Troublesome brew, now probably infected.

First it was too hot, then there were fruit flies, and now what looks like an infection.
(I attached a photo of the infection, not sure how this works!)
I've read all over the forum and I know well enough not to dump it (or do I?). Should I just bottle it? Rack it? Hold a funeral?

 

R.i.p

 

I'd probably let it sit awhile longer then take a small sample and smell and taste it. Might not be what you intended, but it could be a decent sour/funky beer.

Though from that picture I wouldn't be 100% sure that it is infected. I've had some weird stuff get stuck to the carboy after the krausen died down, and small bits floating on the surface could just be some yeast rafts. Certainly wouldn't dump it before sampling some.

 

Ugh, I would dump, or reboil it.

 

maybe sythen and reboil?

 

Hard to tell, kind of looks like yeast rafts though. How does it smell?

 

Dont do anything until you taste it. If it is infected and it still tastes good, then bottle/keg and enjoy ASAP. If it is infected and tastes bad, try to identify it. If it is lactic/brett/wild yeast, you would have some options for souring it if you so wished!

If it was fruit flies I would assume its acetobacter and there isn't much you can do except use the [now] vinegar in cooking or what not!

 

A couple people mentioned reboiling. How does this work? Would I bring it all up to a rolling boil again, chill it, then pitch more yeast? Would that kill the unwanted bacteria? It probably wouldn't fix any flavour issues, right?
I work a lot, so I haven't cracked the airlock on it yet. I'll go smell/taste it and see if I want to keep it.

 

You could reboil it if you wanted. It would kill most microbes in the beer, including your yeast, but it would also leave any of the flavors produced behind. Additionally you would have to re-add aroma and flavor hops since they will be boiled off

 

dang, I don't really have the time/equipment to boil it all right now.
When you say "bottle/keg and enjoy ASAP" is that assuming I'm using CO2 to carbonate? Because I don't have the technology for that. If I need to let the bottles sit to carbonate on their own is that infection going to get out of hand? Am I SOL?

 

I don't keg either so I was in the same boat...I picked up an infection from dryhopping a Pale Ale, so I bottled it and had everyone who wanted any come drink them as soon as they were carbonated.

Has it reached final gravity? If it has I would bottle it like normal, and try one everyday starting at day 5. As soon as they are carbed get them in a fridge and the cold temps will slow down (but not stop) whatever microbes are in there...but still try and drink them sooner rather than later!

 

I would not dump it... give it big ol' swirl and see if that "stuff" falls out of suspension.. and keep monitoring it & taste / smell...

 

It had reached final gravity, and it actually smelled pretty good, so I just went ahead and bottled it. Fingers crossed!

 

I'm not positive you've got an infected batch on your hands. check a bottle after a week for carb levels and smells and what not, but i think you're totally fine. if it smells fine after a week i would continue conditioning it as normal. it probably won't taste quite right after a week of bottle conditioning, but don't worry about that. as long as it's not sour off tastes are from too short conditioning not an infection. also, don't worry if it's not quite carbed at a week, if it's infected it will be over carbed if anything.

 

Makes me think you racked to the secondary too soon, and you were seeing some yeast rafts - because the yeast was still active & finishing it's job. Just wasn't enough activity to create a krausen.

 

I don't see an infection just looking at that picture. looks like yeast or CO2

 

Hm, I'm pretty sure that was some kind of funky bacterial junk. I'd checked the gravity before racking to the secondary and it was damn near final gravity, I only racked it so it would clear some more.
I wish I'd taken photos when I was bottling, you could see the fuzzy/waxy white film stick to the edges of the carboy. It definitely reminded me of stuff I've seen doing wild fermentation projects.
Oh well! It's on the home stretch now, anyway. I'm going to crack one of them in a few days and see how they're doing. I'm not totally crushed, but not 100% optimistic either.