Are these bottles infected?

I bottled my partial mash Northern Brewer's Rye PA one week ago. About 4 bottles look like the pic below as of today. At first I thought it was the yeast accumulating but I looked at the bottom of bottle and there is no sediment. Its just on the sides of the bottle.

Are these 4 bottles most likely infected?

The good news is the rest of the bottles look normal as they should. My sanitizer was Star San and I use a sulfiter for sanitizing the bottles. Caps are soaked in Star San as well.

Open one - pour carefully off the top... Half a beer is better than none. nAt least the others seem to be ok.

Just to clarify, are you saying that the stuff at the bottom is only around the edge of the bottle? I'm asking because at first glance it looks likes the entire bottom third of the bottle is packed with sediment. :cross:

I've honestly never seen anything like that before, but it's definitely good news that it's only a few bottles.

EDIT: oh, and if you do decide to open one up and pour, take some pics for us.

Wow, that's really interesting. I'd love to see some of the really experienced guys comment on that. Never seen anything like it, but then again I'm pretty new to this.

onipar said:

Just to clarify, are you saying that the stuff at the bottom is only around the edge of the bottle? I'm asking because at first glance it looks likes the entire bottom third of the bottle is packed with sediment. :cross:

I've honestly never seen anything like that before, but it's definitely good news that it's only a few bottles.

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Yes that is 100% correct. I too have never experienced this. I'm going to give them another week before trying them. I'm also going to isolate them from the rest of the bottles.

It looks like the yeast are flocculating starting at the top and the bottom third havn't settled out yet.

This is also the first I have seen of this but that is my best guess!

zyx345 said:

Yes that is 100% correct. I too have never experienced this. I'm going to give them another week before trying them. I'm also going to isolate them from the rest of the bottles.

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Sounds like a good plan. Be sure to update us on this; it really is interesting.

I'm wondering if it's possible that the yeast, while beginning sedimentation, coated the wall of the bottle? Maybe something to do with a strange temperature fluctuation, or perhaps those few bottles weren't rinsed well enough and the yeast sort of "stuck" a bit on the way down?

I dunno, none of that makes much sense now that I typed it out But what I was getting at is that it's a good idea to let them sit a while, especially if it just turns out to be the yeast doing something funky on the way down to the bottom.

It looks fungal to me, anyway... Mold, maybe?

Tubba said:

It looks fungal to me, anyway... Mold, maybe?

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Mold can only grow in a dry area. Notice how it only ever grows on top of beer where it finds something to float on, but it is never suspended in beer.

I agree it looks fungal! I would bet it is Saccharomyces

Ah, that's right, that's why you need to stir your fruit and all. So maybe a species of wild yeast, then.

That looks like trub or fruit sediment...Was that perhaps one of the last bottles you filled and you got lots of sediment in there?

Revvy said:

That looks like trub or fruit sediment...Was that perhaps one of the last bottles you filled and you got lots of sediment in there?

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Could be sediment or trub thats just sticking to the side of the bottles. I just don't remember if those 4 were the last ones.

Thanks to all for all of the replies. When I open one next weekend I will post results.

Ok so I opened up the bottle that I posted pics of tonight. Its been 12 days since bottling.

Apparently this was just an accumulation of trub. I initially thought it was just on the sides of the bottle but apparently it was caked on the bottom as well. I just couldn't see through the bottle bottom.

I got about 3/4 of a glass out of it.

In any even the beer came out really good and highly drinkable but its still young. I'm going to give the rest of the batch 6 weeks in the bottle before drinking.

I had that with the first Pumpkin beer I tried no secondary on....did'nt work out. That's why fruit beers are one of the things that I use a secondary, if not a tertiary on.

I let the Rye P.A. age about 2 months before bottling, amazing beer!

Yeah let's not get crazy with jumping to the mold and infection. No need to go crazy. It's only been bottled 12 days you say? Sometimes things take a bit to settle out.

However, looks like you could have pitched that bottle into a new batch and had a proper cell count