Help: Slimy beer

[Pharkan1]

Hey

I have brewed about 60 batches with mostly good or very good results.
My last batch though, a red ale with a medium body fermented with wlp004 (irish Ale yeast, which I have used several times before) turned out to be very strange.

Upon bottling, the beer was extremely slimy. It poured like thin honey. The taste was ok, but a bit sour.

The fermentation had been regular (with a lot of activity about 12 hours subsequent to pitching.

Have any of you experienced anything like it? I s it a known bug? What is up?

Any suggestions?

Cheers, Klaus

 

[mabrungard]

Pediococcus infection

 

[Pharkan1]

Thanx, I put it on a 2. ferment instead of bottleing.

Will I be alright?

 

[kapbrew13]

Is it slimy or slick? What were your ingredients?

 

[Yooper]

In addition to pedio infection, I've seen a "ropy" or rope infection. It's a thick slimy infection, from lactobacillus.

 

[Pharkan1]

Reinheitsgebot - malt (pale ale, cara and a bit black patent). Very little hops: 15 IBU. Long boil.

It is slimy like honey or a very thick wort. It is not nasty and it does not have 'strings' in it.

 

[passedpawn]

I'd dump. A sour beer is great. A beer full of snot isn't.

 

[weremichael]

Does it have a diacetyl taste/smell? If so, it is definitely pedio. If it's pedio, I'd add brett. and let it sit for eight months and see how sour it has gotten.

 

[adc123]

ropiness, if due to an infection, will go away with time. Its just "sick."

http://beerbybart.com/2011/04/03/true-lambic-jean-van-roy-cantillon-sick-beer/

While aging, the mixed organisms form a strange-looking protective film over the surface of the beer, and then go though two summers of warmer temperatures where they become extremely weird, ropey and viscous throughout the entire barrel. This harmless but off-putting polysaccharide slime can pour with the consistency of oil or perhaps thin snot, so it is no surprise that this condition has come to be known as “sick” beer, or more specifically as the fat sickness, “la maladie de la graisse” in French. For contemporary brewers who are embarking on a journey to make a beer inspired by the Lambic method, it’s comforting to know what strange things may happen along the way.

 

[weremichael]

It needs the brett to get "well."

 

[mabrungard]

Do not throw the beer out. Pedio will drop out with time and the sliminess will go away. You may be left with a significant sourness though. If you keg and can afford the keg space, let it go for a few months and you will witness the change with time.