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I fu** it when try to mixed dryhop with sanitized spoon 6 days ago.
Who knows? Yeast and bacteria float around in the air. Certainly could have been from the hops as well.
Even pro breweries get contaminations; it happens to everyone sooner or later. Hopefully your beer is still good. Don't give up on it yet.
 
Who knows? Yeast and bacteria float around in the air. Certainly could have been from the hops as well.
Even pro breweries get contaminations; it happens to everyone sooner or later. Hopefully your beer is still good. Don't give up on it yet.

Ok, i will.
Previous picture rec yesterday, this one is taken 1 hour ago,today.
 

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Hi, after 4 weeks in conical ferm this is going on...
Can someone predict if its infected? Its been dryhoped 2 weeks ago.. Some funky bubbles and white film on surface..
I'd say it's definitely a pellicle. Don't dump it, don't bottle it. Let that baby sit for a month or so longer, keep checking SG until it doesnt change,. then add another week. Do not bottle condition with sugar, only force carbonate. Might be the best beer youve ever tasted...might be funky as hell
 
Let that baby sit for a month or so longer, keep checking SG until it doesnt change,. then add another week. Do not bottle condition with sugar, only force carbonate.
Making sure FG is stable for a few weeks is a good idea.

Bottled priming is perfectly fine. The pitched yeast should still have a MUCH higher cell count and dominate conditioning. No worries there.
 
Ok, yesterday still have hope, but today its seen from pict its spoiled. From now on, im thinking 25 l will go in fermentor for couple of weeks, maybe month...rest of 120 l will go downhill. Gonna bottle it, prime sugar, rest of let the nature take it on
 
It's a Chapman Steel Tank. I guess after almost ten years, it was bound to happen eventually. Thanks for the confirmation!
 
Making sure FG is stable for a few weeks is a good idea.

Bottled priming is perfectly fine. The pitched yeast should still have a MUCH higher cell count and dominate conditioning. No worries there.


I vehemently disagree. I bottled a pecan pie stout that had pellicle, SG was completely stable for 2.5 weeks, bottle conditioned and though I didn’t make bottle bombs per se, that drastically over carbonated and made the beer undrinkable
 
I vehemently disagree. I bottled a pecan pie stout that had pellicle, SG was completely stable for 2.5 weeks, bottle conditioned and though I didn’t make bottle bombs per se, that drastically over carbonated and made the beer undrinkable
Fair point.
Anywhere you draw the line is arbitrary. 3 weeks, 3 months, 3 years... It may still attenuate lower depending on the conditions. The longer you wait the safer it is, but even beer that's been aging for years isn't guaranteed to be at FG. That's why traditional sours are frequently corked and caged or pasteurized/filtered.

It's smart to keep an eye on the bottles so they don't over-carb. If they do, you can simply put them in the fridge to stop or drastically slow additional fermentation.
If you'd monitored yours then perhaps you would have been able to save them.
For a contaminated beer, it's arguably better to bottle, carbonate, chill, and drink faster so that there's less chance for the contaminants to contribute flavor.
Plus, by the time you finish 2-3 months of additional aging you could have already finished drinking all the beer. If you want to age longer than that, maybe it'd be better to brew a batch that's not contaminated. ;)

Waiting a reasonable amount of time (a few weeks at stable FG), good hydrometer reading skills (correcting for temperature, ideally using a higher resolution FG hydrometer), and most importantly, paying attention to carbonation level after bottling means you'll be totally safe.
:mug:
 
Fair point.
Anywhere you draw the line is arbitrary. 3 weeks, 3 months, 3 years... It may still attenuate lower depending on the conditions. The longer you wait the safer it is, but even beer that's been aging for years isn't guaranteed to be at FG. That's why traditional sours are frequently corked and caged or pasteurized/filtered.

It's smart to keep an eye on the bottles so they don't over-carb. If they do, you can simply put them in the fridge to stop or drastically slow additional fermentation.
If you'd monitored yours then perhaps you would have been able to save them.
For a contaminated beer, it's arguably better to bottle, carbonate, chill, and drink faster so that there's less chance for the contaminants to contribute flavor.
Plus, by the time you finish 2-3 months of additional aging you could have already finished drinking all the beer. If you want to age longer than that, maybe it'd be better to brew a batch that's not contaminated. ;)

Waiting a reasonable amount of time (a few weeks at stable FG), good hydrometer reading skills (correcting for temperature, ideally using a higher resolution FG hydrometer), and most importantly, paying attention to carbonation level after bottling means you'll be totally safe.
:mug:


Don’t want to argue, but here’s the deal, you are assuming things. My system is full turn-key from water addition to bottling. My gravity readings don’t use a hydrometer, they use a density meter and spectrometer with a resolution of 0.0001 g/cm^3

As far as keeping an eye on bottles goes, well with heatshrink black labels over my bottles, up to the rim, the only way to “monitor” is to open.

But yeah, you make good points, you just also make undue assumptions
 
Yup, I did assume a homebrewer can open his bottles.
Didn't mean to offend!

Or patronize for that matter?

Brew a small batch and by the time you open a bottle to test every 3 days...you have no product...especially when your small batches sell for 12-18 dollars a bottle locally. It’s just a risk you don’t take when your specialty small batches only put out a case tops.

There’s a lot more at play and my situation was a rare one that came with good advice for others that you undermined with undue criticism and assumptions.

-out
 
:drunk:
Who sells obviously contaminated beer?

Dude, where do I sign up? I would be happy to legally sell beer for stupidly high prices where I just turn a key on a system and don't need to worry about any kind of quality assurance.
 
Every single manufacturer of sours sells contaminated beer???

I don’t set the prices, demand does brother, and QA? Why are we still arguing about this
 
Not sure an accidental contamination really compares to a beer intentionally pitched with a mixed house culture of microbes selected to produce good flavor, fermented to a low gravity over a period of around a year, and then usually pasteurized and/or corked & caged in a thick bottle (or kegged).

A legal brewery in a developed country wouldn't sell an unintentionally contaminated beer for the exact reason you experienced that made yours undrinkable -- unpredictable attenuation and potential for gushing or explosion (lack of shelf stability).

Seems obvious to me. Sorry you learned that the hard way!

Cheers
 
You see, you again are making assumptions. My pellicle was self-induced but my I should have force carbonated instead of bottle conditioned.

Did I ever once say it was an accidental infection? I simply said pellicle.

Whatever the case may be, I learned one thing, and 5-6 liters is not learning the hard way, and 6 months later my customers received their pre-ordered product.

Also, you throw around “legal” as if I don’t have a farm brewers license putting out 100-300 bbl annually that I grew from 5 gallon batches in December :) go big or go home?
 
1.107 RIS, brewed last Sunday. I noticed some dark material floating just below the surface, kinda looked like coffee grounds. The next day a little smidge of white stuff. Gave it a gentle rock to observe whether a pellicle is forming, the next day it looked like this. Is it mold or just yeast colonies? No fuzziness observed and the still fresh high-kraeusen ring, as you can see, appears normal. Thoughts?

54f03b17-0ce4-4299-a988-2b006a19cb62.jpg
2018-09-17.jpg
 
Brewed an 11 gallon trappist single on monday, Tilt hydrometer showed no active fermentation 24 hours after pitching a pint of T-58 slurry harvested from a batch of cider. Ordered some T-58 to come overnight via amazon prime and went to pitch two packs... opening up the fermentation chamber I'm greeted by a sour smell and this:
43615009_1993834504007139_6877101557045788672_n.jpg


43681843_1993834530673803_8453167178139566080_n.jpg


Middle looks liek what I would expect a krausen to look like. Stuff on the right looked leathery and powdery. I'm thinking lacto by the smell.

So, what does the hive mind think? Did I pick up a lacto infection during the delay in fermentation? I still pitched the extra two packs of T-58 and plan to let it ride to completion... just wondering what to expect.
 
So, what does the hive mind think? Did I pick up a lacto infection during the delay in fermentation?
There's definitely yeast fermentation, likely the yeast you pitched.

If it smells or tastes weird, certainly could be something wild in there too. It looks like something wild.

There's no way to know what to expect. Maybe it'll be awesome. Good luck!

As always, make sure gravity is stable if you bottle, and clean well.
 
Appreciate the feedback. Odds are that this won't do well as a 26a Trappist Single in next months local competition... o_O
 
Hi All,

Newbie, so apologies if this is a bit naive of me but this is my fourth batch that had just been transferred from the primary to the secondary. I noticed the following day, small white disks floating on the top of the beer, could this be a lacto infection?

I have attached the best image I could take.

If it is what recommendations do you all have for saving the Carboy?

Many thanks !
 

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small white disks floating on the top of the beer, could this be a lacto infection?
Hey Tuck
Welcome to HBT!

I can't tell anything definitive from that photo.

This one's taken through plastic. The white patches are a pellicle being formed by wild microbes. If it looks like this, then yeah there's wild stuff.
20180604_040502.jpg


Can't identify something by the pellicle (except for mold, which looks fuzzy).
 
Hi RPh Guy,

Thanks for coming back to me, attached are some more photos of the batch as the ones I did, I do agree are a bit lame. From what I can tell why are white misty disks.
Beer1.jpg
Beer 2.jpg
Beer 3.jpg
Beer 4.jpg


I am worried from what I read online that I will have to throw my gear out. What the best practice for dis-infecting the
Carboy?
 
Sorry, I still really can't tell.

Floating spots might be:
-Patches of bubbles from the beer off-gassing at particular nucleation points. (Look closely for bubbles)
-Yeast rafts or krausen remnant/ coagulated proteins (hot or cold break)/ hop debris. These are all relatively common, should be recognizable.
-Mold (fuzzy).
-Early pellicle (smooth/powdery).

If you can't tell, I would leave it alone for maybe a week and see what happens.

Glass is not difficult to clean and sanitize; you won't need to discard it. Don't worry.
 
I'm guessing it's not infected and just bits of krausen, but thought I'd check the general opinion...1 week, 3 days in...

This is my 3rd brew, and the first of this size, so I'm still getting used to what "normal" is.
20190119_205823.jpg
 
I'm guessing it's not infected and just bits of krausen, but thought I'd check the general opinion...1 week, 3 days in...

This is my 3rd brew, and the first of this size, so I'm still getting used to what "normal" is.View attachment 608106

Keep the lid on it and trust the yeast to know what they're doing. Opening invites infection and oxidation. I don't open until two days before bottling day to get a gravity sample - then another sample on bottling day to make sure gravity is stable.
 
Looks good to me!

I've got a batch of vienna saaz ale that is one week old today, and though the airlock only bubbles every 3 minutes, the kraeusen hasn't dropped at all. Used 1007 German ale yeast.
 
Don’t want to argue, but here’s the deal, you are assuming things. My system is full turn-key from water addition to bottling. My gravity readings don’t use a hydrometer, they use a density meter and spectrometer with a resolution of 0.0001 g/cm^3

As far as keeping an eye on bottles goes, well with heatshrink black labels over my bottles, up to the rim, the only way to “monitor” is to open.

But yeah, you make good points, you just also make undue assumptions
Pics of this turn key brewery, or it didn't happen. The way you describe it makes it sound 100% automated from sacks of malted grain to full cases on a palette. Sounds more push-button than turn key to me. I call bull $hit. Such a brewery does not exist. Even if it did, it would require little more than a complete moron to push said button. Are you more competent a brewer than that?

Edit: If you sell locally for $18/bottle, then why are you brewing such small batches? Limited audience? Are all your customers relatives? We may have a girl scout cookie situation here. Aw heck, I'll buy a bottle to help you out sport! $18 per bottle, wow! Boy, this is (pflurg) great stuff! ::cough::
 
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1.107 RIS, brewed last Sunday. I noticed some dark material floating just below the surface, kinda looked like coffee grounds. The next day a little smidge of white stuff. Gave it a gentle rock to observe whether a pellicle is forming, the next day it looked like this. Is it mold or just yeast colonies? No fuzziness observed and the still fresh high-kraeusen ring, as you can see, appears normal. Thoughts?

View attachment 588629 View attachment 588630
This RIS btw turned out awesome. Bottled just before christmas, I'm planning to age it several months but it already tastes delicious.
 
Pics of this turn key brewery, or it didn't happen. The way you describe it makes it sound 100% automated from sacks of malted grain to full cases on a palette. Sounds more push-button than turn key to me. I call bull $hit. Such a brewery does not exist. Even if it did, it would require little more than a complete moron to push said button. Are you more competent a brewer than that?

Edit: If you sell locally for $18/bottle, then why are you brewing such small batches? Limited audience? Are all your customers relatives? We may have a girl scout cookie situation here. Aw heck, I'll buy a bottle to help you out sport! $18 per bottle, wow! Boy, this is (pflurg) great stuff! ::cough::

Turn key probably means that he just bought everything as systems and did not DIY anything. For instance the water system would be a filtering or RO, then just plumbed in. The Milling, a pre built system fully integrated. And a brewing rig in the way Spike sells their Buy Once Cry Once systems. Then fermentation systems like fermenters with already installed cooling.

$18 a bottle?? I would not be a customer at much over 1/10th that price.
 
I'll be kegging today. I figured it was done and the gravity is where it should be.
 
It seems like every batch looks different. This is my tamarind ipa I brewed a week ago. I let it go 5 days till bubbling stopped. When I opened to dry hop (Wednesday), there were two big bubbles and some bits of krausen. I tossed in the hop pellets. Today I decided to take a peak and there appears to be more of what I thought was krausen. It's also a different color than the remnants of krausen dried on the side of the fermenter.

So...infected or normal? If it's infected, I'm not particularly concerned. It's going to be tart in any case and was considering doing a tamarind sour intentionally...
 

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