it smells a little off though. I just switched to StarSan from Idophor, I have had no issues with Idophor in the past.

Weird. It doesn't look like any infection I've seen. It looks like fats. I don't imagine you added enough coconut and chocolate to yield that much fat into the beer, but maybe it's possible.

jmo88 said:

Weird. It doesn't look like any infection I've seen. I looks like fats. I don't imagine you added enough coconut and chocolate to yield that much fat into the beer, but maybe it's possible.

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That was kinda of what I was wondering. I only added a bit of chocolate maybe 4ozs., I added 10ozs of toasted unsweeted coconut to the mash and 10ozs coconut to the boil. Maybe just transfer into a secondary and give it some time.

jturb said:

I took a small taste and it is not terrible, it smells a little off though. I just switched to StarSan from Idophor, I have had no issues with Idophor in the past.

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Was it ever a homogenous sheeted layer oer' top of the beer or has it always resembled glacial bergs?

GilaMinumBeer said:

Was it ever a homogenous sheeted layer oer' top of the beer or has it always resembled glacial bergs?

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That is pretty much what it looked like when I opened it up to pull the sample.

That coconut had a mountain of fat in it. I suppose it could be that. I agree, though, that looks really odd. It's not like anything I've ever seen.

It looks like maybe the fat got pushed up to the top of the krausen and then when the krausen fell it broke up and was left floating on the beer. My first thought would be to scoop that out to prevent it from being a landing zone for infections but I'm not really sure what would be best in that situation.

I'm voting for fat myself. I don't think it's infected. But I've seen some oddly formed krausens, and especially trub layers in my time. I'm thinking that is because of the fats in the coconuts.

It may just be fats and lipids, like break hot and cold break material. Just fprming into a geometric shape as opposed to looking like egg drop soup in a boil sometimes.

If it tastes fine then I would proceed as if everything was fine, and see the beer to the end. It may turn out to be fantastic.

Thanks for the help everyone!! I scooped off the majority with a slotted spoon, I will probably transfer to a secondary to try to get it off of the rest here soon. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Does look like fat from the coconuts to me too. If you scoop it off and it appears greasy or waxy between your fingers and repels water then I would say fat. Might even taste like coconut.

Yeah, is it fatty / greasy when smooshed between your fingers? Not to be gross but .. what does it taste like? Fatty coconut?

fatty fatty fat fat

I see the exact same thing on the top of my chocolate fondue when it gets put in the fridge if it doesn't get finished.

jturb said:

Thanks for the help everyone!! I scooped off the majority with a slotted spoon, I will probably transfer to a secondary to try to get it off of the rest here soon. I'll let you know how it turns out.

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If it starts to multiply in the fermenter and spread over the top I would start to be worried that it's a fermentation. Fat shouldn't increase as the beer ages...

Bah don't worry about it - smell after primary ferment is never an indication of the quality of a beer. Most of my beers after the yeast is finished the bulk of their work smell like ass to be honest. And they all taste good

It looks like you've made a cobbler.