Beginning infection or crud

Ready to transfer to keg after 5 weeks primary(a little long) and I see this. This is after moving out of the ferm chamber and up stairs so it got shakin around a bit.Think its just some crud from the sides? The foam is just foam its the oil slick I was concerned about.Hop oil maybe? Or an infection starting.It will be in a keg for another week or two till I'm ready for it and I'm concerned it will keep growing in there

looks like Krausen residue... the rest looks fine to me. I dont see an issue.

Maybe a little bit of lacto... How's it taste? If you can get it chilled quickly it would help slow down any infection.

It taste fine. If I put this one in the fridge under pressure but disconnected after purging would that stop any infection from starting/continuing?I wont be ready for this keg for another 2 weeks

Looks normal to me. If anything residual CO2 escaping and making bubbles.

I've always had that crud on the sides and never had an infection. I assume its just leftover krausen residue that just stuck to the sides of the bucket. The "oil slick" is probably hop oil, too. I've seen that all the time in my batches.

It doesn't look normal to me. It looks like the beginning of an infection.

What's the FG? The last beer I kegged had a bit of an oily appearance and the FG was below 1.010 (1.005).

Yesfan said:

What's the FG? The last beer I kegged had a bit of an oily appearance and the FG was below 1.010 (1.005).

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It was a split 10 gallon batch.The other 5 gallon FG was 1.009 kegged and tastes great.Ill test for a difference in this batch

I decided to dryhop yesterday to give it a little more aroma after sitting 5 weeks. After I pull the hop bag I can give it a few days to see if it comes back.After swirling the hop bag just now theres no sign of an infection.How fast will it take for the infection to show signs in a stagnant beer?

Edit:Im pretty anal about sanitation.Pull grommet and rubber gasket in lid ETC.and soak everything in starsan..hoping for no infection

Yooper said:

It doesn't look normal to me. It looks like the beginning of an infection.

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How do you tell the difference between hop oil and infection? I had a similar picture like this I posted and everyone said it was hop oil. Let it finish and it was fine. Now I have another brew I just brewed last night. Again has this oily substance. Not quite as bad as the picture in the original post but it's there. Now I'm worried it's the start of an infection. How can you tell the difference?

Pretty much the way ALL my beers look, esp. after moving the ferm bucket from here to there. Never had one turn into infection.

I've yet to see a brew in this particular thread that looked infected...

Cheers!

Izzie1701 said:

How do you tell the difference between hop oil and infection? I had a similar picture like this I posted and everyone said it was hop oil. Let it finish and it was fine. Now I have another brew I just brewed last night. Again has this oily substance. Not quite as bad as the picture in the original post but it's there. Now I'm worried it's the start of an infection. How can you tell the difference?

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A hops haze has a slight oily sheen, but anything beyond that is suspect. Anything that looks like ice, or crust, or thick, or "ropy", or more than a sheen is suspect and probably infected.

Another clue is in this case, one fermenter was 'normal' but this one was different. The huge headspace makes it more likely that it's infected, and the picture does look like the beginning of a pellicle.

The thing to consider is that many homebrews may be infected to a degree. If you grabbed a sample under a microscope, you may see some bacteria for example. If the taste is ok, and you drink it fairly fast, it may seem just fine.