Infection - yikes!

[MarkSheffield]

I have an infection going in something I brewed on Superbowl Sunday. I added lactose and water into the cooled beer before I pitched yeast and maybe (not sure) I just dissolved the lactose in hot water without boiling. Does lactobacillus lurk around powdered lactose? Seems like it might.

The batch is now in secondary for a couple weeks with the greenish-bluish-whitish scum on top and is going pretty slow now. Can I (should I) use gelatin to precipitate things out of the beer prior to kegging?

thanks

 

[hukdizzle]

Typically lactobacillus leaves only a thin white pellicle on top, if you have green and blue it could also be mold. Have you tasted it yet?

 

[MarkSheffield]

No, haven't tasted it yet.

Mold doesn't sound good. I've never heard of that infecting beer. What will that do to the taste?

 

[hukdizzle]

Do you keg your beer? If the beer taste fine you can typically keg the beer off the mold and chill/carb it and it'll taste just fine.

 

[MarkSheffield]

I only keg anymore - I've got one waiting. If it passes the taste test, I guess I'll just sanitize and rack as usual

thanks - Mark

 

[hukdizzle]

Awesome, best of luck to ya. I'm sure you've considered this but if you do determine the beer taste ok and go to rack try to disturb the pellicle as little possible and cut the siphon before the pellicle reaches the inlet of your siphon tube. Mold typically only grows on top the surface and doesn't permeate the beer much further than the surface, the beer under it should be fine if it's mold.

 

[Gremlyn]

Mould shouldn't affect the flavour of the beer and it's not going to hurt you. Take a pic and post it up so we can better diagnose it.

 

[MarkSheffield]

Thank you for your help - Mark

 

[MarkSheffield]

OK, for those so inclined to look at this sort of ugliness, I've got a picture today of the slick:

https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=34059&ppuser=38286

Looks more white than what I thought was green & blue, but I'm pretty colorblind. It's also quieted down a lot, this scumpuddle covered the whole top of the brew in the carboy when I racked it into secondary a few weeks ago.

What's the diagnosis, Doctor?

 

[hukdizzle]

From the picture it's hard to say what that is, I'd almost venture to say it was fermentation by the looks of it but since it's been in the secondary for a while I highly doubt you'd see any marginal krausening. Have you tasted the beer yet? How does the surface of the mold/lacto/krausen appear? Does it seem dull and matte or do the bubbles seem to be a bit shiny? A typical mold/lacto infection would yield a film on top of the beer that was very dull and matte compared to typical krausen bubbles.

 

[hukdizzle]

Ugh, I just clicked on the picture and the resolution blew up haha. So now that I have a better look at it I have to lean towards this being yeast flocculation instead of an infection, try the beer and let me know how it taste.

 

[MarkSheffield]

OK, I'll do the taste test. I wanted to wait until I got the pix up.

What do you mean by "yeast flocculation"?

 

[mightynintendo]

Flocculation is a chemistry term describing solids suspended in a liquid clumping together. Typically in brewing it refers to how well the yeast falls out of suspension and settles to the bottom of the fermenter.

Edit: However in this case I think hukdizzle is referring to it becoming suspended on the top of the liquid. When you buy yeast it usually indicates how well it flocculates, high, medium or low. A high flocculating yeast will fall out of suspension more readily than a low one.

 

[Niederhofer]

I've had this happen in my secondary, and it's gone in a couple of days. Looks like a small fermentation.

 

[MarkSheffield]

This one has gone on for a long time. When I racked to secondary 2-1/2 weeks ago, it put a layer of foam covering the top of the beer and it's been there since (although now it has subsided quite a bit).

Time to taste it

 

[MarkSheffield]

I did the taste test and it was fine, so I racked into the keg and pressurized.

Thanks to all who helped get me through this knothole

 

[Potter1]

Good, glad it worked out.
I had something like this happen on an IPA a did a while back. Freaked me out but I didn't panic.
From my experience, if you look really close at something like this, especially in the secondary, you'll see it's made out of very, very tiny bubbles. Where they are emerging, it is thicker, and it gradually spreads out, making it look like a bacterial colony. Rock the carboy, and if they disperse, then form again in roughly the same spot, your good to go.