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I cleaned the fermenter twice and then poured 5 gallons of water with the required starsan so hopefully it's ok. I made a brown ale in the same fermenter right after so just waiting for the fermentation to finish to see if I need to dump the fermenter or not.

unionrdr said:
Ian,that looks like jrausen leftovers to me. Menion,that looks like the start of a lacto infection. Since the beer is bottled already,the co2 rich environment should keep things clean. Just clean the fermenter really well to get rid of the infection.
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Hi all,

After 15 brews, I finally got a weird one. This started to form about 2 days after fermentation had completed and FG had stabilised. It has quite a yeasty look to it, and I figured it could have been yeast rafts (maybe I let the temperature get away from me when I had the mango steeping and got some pectin?), but because I've never really had any problems before I don't have a lot to go on.

Anyways, it was supposed to be my Christmas beer, so I have to make a decision to either bottle it soon or ditch it so I can whip up something quick and dirty to replace it.

Thoughts?

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Hey Everyone, this is my First post here. I have been reading these forums for the past month or so, since I did my first 1 gallon batch from a kit. After I got that first batch I went to a LHBS and was advised to use a secondary to get a clear beer. I got the secondary and when I racked to it I didn't have any signs of an infection, and most of the krausen has already settled. Then after another 2 weeks in the secondary, I was alarmed when I saw what looked like an infection. A couple days after I put it in the secondary, I did notice some small white bubbles, but I figured that was starsan bubbles, and I let it sit without checking on it until bottling day.
I have looked through almost this whole thread, and I am kind of hoping somebody just confirms and says these are just little yeast rafts. Anyway, I bottled and then figured I would jump on here and start posting.

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I don't think they're yeast rafts. Looks like some kind if infection starting. You don't really need a secondary just to get clear beer. But if you do,it should be sanitized & just big enough to hold the volume of beer with little head space.
 
Posted in thread at https://www.homebrewtalk.com/newthread.php?do=postthread&f=39 ...

I just opened my fermenter after one month to find this film on top...

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I had planned on bottling this tomorrow.

Beer is a winter warmer I tweaked (http://urly.fi/aIN) based on Holiday Prowler (http://urly.fi/aIO) - combination of light, crystal chocolate grains, plus beer enhancer and, if I remember correctly, dark spraymalt.

-- Brew day was Nov 10, OG @ 1.046

-- Reading taken Nov 17 @ 1.020 (all looked great)

-- Discovery - Dec 7 @ 1.010

Film is thin, almost powdery dry, breaks easily. Beer underneath looks good and brown.

What has happened? Please don't tell me this is mouldy and ruined.
I have removed the film. Tasted a small amount of beer from beneath the film; didn't taste off (but what am I looking to taste in an infected beer?).

The one thing I could point to, speculatively, is air. No bubbles ever emerged from airlock, only from between the grommet and the fermenter lid, and only audibly when the lid was pushed. This fermenter from Wilkinson, came without a hole of its own; one needed drilling in. Between brew day and reading one week later, I opened fermenter manually to inspect and photograph, then not opened again for three weeks.

NB. I sterilised the boiling cauldron, fermenter etc with boiled water and steriliser.

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She is Tugboat. a Whiskey barrel stout from Brewers Best.
2 weeks in secondary with boiled oak chips after 2 weeks in Primary
I would rather have had less headroom in secondary 5.5 gal would have given this less room to run.
Going to rack and bottle tomorrow or monday. This wasn't present on thursday.
sample tastes good, gravity 1.022 only 3 points high from suggested so I'm ok with that. Identification please from the forum for sh*ts and Giggles?
Reading into this that the bottle carbing will kill it from reproducing in the bottle.

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davygoat2 said:
Going to rack and bottle tomorrow or monday. This wasn't present on thursday.
sample tastes good, gravity 1.022 only 3 points high from suggested so I'm ok with that. Identification please from the forum for sh*ts and Giggles?
Reading into this that the bottle carbing will kill it from reproducing in the bottle.
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I'd wait to bottle. 1.022 with an infection would give you bottle bombs. Let it ride and see where the gravity actually levels out. If it is Brett. it might slowly chew it down to very dry.
 
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Was going to bottle last night until I found this. Kind of curious if anyone thinks they know what it is, and whether or not its worth letting it ride for a few months. I know it doesn't smell too appealing at the moment.
 
unionrdr said:
Never saw one like that. Maybe just steeping the mango wasn't hot enough to kill wild yeasts? How's it taste?
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I soaked the mango in vodka for an hour before steeping, same as usual, so I was hoping I hadn't managed a wild yeast - but in saying that, I probably wasn't as careful as normal seeing as I have done this beer a few times now trying to get a better balance of flavour.

Taste was quite a bit off, I bottled from under the infection and had a taste of the leftovers and it has almost a sour taste to it which I haven't ever had before. Am thinking its boned, so will be making another tonight after work (which I am sure the wife will love having me take over the kitchen for on a weeknight).

Thanks
 
Cream Ale. Brewed 28Nov2013

Yeast was dry pitched for the first time and it is slightly possible that I tossed in about 2 oz of maltodextrin but I failed to jot it down.

First sample today. Taste & smell is wonderful. I invited a neighbor over to test it because I feel my taste buds may not pick up off flavors. She doesn't do anything hoppy and dark beers generally aren't her deal. Blue Moon is her #1. She loved it. Said it was wonderful.

Pulled a sample with a wine thief. I usually use a glass measuring cup but I wanted to pull from under this stuff. I want to say it's just krausen that hasn't fallen. OG was 1.042 FG is 1.010. It is done as far as I can tell. Fermented at 64-66F constant.

Other notes: Irish Moss added at 15 min LME (all) was added at 15 min before flame out.

Is this infected? Pic of sample is pretty near representative of the actual color.
Thanks guys/gals.
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Doesn't look like an infection to me, but it doesn't look like a cream ale to me either; so what do I know.
 
k_mcarthur said:
Doesn't look like an infection to me, but it doesn't look like a cream ale to me either; so what do I know.
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It's extract with LME so the color of the LME was pretty much what you see there. If I were an AG brewer the color would be very light. Even if I used DME, I would have a lighter color. The recipe though, to my knowledge, is that of a cream ale. I could be wrong.
 
That looks like krausen to me. Also - if you add the majority of your LME (2/3 or so) close to the end of the boil you can keep the caramelization down and have better control over the color.
 
If you really put 12 oz of C-120 in it, that is what made it so dark, looks like a good amber but not a cream ale.

Yeast can look pretty funny sometimes, btw, no infection!
 
captainkirk83 said:
I took this picture tonight. It is 1.5 gal smash experiment using us-05. This doesn't look normal.
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Sorry about the excitement of looking at the pic of your infection. It is one im not sure of the kind of infection though.
 
Dave37 said:
Sorry about the excitement of looking at the pic of your infection. It is one im not sure of the kind of infection though.
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I think looks cool too. Luckily it's just a small partigyle from a 5 gallon batch that looks fine.

I used a prior slurry of yeast and small amount of table sugar so either of those are the probable source of infection.
 
Well,sugar is dry & nasties need warmth,food & moisture to propogate,generally. If you washed the trub out of the yeast,& get a layer of beer on top of the yeast in a clean,sanitized jar that wouldn't be it either. Was the storage jar cleaned & sanitized first? How bout the FV? Too much head space?
 
Shred said:
That looks like krausen to me. Also - if you add the majority of your LME (2/3 or so) close to the end of the boil you can keep the caramelization down and have better control over the color.
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roastquake said:
If you really put 12 oz of C-120 in it, that is what made it so dark, looks like a good amber but not a cream ale.

Yeast can look pretty funny sometimes, btw, no infection!
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Well, if I had used just the C120 and extra light DME, I think the color would be more towards a cream ale. I added LME at 15 minutes prior to flame out so the color only came from the LME and of course the added C120. It's not competition-bound so I won't call it an amber for sake of color, but I suppose I could just consider it that.

thanks for the vote of confidence on the infection. It was an odd look to me that I've yet to see. It was also the only beer fermenting in a bucket.
 
Ahh styles are just for competitions anyway :mug:

Yea I still wonder about certain fermentations. I recently was questioning a honey ale with us-05, I thought it may be infected until I looked at a few pages on this thread.

Thanks everyone who actually had them and shared!
 
unionrdr said:
Well,sugar is dry & nasties need warmth,food & moisture to propogate,generally. If you washed the trub out of the yeast,& get a layer of beer on top of the yeast in a clean,sanitized jar that wouldn't be it either. Was the storage jar cleaned & sanitized first? How bout the FV? Too much head space?
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It was washed and sanitized with star San but maybe I was in too much of a hurry.

The fermenter is a mr beer keg so it's about half full. I don't think the lid is as tight as a real airlock so who knows. I'm just glad the full size batch looks good.
 
A couple dozen brews in, and no infections until now -- though I guess it's also my first time doing something that's not really a "brew." It's cider!

All I did was pour 5 gal of fresh, UV filtered (not pasteurized, no preservatives) cider into a sanitized better bottle w/crushed campden tablets, and add yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme, a little acid blend, and a packet of rehydrated Nottingham (24 hrs after the campden), and let it go.

After about 4 weeks, I had planned to move it to secondary to sit for a while (everyone tells me cider needs an extended rest in the bright tank to mellow out some). I ended up not having time to do anything with it, but I looked and everything was fine in there, and the cider clearing nicely.

Today I went back to move it up onto the counter (I finally have a few hours and plan to rack it this evening, while I bottle my spiced bourbon stout), and I notice what seems to be my first ever infection:



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Any suggestions/identification? Should I skip the secondary here and put this baby in bottles already, or let it ride in a new fermenter -- or in its current fermenter (I'm in no hurry with it)?

Thanks!
 
A stout which was sitting in the primary for 2 weeks and stuck at 1.02.
I'm calling it the 'North Pole' as it starts to look like small chunks of ice floating in the sea.

Any hope on this one?

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something growing on some harvested yeast that's been in my fridge for a few weeks, (actually on top of the inch or so of beer that's above the settled yeast)I was about to use this yeast for a new batch, I pop of the lid and....uhmm yeah, I decided to go with fresh yeast instead.

The yeast was 3rd gen (Nottingham) ..and the beer I harvested this from was fine, I still have a keg left, and a couple bottles, I'm drinking one right now in fact, and it tastes great.

before harvesting the yeast, I soaked the jars in a chlorine solution for 10 minutes, then fill the jars with boiling water for 10 minutes, then empty, let cool, and then collect the yeast. has always worked OK in the past, but this time, not so much.

Least it was just yeast, and not the beer...and at 3rd gen, should probably just dump it anyways.

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Well, I chilled and cracked a bottle of my weird looking beer on the weekend, and the taste is actually bloody nice. Aroma is still off, and the mango flavour seems to have scrubbed out, but the chili is still present, as is the mint, lime and coriander. Should be pretty good (fingers crossed) when its done.
 
robomonkey said:
A stout which was sitting in the primary for 2 weeks and stuck at 1.02.
I'm calling it the 'North Pole' as it starts to look like small chunks of ice floating in the sea.

Any hope on this one?
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Looks like the start of a lacto infection to me,with yeast rafts. Rack out from under it if it tastes ok.
Saiko said:
here's mine, what should I do with it?
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Def an infection,but doesn't look like lacto so far. Howe's it taste?
 

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