Ale in carboy, possible contamination? photo

[smmangus13]

Hello, wanted to get some feedback. I'm fermenting a couple of all grain batches (15 and 16th batches, still learning!!), one in 6 gal glass carboy and one in a 6.5 gallon bucket. Haven't had any problems with either carboy / plastic bucket in past. No contamination and all beer has turned out generally Okay.

Ran into something new to my eyes, large static hazy bubbles on the top in the glass carboy. I'm very VERY careful when brewing. Boil or Star San all utensils, clean out and scrub carboy with Star San. That said, I understand even a small mistake can cause contamination.

Here is the image of the carboy. It has been fermenting for 24 days. I am planning to bottle this weekend which will be 28 days in the fermenter.
http://imageshack.com/a/img661/4515/YcyX9z.jpg

Does it look like contamination? Still drinkable? Should I siphon below the surface when bottling? Any tips for avoiding this?

 

[brew_ny]

looks like an infection you have a lot of head space in you container

 

[kev211]

Holy headspace batman! Yes, looks like an infection. Wouldnt dump it though, could turn into something tasty

 

[Eh_Modern_Drunkard]

Is that a 3gal batch in a 6gal fermenter?
That aside, yeah you definitely have an infection. No one will be able to tell you what it is from an image, but I'd let it ride. I really love sour ales though...
I wouldn't use your regular gear to siphon it or move it around though. I have separate gear for doing sours. Probably slightly unnecessary, but I err on the side of caution.

 

[kev211]

Is that a 3gal batch in a 6gal fermenter?
That aside, yeah you definitely have an infection. No one will be able to tell you what it is from an image, but I'd let it ride. I really love sour ales though...
I wouldn't use your regular gear to siphon it or move it around though. I have separate gear for doing sours. Probably slightly unnecessary, but I err on the side of caution.

That seems to be the general consensus regarding souring equipment. Ive always wondered about the carboys though. In the event of an infection, is a glass carboy (italian made) trashed (assuming that you never sour beers) or can it be sanitized and reused?

 

[feinbera]

First things first: taste it! It's possible the infection hasn't changed the flavor too much, in which case, you can just go ahead and bottle it, as long as you can get 'em all in the fridge and drink them pretty quickly – wild yeast/bacteria slowly eat "unfermentable" sugars, which will lead to both further off-flavors and a risk of bottle bombs if those infected beers sit around for too long at cellar temps. You'll want to bleach the living daylights outta your bottling equipment if you go this route, though.

If you're into sour beers, you can "let 'er ride," but if you go that route, you should probably do two things. First of all, you don't really know if your beer has caught a tasty infection, so, you'll want to pitch a sour beer culture, or dregs from some commercial sours you like – @OldSock has a list of commercial beers with viable dregs on his blog. Second thing, as kev and brew_ny pointed out, that's a lot of headspace; you'll want to rack that beer into a smaller container(s) or flush the headspace with CO2 if you've got a kegging setup if you don't want those sour bugs to produce a ton of acetic acid (vinegar) due to the presence of oxygen.

 

[Eh_Modern_Drunkard]

That seems to be the general consensus regarding souring equipment. Ive always wondered about the carboys though. In the event of an infection, is a glass carboy (italian made) trashed (assuming that you never sour beers) or can it be sanitized and reused?

I do a boiling water dump, a pbw scrub, rinse, and a star san soak for my glass carboys that I've used for sours. I also have a full set of gear quarantined for just working with them.
Porous plastics will hold onto bacteria making it virtually impossible to get rid of all the little buggers.

 

[kev211]

I do a boiling water dump, a pbw scrub, rinse, and a star san soak for my glass carboys that I've used for sours. I also have a full set of gear quarantined for just working with them.
Porous plastics will hold onto bacteria making it virtually impossible to get rid of all the little buggers.

Y, I figured that plastic would be a no go, but glass seems that a good PBW or oxyclean rinse with starsan or iodophor would clean a glass carboy back to proper working order

 

[Eh_Modern_Drunkard]

Yepers! It's worked for me anyway. I haven't had any cross-contamination yet (quiet prayer to beer gods).