Cooked Veggie IPA!?

[fxdrider]

I brewed an IPA with some friends last week (Friday) and realized after I got it in the bucket that I didn't have the smack-pack I needed for it. I couldn't get to the LHBS until Tuesday, so I had it in its sanitized bucket with the lid sealed and plugged and kept in my temp-controlled freezer at 62 degrees. Last night when I opened the lid to pitch the smack pack I was greeted to the sight of an already bubbling kraeusen and the odour of cooked cabbage/veggies. I have to assume some kind of spontaneous fermentation has erupted. Any idea if this is necessarily a bad thing?

 

[Wolfbrau]

If you use the bucket and/or chamber a lot, it's probably strays from prior batches mixed with some other wild stuff. Take a sample in a few days and see if it's horrifying. If it's not, let it rip. If it's like a blend of puckering sourness with a dose of liquefied clown nightmares then toss it.

 

[g-star]

An IPA with unkown wild yeast/bacteria that smells like cooked cabage? Sounds great...

Dump it, don't waste your time.

 

[giraffe]

Yeah its bad. Always, always, keep a packet of dry yeast on hand for emergencies. You cant leave wort at pitching temps, for long, even in the best case your equipment is sanitary, not sterile. Wild yeasts are everywhere and its summer time, and you transfer in a kitchen or outside, open to air. In the best case, a few wild yeasts will always get in. You need to immediately pitch a healthy dose of yeast, as soon as its cool, to outcompete whatever cells got in there.

That said, id also look over your sanitation procedures.

Cooked cabbage is a bacterial infection smell. Possibly, obesumbacterium proteus, mixed with wild yeast, or yeast from the last batch, and god knows what else. Toss it, nothing good will come from that. Sorry, that sucks.

 

[cjgenever]

smells like snail food.

Next time leave it in the kettle. Put the cover on while boiling and let it cool on its own. This will give you as sterile an environment as possible. Once you have the yeast you can bring it to a boil for fifteen min. Add another round of flavor/aroma hops. This has worked for me, though the ibu's are increased.

I keep sachets of us-05 on hand for emergencies like this.

 

[fxdrider]

Update: When I discovered the spontaneous fermentation on Tuesday, I had already opened my smack-pack of 1056. I went ahead and pitched it into the bubbling wort. What did I have to lose at that point? Anyway, when I checked on it yesterday, I noticed some of the wort had come up through the airlock, and it smelled very much like the delicious IPA I was hoping for. Very tiny trace of the cooked veggie odor left. Who knows, maybe this thing has a chance.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

unless you need the fermentor, I wouldn't dream of tossing it till its done. It'll either be beer or a valuable learning lesson lol. Either way, good stuff right?

 

[cjgenever]

Have you taken any samples for tasting yet. Please report back once you do. I'm interested in knowing the results. Considering the speed at which It began the fermentation I suspect it's a wild yeast that you have. If the flavors are okay and it's not a bacteria than the worst case scenario is it may cause the beer to be a little thinner than expected due to a lower final gravity. I've had a good number of IPs I could use some thinning anyway.good luck and beware bottle bombs

 

[jfr1111]

The fact that the odour changed doesn't mean much. I'd still toss it if not to risk multiplying whatever crap had started fermenting my wort and tainting my equipment bottling it.

 

[MrSnacks]

I wonder if it's the mythological DMS instead of something related to spontaneous fermentation?

 

[Kahless]

If the yeast came from previous batches it could have been stressed while multiplying to the levels needed to begin fermenting properly, releasing some of those bad odours.

In that situation (severe under-pitching, nevermind the wrong yeast), there is more of an opening for wild yeasts to get a foothold too, so it is likely that you have a mix of both; after the brewing yeasts have done their main job, your gravity might still drop slowly over time. After Primary fermentation, I'd rack it with a sacrificial syphon into a glass carboy (If I had one) so that there is as little head-space as possible, and watch it as it ages, occasionally taking gravity readings. After a time if it is not still fermenting and tastes good and seems like it has no Brett or LAB in it, dry hop away and bottle after the dry hopping period.

 

[fxdrider]

Update: Taste & Gravity report:

Opened the lid yesterday and took a reading. O.G. was 1.061, and yesterday gravity was down to 1.015. Tasted a sample, and it tasted (and smelled) like a nice IPA in the making. No trace of cooked veggie anymore. I scooped the Kräusen off the surface and replaced the freshly cleaned and sanitized lid and airlock. Within minutes the airlock was bubbling away. Still bubbling this morning.

I'm getting more and more hopeful.