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ritojr said:
Not sure what you can tell, sorry for crappy pics. Is this the beginning of an infection? 6 days in secondary on cocoa nibs. Starting to see some bubbling around the nibs and suddenly I have activity in the airlock once a minute or so when I had nothing past few days. Infection or just oils and whatnot from the nibs?
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Sorry man, can't really tell. It could just be off-gassing. Maybe the temperature changed in the room it's in, or maybe the air pressure changed. Many reasons bubbling would start up a few days after having put the nibs in. Could have just taken a while to build up the pressure again.

Try your best to get a better photo. The first one I can see the white foam, but can't really tell if it's foam, or if it's a pellicle. It's just not clear enough. The second one I see even less foam, but it looks more like foam and not a pellicle. It seems like simply just off-gassing as of right now. Only time will tell.

Did you soak the nibs in vodka or something first? Or roast them or something?

There seems to be no krausen ring, so I'm going to assume that's a secondary vessel. If you do end up with an infection, you'll be wise in the future to make sure that you can fill it all the way up to the next in a secondary. Or at least add some more fermentables in. Otherwise you're pretty much just asking for an infection.
 
joshesmusica said:
Sorry man, can't really tell. It could just be off-gassing. Maybe the temperature changed in the room it's in, or maybe the air pressure changed. Many reasons bubbling would start up a few days after having put the nibs in. Could have just taken a while to build up the pressure again.

Try your best to get a better photo. The first one I can see the white foam, but can't really tell if it's foam, or if it's a pellicle. It's just not clear enough. The second one I see even less foam, but it looks more like foam and not a pellicle. It seems like simply just off-gassing as of right now. Only time will tell.

Did you soak the nibs in vodka or something first? Or roast them or something?

There seems to be no krausen ring, so I'm going to assume that's a secondary vessel. If you do end up with an infection, you'll be wise in the future to make sure that you can fill it all the way up to the next in a secondary. Or at least add some more fermentables in. Otherwise you're pretty much just asking for an infection.
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Sorry my daughter was going to bed and I snapped them quick. They do look more like little bubbles and they are located around the nibs in general. No I should have paid more attention I did not soak them.

It was a bit warmer here today so this has been sitting around 63-64 and it got up to almost 70 in that room today.

Lastly first time in a secondary. This was all that came out of my primary, how do I ensure its filled? Was a 5 gallon brew and this is a gal carboy but seemed to have lost a lot of liquid. Should I have brewed more than 5 gallons?

I'll prob send this off to a keg tomorrow and get it out of the secondary
 
ritojr said:
Sorry my daughter was going to bed and I snapped them quick. They do look more like little bubbles and they are located around the nibs in general. No I should have paid more attention I did not soak them.

It was a bit warmer here today so this has been sitting around 63-64 and it got up to almost 70 in that room today.

Lastly first time in a secondary. This was all that came out of my primary, how do I ensure its filled? Was a 5 gallon brew and this is a gal carboy but seemed to have lost a lot of liquid. Should I have brewed more than 5 gallons?

I'll prob send this off to a keg tomorrow and get it out of the secondary
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What size is the carboy, it seems you may have missed a key?

If it's a 5-gallon, then you really probably want to brew 5.5 gallons if you're planning on racking to secondary. I can easily lose a .5 gallon to trub and yeast, and not wanting to rack all the way down to the yeast. It seems about how much you're missing.

Or like I said, add some kind of fermentable, even just some table sugar. I don't really have carboys, so when I rack to a secondary bucket, a big No-No around these parts, then I just add 100-150 grams of sugar. This should help get the oxygen to negligible levels. Then if you're super sanitary, that should take care of not getting any bacteria in there in the first place. Next time do something with those nibs though. Soaking them in vodka will not only help sanitize them, it should also help extract some more flavor before you're even tossing them in.
 
Yup missed a key. It is a 5 gallon carboy. I dont plan on going to the secondary often unless its a stout like this. I'll be sure to brew more next time.

I'll take a look at this in the morning in better light and see what it looks like and what I can capture. For a few days now it did have an oily type look where these bubbles now are. Maybe ill try the sugar method as well.

Appreciate the help
 
Jwin said:
Moved to the edge as I racked it.
They are tough. ..
Guessing hops or grain bits.

Edit- final theory, but of the dried krausen ring that came off when I more the speidel to cold crash
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If you used whole cone hops then I would bet that they are seeds.
 
RockJeep said:
Anybody got some recipes for a beer with a slightly sweet taste like pineapple?
thanks,
Bobby Cox
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Ah ha. I did, and many landed in the fermentor as my dip tube clogged in transfer. Lesson learned. Used a diy hop blocker yesterday, so no more.
I pitched a RIS on the cake last night, hoping those old hops don't mess with the flavor to much.
 
mrgrimm101 said:
An oatmeal stout I was going to bottle today. 3 weeks in primary. It's a little tough to tell from my phone's flash, but the surface has a sort of whiteish film on part of it. It looks like it kind of strings across the surface. I haven't tasted it yet. I was hoping it's just something sort of common when brewing with oats..it was my first oatmeal stout.
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How did you beer turn out, Mr Grimm?

You were worried about that oil slick. I brewed the same recipe and had the same on the surface of my primary. It's been bottled for 2 months now and it's perfectly fine. I suppose it must have been the oats that caused it.
 
So I'm reasonably new to homebrewing and opened up my pale ale after dry hopping to discover this sight. I know it's early stages but could anybody hazard a guess as to what's gotten in there?

IMGP3077.jpg
 
That's the hops out today, I'll bottle it up tomorrow and get to drinking as soon as possible. Thank you for the guidance.
 
Did you use a hop bag? That could possibly be where it came from. Next time I suggest just throwing the hops directly in.

And if you're going to bottle it, I'd go a little less on the priming sugar. If you world normally aim for 2.4 volumes of co2, I would aim for 2 or so now. The infection will continue to work in the bottle.
 
kombat said:
That could potentially lead to bottle bombs. He'd be better served to let it finish out, then bottle it. An infection doesn't stop working just because you've bottled it.
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I had an IPA get infected once from a muslin fry hop bag once. The beer was at FG by then. Once bottled, where no oxygen could get in that nasties need to propagate, it wasn't a problem.
 
joshesmusica said:
Did you use a hop bag? That could possibly be where it came from. Next time I suggest just throwing the hops directly in.

And if you're going to bottle it, I'd go a little less on the priming sugar. If you world normally aim for 2.4 volumes of co2, I would aim for 2 or so now. The infection will continue to work in the bottle.
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I did, was reasonably sure I'd done as much as was humanly possible to sanitise it but I guess it's another avenue something could have gotten in from.

The differences of opinion here are pretty much the same thought process I'd been going through in my own mind. The beer is finished and tasting delicious, I just needed more experienced heads to tell me if I was going to have to bid a sad farewell and send it down the drain or if I had a reasonable chance of getting it safely into bottle.
 
Guys, I think its infected. Left it in the back of my laundry room for 2 years and forgot about it. LOL. Smells like an apple orchard and tastes like a sock.IMG_20150826_210339.jpg
 
Bottle and fridge them all once carbed, if able. That *could* slow further fermentation
 
unionrdr said:
When you're done dry hopping it, bottle it up before it gets any worse.
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I agree with Kombat on this one. Just because you bottled it, it will not stop the infection. So saying to bottle it is bad advice. Just because it is sealed up with no oxygen does not stop the infection. It can continue without oxygen. If it ticks off a few more points then bottle bombs can happen.
 
This is true, but chilling once carbed may buy some time.
The only other option is dump it, or find a keg
 
unionrdr said:
I had an IPA get infected once from a muslin fry hop bag once. The beer was at FG by then. Once bottled, where no oxygen could get in that nasties need to propagate, it wasn't a problem.
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More bad advice. Lactic Acid Bacteria are anaerobic, so bottling will do nothing to stop their growth.
 
Jwin said:
This is true, but chilling once carbed may buy some time.
The only other option is dump it, or find a keg
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Or let it reach a stable FG in the fermenter, then bottle. If it tastes bad, sure dump it, but I'd rather dump a batch than risk 2 cases of bottle bombs
 
I have these 2 beers that are both in secondary and both look to be having an issue. Can someone confirm?
The first one was a pale ale dry hopped with fresh hops
The second was an iipa that was hopped in the kettle with fresh hops

I'm sad cos this may mean only one of my 3 fresh hop brews this year survive. (I've done almost 70 brews but this might be my first infection)

View attachment 1458333594692.jpg

View attachment 1458333603132.jpg
 
unionrdr said:
Looks like bad brains! Seriously though, it's likely proteins yeast clumped up from a fining agent.
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I used 1 tab of whirlfloc for a 1 gallon batch.
Most likely too much.
I will cut in half for my next small batch
 
Pyg said:
Pretty sure this is not an infection, but does not seem right.
One gallon blonde ale, cold crashed for a few days and all the hops and junk did not settle
View attachment 345501View attachment 345502
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Ugh, looks like someone took a hellacious dump in there. Sorry, that was my first thought, lol. If it tastes good drink it!:rockin:
 

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