Is this my first infection?

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Pelican521

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The more you open it up and mess with it the greater the chances of getting an infection
 
Yes, I try not to open it unless needed. This was the first time checking on it, was planning on dryhopping until I saw what it looked like...

I'll wait a bit to see how it looks and report then.

Thanks!
 
Ok, now the real question... Should I go ahead and dry hop it with the 3 oz of hops I was planning on today?

Not sure if it's still drinkable if it's infected or if I'll have to dump. Would hate to waste the hops too if I have to dump...

Then again, if I wait a week, that's another week added I won't be able to drink it...

decisions, decisions.
 
Wait a week, taste if all good then dry hop, go buy some craft beer in the meantime don't rush your homebrew it will reward your patience!!
 
That doesn't necessarily look infected to me. I've had a sort of film appear on various brews before and they were not infected. They don't look all that different from what you have.

If it grows and gets gross, then yeah its infected.
 
It's hard to say from the pics. That could be a very early pellicle, but it may be nothing to worry about (nothing to worry about being likely). I'd give it another week, see where the gravity is, see if the pellicle has grown (because you opened it and allowed in extra oxygen, that will help any pellicle form if there IS an infection- pellicles are a reaction to oxygen). If you don't taste any sourness or off-flavors (DMS, diacetyl, phenols, etc that weren't there before), there film-looking stuff hasn't gotten worse, and no change in gravity, you're probably ok.
 
Give it another few days. That looks like krausen falling and nothing more. Does it taste or smell off aside from normal "green beer" flavors?
 
Hmmm, doubt its krausen because it was a lot clearer a week ago. Check out my first pic, that was after 10 days and hitting its FG. Now it's just shy of 3 weeks, definitely something funky going on... No?
 
Hmmm, doubt its krausen because it was a lot clearer a week ago. Check out my first pic, that was after 10 days and hitting its FG. Now it's just shy of 3 weeks, definitely something funky going on... No?

My first ever all grain batch kind of looked like that. I think I was using wyeast British ale yeast. At week 3 it looked disgusting and I wanted to dump but i waited another week and at week 4 it was all gone. Give it some time, it looks normal. Best stout I ever made and I doubt I will be able to repeat it.
 
I've had yeast do that. It looks like stubborn yeast that won't drop out. Maybe it's flocculated over the last week and they're just hanging on the top. It looks different than pellicle that I'm familiar with. If it tastes fine bottle it. It's been longer now, so if off flavors haven't developed its probably fine.
 
Ok, thanks guys. After work I'm going to taste a sample of it and then decide to keep and dryhop it or dump it. When I checked it out yesterday I thought it was a shame it went bad because it smelled pretty good :/

We'll see what happens when I taste it...
 
Tasted like a hot cidery mess. I was hoping it was ok but it was pretty foul :(

Now time to plan my next brew...
 
Oops, too late responding.

It doesn't look infected. And "hot cidery mess" speaks to flawed fermentation (too hot, underpitched, under aerated, or any combination of the three), and not necessarily infection. Of course, infection could also cause those things. But that alone wouldn't be enough for me to say infection.

If you get SOURNESS (and not just the green apple tart acetaldehyde, we're talking lactic acid or acetic acid), or if the gravity has continued to drop further than it should, or if you're getting odd phenols with a non-phenolic yeast that weren't already there (say, if you'd used chlorinated water, you'd have noticed phenols already).

End result is the same, if you don't want to try to age it out, infected or not go ahead and dump it and move on to your next batch.
 
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