I broke my barleywine. :( Wondering what this is?

[StittsvilleJames]

Any idea what my barleywine caught? I'm not happy with myself and my process / equipment considering I invested so much time and energy into this stupid thing.

It was in secondary on oak cubes and vanilla for about 3 months, and I noticed it had a very thin white film on about 1/4 of it. It seemed to appear shortly after a gravity reading (using a turkey baster that was soaked in star-san inside and out) So I decided to rack from underneath into another carboy, to see if I could avoid any major infections, as figured I had caught it pretty early. I didn't want to bottle it yet though, in case of bottle bombs.

I went down today after another couple weeks in the tertiary and found this white stuff with spidery veins in it.

Any idea what this beast may be? I plan on soaking all my plastic in a strong bleach solution, but want to know if I should bother to dump this thing, or bottle it. I had planned on letting it bottle-age until Christmas 2014 before opening, but don't want to waste the bottles if there's no hope for it.

 

[Quaker]

Definitely an infection of some sort. Looks lacto-ish to me.

Had you soaked the vanilla and oak in some spirit or sanitized in boiling water a bit before adding? If not, that could be a source for it.

Taste it, but I'm guessing you may be dumping it.

 

[StittsvilleJames]

I actually boiled the oak cubes for 10 minutes, and I soaked the vanilla bean in vodka for 2 days. There was no trace of anything off for the first 3 months, until I had to take a gravity reading (OK, I'll be honest, I just wanted a taste, it had reached FG a long time before...part of the reason I'm mad at myself, couldn't leave well enough alone. )

If it's a laco-type infection, is it a dumper, or might it just add another dimension to the flavour maybe? Hopefully? Please????

 

[eastoak]

I actually boiled the oak cubes for 10 minutes, and I soaked the vanilla bean in vodka for 2 days. There was no trace of anything off for the first 3 months, until I had to take a gravity reading (OK, I'll be honest, I just wanted a taste, it had reached FG a long time before...part of the reason I'm mad at myself, couldn't leave well enough alone. )

If it's a laco-type infection, is it a dumper, or might it just add another dimension to the flavour maybe? Hopefully? Please????

a lacto infection will add another dimension of flavor but it's up to you to decide if you like it or not, it's not a given that it will be good or bad. if you moved this beer from fermentor to fermentor 3 times those were also very good opportunities for some wild bug/s to jump on in to the fermentor along with the beer.

 

[Calder]

Just monitor the gravity and taste the sample from time to time. You can then tell what it is doing. Might find it to be a decent beer.

You only need a mild bleach solution. A couple of ounces per gallon. Let it soak for a while. You can leave it there until you next need it. Rinse thoroughly with hot tap water (bleach causes a film, and is not completely removed with cold water).