Possible infection?

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XtremeBrew

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So, I brewed up a Chocolate Stout last Monday and it started off great, but for the last few days since the krausen disappeared, there is a milky sheen with bubbles both large and small all over it. I've tasted it and it tastes fine, almost like Young's actually. There aren't any off flavors or smells. I was curious if it could be from the lactose I used. I've never used lactose before so I'm not sure if its a common occurence with milk stouts or not. I'm a freak about sanitization, so it really bothers me that this could be an infection. Any help would be appreciated.
 
So, I brewed up a Chocolate Stout last Monday and it started off great, but for the last few days since the krausen disappeared, there is a milky sheen with bubbles both large and small all over it. I've tasted it and it tastes fine, almost like Young's actually. There aren't any off flavors or smells. I was curious if it could be from the lactose I used. I've never used lactose before so I'm not sure if its a common occurence with milk stouts or not. I'm a freak about sanitization, so it really bothers me that this could be an infection. Any help would be appreciated.

Post pics.
 
Sounds like it's just the remnents of the krausen, and maybe oils from whatever chocolate form you used. Lactose won't "do" anything to the surfact of your beer, or anything. It just dissolves in the boil.

We really need to see pictures, but since 99.5% of these threads turn out NOT to be infections, I'm betting the same will go with you. Fermentation is often ugly, and smelly, and that's when it is perfectly normal. ;)
 
Yeah, I'm working at the moment or I would've posted pics. When I get home I'll post pics. It just bothers me because in all of the batches I've made, I've never had this happen. I'm sure its nothing, but I still had to seek some advice. Thanks Revvy!
 
I don't know, large and small white bubbles sound like an infection to me...

Does it look like this:
P1000139a.jpg


or this:
IMG_2378.JPG

or this:
photo-41.jpg


However I agree it is hard to say without pics...even if it is infected it can still be safely consumed...you just might have to step up your time table a little bit!
 
I'm not an English teacher but wouldn't the correct term be contamination. Not infection.
 
Yeah, it looks like the last pic, just not as white. What is it?

Dude those pics are f'ing nasty. If those aren't colonies of bacteria I don't know what is. Rule of thumb - if your beer looks like the rind on some brie cheese, your **** is contaminated.
 
While I agree that its nasty, that doesn't really help me much. Is it worth saving it or should I toss it?
 
how long has it been fermenting?

A few words of advice:

post some pics
take gravity readings.
quit staring at your fermentor.
do not toss unless your beer tastes like the wrong end of a dead buffalo
 
While I agree that its nasty, that doesn't really help me much. Is it worth saving it or should I toss it?

That depends on how it taste and how thirsty you are.

I would probably dump it and replace the bucket it is fermenting in.
 
You might try racking the beer out from under the infection. Might work, might not. Can you post a pic of what yours looks like?
 
Haha! Oh I won't dump it until I'm 200% sure its beyond salvation. I will rack it to secondary out from under the funk tonight. I will definately post pics and gravity readings before that though. I still remember reading your "Never toss your beer!" thread Revvy. :)

Thanks for all the input guys
 
Like I said earlier, it tastes great! Nice chocolate tone and coffee flavors with a hint if sweetness at the finish. To me, it tastes very close to Young's Chocolate Stout, so even if it does have some form of infection, it has yet to affect the taste
 
I'm not an English teacher but wouldn't the correct term be contamination. Not infection.

No, it wouldn't. The correct term is infection. If a fly landed in your wort, and drowned, it would be contaminated by the fly and fly debris. Bacteria is a living thing that lives and thrives off the resources of a host (in this case wort). I am not saying that the OP has either at this point.
 
While I agree that its nasty, that doesn't really help me much. Is it worth saving it or should I toss it?

Well this happened to me 3 batches ago (looked like 1st) and when I went to the homebrew store they gave me some pretty good advice if you keg (and are lucky enough to have a good FG reading. The trick is you rack your beer carefully into your brew kettle. Don't splash it if you can help it. Then gently raise the temps til you reach 150 F. Then hold that temp for 30 mins. Afterwords I put my kettle into my ice bath to cool it quickly.

As for cleaning my bucket, I soaked it in Oxyclean for 30 mins in very hot water then used Clorox clean up, washed the heck out of that. Then starsans that beast and reracked the beer back into the 100% clean bucket. Make sure you don't smell ANY bleach if you use it.

But don't expect ANY yeast activity. They are dead too.
 
My beer almost always has bubbles - large and small - on the surface from escaping CO2. They look somewhat similar to the posted pictures of infected beer, but the beer is not infected.

Unless the bubbles look all crusty, it probably isn't an infection.
 
Looks okay to me.


Really? I hope so. Like I said, I've never had anything like that on one of my brews before so it was kinda freaking me out. I tasted it again last night when I took gravity readings and it still tastes great so I'm gonna secondary it and go from there I guess. Thanks
 
It does resemble a yeast starter I had once that had huge, suspicous bubbles. That turned out to be fine but I am not experienced enough to judge yours!
 
If it tastes and smells good you should be fine. I brew a chocolate stout w/ cocoa nibs and get the almost the same bubbles. I get a similar taste to young's as well, although the nibs have more of a bitter, dark chocolate taste. It is probably from your source of chocolate or the lactose. I've never added lactose, so I am guessing on that point.
 
Hard to tell from the photo but if it is infected its probably just pedio.

I get pedio in my brew from time to time. It doesn't do much to it. Pedio is an aerobic bacteria. Therefore it will not grow in your beer per se, just form on top where it meets the air. This means no nasty chunks, lambic-like sourness or bottle bombs, only an unsightly film in the neck of your bottle. This is similar to the film you are seeing in the bucket just on a smaller scale in your bottle.

Bottom line is that even racking underneath will never get rid of it. Some will always transfer to the secondary or bottle. However it will taste fine if it is pedio in my experience. I had two batches a couple of months apart of the same brew, one without and one with. In a blind taste test neither of my two buddies present (or myself) could tell by taste alone. Drink before you toss... If it tastes good then keep it is the moral of the story. I've drank literally gallons of the stuff with pedio in it. It sucks, but it is not the end of the world.

I can't seem to isolate where mine comes from. My LHBS guy said it was of excessive time in the secondary and too much headspace. Well I now only use the secondary when dry hopping and leave only an inch or two of headspace instead of four to five. That helped in my case... for a while. Replace my plastic fermenter and it goes away, only to return. Stop storing and grinding grain near fermenting beer, same deal. Change racking cane and all hoses... well you know what happens. It will return a few batches later. If I ever figure out how to get rid of it permanently I'll be sure to post it here.

I think your brew will still be good. Hopefully Revvy is right and all is good. I just wanted to say even if it is infected, the beer should still taste fine. Good luck and I have my fingers crossed it is just normal fermentation bubbles and not the big filmy pedio ones...
 
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