Infected. To rack or not to rack

[AugustDerleth]

thatisthequesion blah blah. Okay, so this is an accidentally infected batch of octoberfest. I have never had an infection before, and as such am not sure how to progress. I spent quite a bit of time reading other threads on infection, and basically here's what I'd like to know.
General consensus = as long as it tastes and smells fine under infection, it's good to go.
Also the gen con seems to be that you should throw away ANY materials that came in contact with said infected beer.

So. I made a 7 gallon batch of octoberfest, i had split it in primary into a 5g bucket (which I use regulary) and a 2 g bucket (which I haven't used in some time.)
It is the 2g bucket which has the sketchy looks to it.
I always thought that it would be pretty obvious if you had an infection, but I hear a lot of people being confused as to what infection looks like. So, for those of you who have never seen infection or are curious as to whether you have one, if it looks like THIS...

....you have an infection! lol

I would rather throw this 2 gallons away than have to buy a new syphon.

My question in short is, IF I do rack this to secondary, will I have to get rid of the equipment that comes in contact with it? Or can I just sterilize the crap out of it afterwards?
And should I even bother? There are bits floating in the sample I took from under the surface infection.

 

[drkaeppel]

Seems like a thorough scrubbing and sanitizing would be more appropriate. However, I have heard that if your fermentation bucket has any scratches on the inside, they could potentially harbor some bacteria. If that were the case I would probably buy a new fermentation bucket. Buying new equipment just because it came into contact with an infected batch sounds unreasonable to me.

 

[theredben]

If you would rather throw it away than buy a new siphon, then I would chuck it. Sounds like you are not too interested in this batch. Not worth the hassle.

 

[nefarious_1_]

I have to agree with drkaeppel. The reason sanitizer is called "sanitizer" is because it kills bacteria. I have heard many paranoid claims that once your equipment harbors an infected batch it should be tossed, but this seems a bit overboard to me. If there were already a few scratches on the equipment and then you had the infection, yes you should probably replace it just in case some of the bacteria are able to get into the scratch. Otherwise, I would just PBW into Star San all the way. Then maybe do it again for safe measure.
Also, you have to ask yourself: would you honestly drink that? Personally, I wouldn't...

 

[milldoggy]

Add some fruit, call it a lambic

 

[AugustDerleth]

Thanks for the responses. I am not too interested in this bucket, you are correct, I still have a 5 gallon fermenter full of healthy beer from the same batch. Which is why I'm fairly certain it is the bucket. I was planning on chucking the bucket after this, because more than likely it has a scratch in it which caused this problem.

Yyyyyyyyyeah I'm just gonna chuck the bucket. Oh wells!

 

[AugustDerleth]

I have heard that if your fermentation bucket has any scratches on the inside, they could potentially harbor some bacteria.

That is absolutely true. I'm fairly certain that is what happened here.

 

[AugustDerleth]

Odd. It has chaaaaanged.
So, I was tired last night and didn't dispose of the bucket, and instead it was left sitting on my outdoor dining table. I went out to water the plants, and thought I'd take a look in again. And it's a bit different, but not better by any means! Still being chucked.

ewwwwwwww



EDIT: I found a semi-decent temporary use for this bucket of crap. The flies, which have recently been bothering my garden, love the sugars in the bucket and are all being drawn out of the garden and getting stuck in the liquid. Awesome.