Infection from dry-hopping?

So I think I may have an infected pale. I used a ton of cascades, including an oz. dry-hopped. At bottling it tasted bitter as it should -but finished clean. Now about 4 weeks after bottling-it smells funky, is overly carbonated, and is very very bitter (not pleasant).

On a previous IPA I ended up with the same results. I figured at that time that it was a problem in bottling procedure, so I altered that and have had good batches with my new bottling method. The one thing that both batches had in common was that I used a secondary and I dry-hopped casacdes. On a 3rd IPA-I didn't do a secondary, dry-hopped Simcoes, and it ended up fine.

This just seems weird, and it makes me wonder if it could be something from the hops. I microwaved them for about 30 seconds and thought that would kill any nasties. Any ideas about this? Needless to say, I may just commit my small carboy to Apfelwein from now on...not to mention staying away from cascades.

The only time I had an infection from a dry-hopped beer, it was when I used crystal pellets. I dry hop all the time and usually it's fine. I think you may have picked it up from something else...hops don't usually carry bacteria/yeast that will harm the beer.

But yeah, if it's gushy, funky-sour and bitter, then it's probably in infection. Sorry dude...

Wow, you should never microwave hops. It's very hard to get an infected beer from dry hopping, unless your hops are dirty or if they sat on the counter for days. I have dry hopped numerous times and never had infections, however I have not used cascade for dry hopping. How were the hops stored and where did you get them from?

Were the hops in a grain bag?

Hops are natural preservatives (that's why they use them ), so I'd be surprised if they actually were the reason for the infection. It's entireley possible whatever critter caused the infection was already there when you dryhopped; infections can take a while to show themselves.

It was likely another process, not the hops themselves-as mentioned, I've dry-hopped before with no problem. It just seemed an odd coincidence.

Bottles or tubing might have caused the infection I bet.

You know...that tubing freaks me out. I clean it immediately and then sanitize it and then let it dry but it always seems spotty and has a residue feel to it.
I get so anal I want to purchase new tubing everytime I brew. (actually I did on my last two )

an infection will get worse with time and usually will cause a colour change like milky etc I'd wait and taste in another week, then another. Don't be too quick to jump on the infection band wagon. Did you possibly add the dry hops prior to the endof fermentation? I aded hops to the primary once and it made a very funky brew that ended up very good...just needed time

+1 on the safety of dry hopping. however, in your OP you mentioned that both times you used cascades it got "infected", but the simcoes didn't. same batch of cascades? if, on the off chance it is the hops then you might want to throw out those cascades. but, it's still VERY VERY unlikely that your hops are bad. i don't know from experience but i'd have to guess that anything that could stay alive on hops long enough to sour your beer would be very obvious when you looked at the hops. throw out all your plastic tube, boil everything that you can boil, and bleach all your glass over night. another great way to sanitize your glass carboys is to put one oven rack on the lowest rung and put a DRY carboy or two (depending on how big your oven is) in there at 350F for an hour or so. put them in and then turn the oven on so you don't risk heat shocking the glass and cracking it. then of course leave it in there for another hour or so after turning off the oven until it's cool, and then cap it as you take it out with a sanitized cap/stopper. nothing will survive that.

good luck.

Thanks for the tips. No-it wasn't the same batch of Cascades...Now that I think about it, it was likely the hop bag that I used for dry-hopping. I didn't sanitize it, and I had to try really hard to mash the full hop bag down into the neck of the carboy. That was not the most sanitary sequence of events. Could be the tubing too-but I bottled another batch in the meantime with the same tubing and no ill effects (so far).

Wouldn't keeping them in the freezer kill stuff on 'em afer some time?

I once lived with a health-nut girlfriend (massage therapist) that swore to freezing a lot of our food before eating to kill certain beasties and microscopic worms and such. I do know that if (here in Florida anyway) I keep certain grains like barley or flour around for too long, they end up with bugs in em, so I either refridgerate that stuff or freeze it for a month - to kill the eggs that the FDA says are OK, like long-term storage of beer grains or hops - in the freezer of my beer fridge if there's room.

I wouldn't trust the freezer to kill anything. Yes it will kill fly larve, rodents, worms, but those are the big things. It's the stuff that you can't see that will ruin a brew. Bacteria, mold, wild yeast... just because it was frozen, doesn't mean it's dead.

A lot of stuff can survive freezing. It may not grow in the freezer, but it will survive freezing.

If you really want to make sure those weevil eggs don't hatch in your grain, store it in a corny keg, purged with CO2.


TL

On my last IPA, I dry hopped the secondary with leaf hops.
After a week, the yeast appeared to "wake up" and I started getting airlock activity.
I was very surprised, it has been 3 weeks since I have seen a bubble and there hasn't been any temperature changes. FG also looked right. I bottled anyway as scheduled, needless to say it finished over carbonated with one bottle bomb.

I am new at the forums and I just ran across this old thread. I wondered if I could have picked up some wild yeast from the hops as the OP picked up an infection? How should dry hops be handled to avoid this in the future?