My beer is clearly infected... but smells delicious

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CarnellSitka

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So my standard ale kit beer is clearly infected. It smells sour and has grown a film on the surface. However i find the smell delicious! To me it smells like a lambic. Is there any harm in bottling and trying to drink it?
 
Nope, seems like the best option. Be careful of bottle bombs depending on where your finished og is and length in the bottles may be.

seconded; check your gravity, wait a week, check it again; if they are the same, prime and bottle as usual (assuming you've already let it ferment down to or lower than your estimated fg). Two weeks after that, let us know how it tastes, also if it's carbed up enough, put it somewhere cool just to be on the safe side (garage maybe).
 
seconded; check your gravity, wait a week, check it again; if they are the same, prime and bottle as usual (assuming you've already let it ferment down to or lower than your estimated fg). Two weeks after that, let us know how it tastes, also if it's carbed up enough, put it somewhere cool just to be on the safe side (garage maybe).

so in other words i can bottle this and give it a shot.
 
I just opened a bottle of a raisin porter from a batch that got massively infected during secondary back in November of 2011. I just let it sit for a year and bottled about 1/4 of it last November (2012) and it tastes spectacular.
 
looks like everyone is waaay more cautious than I am :) also, try it before you carb, I do it all the time.
 
Alright so its been about five months, there is a think film on the beer and the strong sourness has subsided to the point where it tastes like a boring pale with a rhubarb after taste.

So i decided to throw half a sachet of yeast in, any idea what this will do?
 
So i decided to throw half a sachet of yeast in, any idea what this will do?

the yeast will do very little. after this long there won't be any sugars left for the new yeast to eat. the yeast will go dormant and fall to the bottom.

on the plus side you've insured that your bottles will carbonate. i would prime on the low side, say 2.0 volumes, unless you have thick glass bottles.
 
So, not sure if anyone cares but after approx 8 months i took the middle 2-3g and carbed them in a keg. Result a sour pale ale that's clear as day. Not amazing not disgusting and totally different.
 
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