Will an infected beer taste obviously infected?

[bjhbrew]

okay, cue the rdwhahb responses. I brewed a beer 2 weeks ago that looked to me like it was infected as of very next day. I say it looked infected is because there was no real krausen to speak of, there was some large bubbles and the surface looked a bit oily. I've been brewing for 4 years and have never had an infection but that's what I thought it was. Fast forward to now and the surface of the beer is completely still and it has mostly dropped clear. I pumped a little sample out and the gravity reading is right on my expected fg and the taste is kinda what I expected for a warm flat dark mild- certainly not sour tasting. The thing is this batch for me had a few deviations from my normal practice so now I don't really know what I have. Here's a couple extra details:

I used a pet carboy that I just got from a local on premise wine u-brew that went out of business - I gave it a quick wash with oxy clean and used starsan on it but my first instinct is that I picked up an infection from whatever was in there before I got it.

My recipe is for a dark mild but I formulated the grist. I have 15% of the grain bill as flaked oats - could the oats be responsible for a slick surface and lack of krausen?

Because the recipe is a new one I made a very small batch (2 gallons) in a 6 gallon carboy - i don't know if the large headspace can affect the fermentation appearance.

And lastly as a side note, thinking that this beer would get dumped I actually re-brewed the recipe the next weekend and am fermenting it in a different fermenter and am seeing some similar fermentation characteristics (very little krausen and perhaps a little slick looking) So who knows maybe it's just due to the recipe??

So I'm not sure what I'm going to do now; I guess I should just go ahead and bottle it but to be honest I've probably opened it enough now that it'll be nice and oxidized. Oh well, glad it was a small batch.

 

[bracconiere]

?? relax drink a homebrew? how does it taste? you say it tastes like, good? lol, oxygen is good for you....

 

[Ralphie0523]

Infected beer in the traditional sense will definitely throw an off flavor. Occasionally you will get a fermentation with no Krausen. I just had a DIPA do this to me. A slick look could just mean too many fats are present to allow a solid krausen to form. You called it in the first sentence. I would say RDWHAHB.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I have 15% of the grain bill as flaked oats - could the oats be responsible for a slick surface and lack of krausen?

Yes, this.

Probably most batches of beer we make have some wild microbes. The vast majority of the time there are no off flavors from them.

RDWHAHB.

Still, it's pretty brave using a second(/third/forth/fifth...???)-hand plastic fermenter. Good luck!

 

[bjhbrew]

Haha, pretty much the responses I expected. So do you think I should just go ahead and bottle it up or wait a week and check the gravity again just to be sure? I’m usually the type to leave things in primary a week longer than I think it needs and then go straight to keg without taking any hydrometer readings except on kegging day. On the chance this one is infected I’m trying to avoid using any of my usual racking/kegging gear.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I just gave my thoughts regarding this question to someone else:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/infected.671249/#post-8701200

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

What yeast did you use? Before I actually had a contaminated batch I had one with large clear bubbles and the rest of the area was covered in yeast. I just didn’t look right to me, (simply because that was the first time) so I shared an image on the forum and the consensus was normal looking. Search pellical images.

If it tastes good, drink it. Cleaning the equipment thoroughly prevents many problems, and gives you some peace of mind when things look differently from what you expect.

 

[bjhbrew]

Thanks for the helpful responses. The yeast I used was wy1728 Scottish ale which I’ve used a lot lately and repitched into this batch. I’m used to getting a big fluffy Kruasen with it on a pretty predictable time frame so this one stuck out as odd. Then again I’ve never brewed a beer this low in gravity (1.040) and I’ve never used this higher % of flaked oats so... I’ll wait a week and bottle it up if the gravity remains the same. Thanks folks!

 

[Kanonen80]

I recently brewed a batch with WLP013 London Ale and it behaved similarly.

It seems to taste okay, but has terrible head retention - so I wonder if whatever is affecting head retention also prevented the traditiona kreusen from rising?

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Possible to see a photo or photos?

 

[RPh_Guy]

I recently brewed a batch with WLP013 London Ale and it behaved similarly.

It seems to taste okay, but has terrible head retention - so I wonder if whatever is affecting head retention also prevented the traditiona kreusen from rising?

Recipe?

 

[Kanonen80]

Recipe?

3 gallon batch. There was a small Amarillo and Columbus addition at flame out, but was cut off in the screenshot. Oh, I attempted ba partial mash too. Forgot to transcribe notes to Brewers Friend so I'd have to dig up my notebook to know what temp.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Nothing in the recipe to indicate infection.

 

[bjhbrew]

Update:

Well I gave the original batch in question an additional week in the carboy. Yesterday I took another gravity sample and the fg had not changed plus it tasted great! So I went ahead and bottled it. I also bottled the second batch that I made when I thought this one was infected; interestingly they both exhibited similar fermentation behaviour (no Kruasen, slick oily looking surface) despite using different yeasts. My take away is that it was probably caused by the larger percentage of flaked oats (15%) or the low starting gravity (1.040). I’m looking forward to drinking these side by side to compare the differences imparted between wy1728 and wy1968