First infection?

Well I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later after 6 years and numerous batches I have my first infection. Now to figure out what to do with the brew.

Lactobacillus?

What kind of beer is that? It does look like the start of a lacto infection, but I've also seen uninfected beer look like that when it was brewed with something fatty, like chocolate or nuts.

Either way, not all hope is lost. Do you keg or bottle? You can rack underneath the infection, bottle/keg as quickly as possible, and get this guy to fridge temps. The infection will go dormant at fridge temps, just like yeast, and it's not hazardous to human health, so as long as it tastes OK, you should rush this through and get it cooled down, and you may be just fine!

It is a chocolate and vanilla porter. I keg and bottle. I planned on bottling this but think I'm gonna keg it now. Is this fermenting bucket now shot?

Did you use real chocolate or nibs? The lipids from chocolate look just like your picture above if you don't roast it all out. If you just added raw chocolate or raw nibs, you might not actually have an infection at all, just an oil slick of fats from the chocolate floating on your wort.

Either way, to be safe make sure you soak that bucket in bleach for a few days, then clean and sanatize before using it again. A good bleach soak will kill even a bad infection.

How does it taste?

TopherM said:

Did you use real chocolate or nibs? The lipids from chocolate look just like your picture above if you don't roast it all out. If you just added raw chocolate or raw nibs, you might not actually have an infection at all, just an oil slick of fats from the chocolate floating on your wort.

Click to expand...

I tend to agree with this, because I don't see any of the patterns you see in many pellicles, nor the bubbles you see in others.

I'd say remain calm and carry on - for now...

Cheers!

My chocolate imperial stout did the same thing. Tastes fine. It had 1 lb of bakers chocolate In it. You're probably fine.

Thanks I tasted it and it was fine guess ill keg it and see how it goes.

Racked it to keg after work today and most of it was gone there were few spots that looked like oil film here and there but rest was gone tasted it and tasted fantastic still gonna give a good bleach soak to hose and bucket let you know in a few weeks how it taste carbed

That is definitely infected, probably with lacto.

Good news is that it probably won't affect the flavor of the beer much.