I have an infected beer!

[kaconga]

I made a nice wet hop IPA middle of october, then life got in the way. I opened it up on saturday to find that it was infected, which was sad and cool all at the same time since my BIL was over brewing a batch with me and he had never seen a pellicle. So now I have a pellicle on this beer, but it doesn't smell bad or funky, it smells like overripe fruit or similar. My wife said she smelled mold but I didn't smell any of that. I am going to let it ride and see if it is any good but I don't know when I should bottle this. Should I wait until the pellicle falls or until it has reached a really low gravity (below 1.004) or is there another way? I would greatly appreciate any insights into how I should proceed going forward.

Thanks.

 

[Hello]

I think you ride it out for many months. That's what I am doing. Then I'll bottle in Belgium beer bottles because they're thicker.

I too found the taste to be okay so I decided to let it ride. It's been riding for months.

 

[kaconga]

A pic of the pellicle.

View attachment 1417588552665.jpg

 

[yeahfairly]

Nice Experiment! What yeast did you use on that IPA?

 

[kaconga]

I think you ride it out for many months. That's what I am doing. Then I'll bottle in Belgium beer bottles because they're thicker.

I too found the taste to be okay so I decided to let it ride. It's been riding for months.

Yeah, I don't plan on using this fermenter again for anything but sours/wild ales. So I figure it can sit for as long as it needs.

 

[kaconga]

Nice Experiment! What yeast did you use on that IPA?

US-05. Was planning on it being a fairly straightforward IPA until this happened. Hopefully it tastes as good as it looks and smells, lol.

 

[yeahfairly]

US-05. Was planning on it being a fairly straightforward IPA until this happened. Hopefully it tastes as good as it looks and smells, lol.

Nice..... Let us know how it tastes once you sample. I've been real tempted to start studying up on Sours..... I reckin that will be my next jump!

 

[BGBC]

Before you hold on to it for any period of time, taste it.

 

[kaconga]

Before you hold on to it for any period of time, taste it.

Ok. I pulled a small amount from the spigot at the bottom of the bucket. It tastes really really bitter with some definite funk and is pretty hot alcohol tasting. Other than that it is boring. Having tasted it I am on the fence on whether or not I wish to waste more time on it.

 

[Sleepyemt]

Are the hops still in it?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[kaconga]

Are the hops still in it?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Nope, they were strained out prior to pitching the US-05.

 

[poptarts]

Just dump it

 

[kaconga]

Just dump it

Could you elaborate on they why? I have a few reasons not to dump it:

1. I won't be using that bucket again, so it will just get tossed after I dump it.

2. It is still doing its thing since the pellicle is still there. I could tweak it with some maltodextrin and add some other bacteria to help it out...possibly.

3. It doesn't smell or taste like armpit, perhaps I could blend it with a different beer to mellow or improve the flavor somehow.

The only reason I can think to dump it is to prevent contaminating all my racking and bottling equipment.

 

[BGBC]

I wouldn't blend it with another beer if you don't like the flavors. No reason to throw good after bad. No shame in dumping it.

You don't know what's in there already. If it's a souring bacteria, sour doesn't generally mix will with bitter. You could throw some brett in there to try and give it a chance of turning into something, but who knows if it will.

You're better off designing a new beer to pitch brett.

By the time this one comes around (if it does), it will lose all of the wet hop character you were probably going for anyway.

 

[kaconga]

I wouldn't blend it with another beer if you don't like the flavors. No reason to throw good after bad. No shame in dumping it.

You don't know what's in there already. If it's a souring bacteria, sour doesn't generally mix will with bitter. You could throw some brett in there to try and give it a chance of turning into something, but who knows if it will.

You're better off designing a new beer to pitch brett.

By the time this one comes around (if it does), it will lose all of the wet hop character you were probably going for anyway.

Thanks, it certainly is too bitter to add a souring bacteria and since Brett would be my only real option then I agree that designing a new beer would be better than praying this turns around. Would it be wise to keep the bucket to use for future sour beers or am I just asking for trouble by doing so?

 

[BGBC]

Thanks, it certainly is too bitter to add a souring bacteria and since Brett would be my only real option then I agree that designing a new beer would be better than praying this turns around. Would it be wise to keep the bucket to use for future sour beers or am I just asking for trouble by doing so?

I'd keep it if you're planning future sours.

 

[Sleepyemt]

Keep it, it's still relatively young in sour beer terms... It may not be the ideal wild beer, but your not really losing much

 

[davejanssen]

Long term aging in a bucket may result in too much O2 pickup and some acetic production, so keep that in mind when thinking about how long you want to let this go.

If it is tasting pretty rough at this point i personally wouldn't let it go too much longer (maybe 2-4 weeks max) before tasting and dumping it unless it turns. You're at about 7 or 8 weeks now right? Some wild contamination may be good but there is a lot of gnarly stuff out there that isn't good and even the pros who have built up house microbes they like still end up dumping a good amount of beer.

 

[kaconga]

Long term aging in a bucket may result in too much O2 pickup and some acetic production, so keep that in mind when thinking about how long you want to let this go.

If it is tasting pretty rough at this point i personally wouldn't let it go too much longer (maybe 2-4 weeks max) before tasting and dumping it unless it turns. You're at about 7 or 8 weeks now right? Some wild contamination may be good but there is a lot of gnarly stuff out there that isn't good and even the pros who have built up house microbes they like still end up dumping a good amount of beer.

yeah, it is about two months from brewday. I will test it in 2 weeks and see if it is any better, if it isn't then it will get fed to the garden.