Do I have an infection?

[drummerguy]

So I had my second BIAB session last weekend and, though it wasn't without some issues, I thought it went rather well. I brewed a hefeweizen and ended up with 5 gallons going into the fermenter. Chilling went well and I pitched the yeast (Wyeast 3068) when the temperature was 67 degrees. I set up a blowoff tube and set the bucket in a container with a little bit of water. The water was 64 degrees and the room was 68 degrees.

My concern started when I checked on it the next morning. I smelled the blowoff tube and there was a strong sulfur smell. Three days later, all activity in the airlock had stopped. I opened it to check it out, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. I opened it again tonight to take a gravity reading and it had reached the intended final gravity. I figured I would take a picture to get some other opinions. Does it look okay?

The taste is a bit sharp, but it isn't terrible. Also, If you look in the upper part of the second picture, you will definitely see a piece of grass. I have no idea when it landed in the bucket.

 

[flars]

Looks normal. Give the beer a couple more weeks on the yeast cake for the clean up. Sulfur smell is normal with some yeasts.
Do you mean lawn grass?

 

[Frilock]

Yes. It is very infected. It is very dangerous. You should immediately bottle it up and send it to me for proper disposal.

 

[drummerguy]

Looks normal. Give the beer a couple more weeks on the yeast cake for the clean up. Sulfur smell is normal with some yeasts.
Do you mean lawn grass?

I'm glad to hear it doesn't look bad. And I will definitely be letting it sit a bit longer before I bottle it. I read something about the sulfur smell being common with Wyeast 3068, but I didn't experience it last time. I'm not sure if extract vs. all-grain has anything to do with it. It could also be because I fermented closer to 70 degrees last time. I'm pretty sure it's lawn grass. I went ahead and pulled it out while I was grabbing a sample for the gravity reading.

 

[Kevin79]

Looks normal. Give the beer a couple more weeks on the yeast cake for the clean up. Sulfur smell is normal with some yeasts.
Do you mean lawn grass?

+1
Sulfur smell is normal for that yeast strain and beer looks normal to me. The smell will go away with some more time in the fermenter. In the future, if you are looking to get more of those banana esters, try fermenting at slightly higher temperatures. This is one yeast that can actually benefit from both being underpitched and fermenting up to the mid 70s

 

[drummerguy]

Yes. It is very infected. It is very dangerous. You should immediately bottle it up and send it to me for proper disposal.

I better get right on that. I'm not sure how I feel about having such a dangerous batch of beer hanging around the house.

 

[flars]

Better it was lawn grass than some common weed.

 

[drummerguy]

+1
Sulfur smell is normal for that yeast strain and beer looks normal to me. The smell will go away with some more time in the fermenter. In the future, if you are looking to get more of those banana esters, try fermenting at slightly higher temperatures. This is one yeast that can actually benefit from both being underpitched and fermenting up to the mid 70s

I will be making that change next time. I had quite a bit of banana flavor in my last hefeweizen and I really enjoyed it. I think it will be easier if I wait until it gets a bit warmer outside. I probably should have avoided putting the bucket in water since it's not really that warm right now.