To dump or not to dump...

[rancidcrabtree]

This is (was?) a sour mashed oatmeal stout which I added 5 small cans of Oregon cherries to after primary. I planned on bottling this weekend, but unfortunately sometime during the last two weeks while I was gone on military training my Big Mouth Bubbler airlock (stupid design!) went dry and I got an acetobacter infection, well it smells like vinegar anyways. I like sours, but I don't like to drink straight vinegar. If this tastes ok should I bother bottling it? Or will it just continue to get more gross?? It was a solid film on top until I broke it up when I pulled the cherries out.

 

[rancidcrabtree]

Update: I manned up and tried it... It tastes like an oatmeal stout with a hint of cherry, very little if any sourness so far. I like it. Would racking onto a secondary with zero headspace until I have time to bottle this weekend be a viable option? If I add campden tablets will I still be able to carb in the bottle? Should I rack on top of some super concentrated DME I have boiling and add a pack of US-05??

 

[rancidcrabtree]

Second update: I now think I overreacted to a dry airlock, a couple of dead fruit flies, and some fermenting cherries... Because I have the patience of a three year old, I decided to rack on top 1LB of dark LME boiled in a half gallon of water, then I added a pack of US-05. As I racked the "infection" looked more and more like yeast. The vinegar smell mellowed into how I remembered the cherries to smell when I first added them. Looks like I may have just taken a perfectly good cherry stout and made it into an over-malty not-cherry-stout. Oh well, I guess we'll see what happens.

 

[rancidcrabtree]

I copied this thread to the all-grain/partial mash forum because I don't know if what i did really counts as wild/lambic, I don't think I have the patience or skill to operating in this theater yet.

 

[secondbase]

If it tastes fine and the gravity is stable you can go ahead and package it. If it smells like vinegar I'd drink it very quickly before it's unpleasant. If it tastes unpleasant, dump it and move on to the next batch.

 

[feinbera]

Acetobacter requires oxygen, so, while it will not ever get any less vinegary, careful racking/bottling/etc. should prevent it from getting much more vinegary. If you like it OK, bottle 'er up (no campden, unless you also want to re-yeast) and drink 'er down.