Contaminated after racking to 2ndary

[jiujiujiu]

My father's ESB has developed white streaks on the surface of the beer. It was fine when we racked it from the bucket to the glass carboy, but must have picked up a bug on the way over.

I'm of the opinion that we bottle it anyway and drink it. Is this salvageable? The beer doesn't smell bad. Could we suck the gunk off of the top and be okay?

This is why I never rack my own batches to secondary... Here are the pictures. It doesn't look as bad as some other pictures I've seen online.

 

[jiujiujiu]

Could we boil it, pitch new yeast, then be ok?

 

[SudsyPaul]

Definitely don't boil it and repitch, that's worse than just tossing it.

I suck at ID'ing infections, someone on here can help you. Taste it, if it's good, bottle it and drink it sooner than later.

I would say something is lacking is your cleaning/sanitation process, but without knowing what bug/infection that is, I couldn't comment on what part of the process needs improvement.

Depending on the bug, you might want to toss all your plastic doodads and get new ones, to avoid future infections.

 

[jiujiujiu]

All the gear used is part of my parents' beer and wine equipment. I believe it was the "baster" we used to gently suck out beer to test the gravity in a cylinder. Everything is in the basement and it isn't really clean down there. We, of course, sanitized everything with a StarSan solution, but I have a feeling that the bulb of that baster needed a way more thorough cleansing.

I'm also in the "primary as the only fermenter" camp. Stick it in there, don't touch it for 2 to 3 weeks, bottle it. Too risky to contaminate a not so cheap batch of beer. My brother is in the "always rack to secondary" camp. He's very nonchalant about cleanliness and I am super anal. Of course this happens under my watch. He's been brewing the longest, so my dad defers to him more than me. Next time, I'll insist it's primary only so he can see if it matters to him.

I just don't want this to crush his enthusiasm for brewing. It's only his second batch and I'd like to help him salvage it if I can.

 

[LLBeanJ]

That sure is a lot of headspace for a secondary.

Bottle it and hope for the best.