Fear of Infection - With Pictures

[rohovie]

Hello,

I am on a batch of Stout Beer (Festa Brew Mix) and I am about to rack to my secondary when I saw this in my primary. I am concernd about the white areas around the walls of the container being an infection. Let me know what you guys think. And what I should do if it is an infection.

Thanks in advance.
Mike

 

[bradsul]

Just looks like some clumps of yeast that haven't settled out yet. Pull a small sample and give it a taste. If it smells and tastes OK I'd say you're fine, go ahead and rack.

 

[uglygoat]

it's fine.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Looks normal. Put the lid back on and RDWHAHB.

 

[EamusCatuli]

I know this sounds lame but I just now realized what RDWHAHB means haha.

 

[homebrewer_99]

No! It's infected beyond repair...send it to me for further analysis...

Actually, it looks normal...as well as normal can be anyway...

 

[RichBrewer]

I bet that beer. tastes pretty good.

 

[rohovie]

Thanks everyone,

Can someone explain to me what an infection looks/smells/tastes like? Or point me to where some pictures are of infections so I know for future refrence. I'm paranoid of getting an infection and ruining my batch.

THank you, Mike

 

[SuperiorBrew]

Smells like crap and tastes the same
Do a search in the gallery and on the board, you should dig up some pictures. They never really look the same and sometimes they really cant be seen. Let your smell and taste be the judge.

 

[malkore]

smells or tastes sour (not bitter, sour...rancid)

visual signs would be very odd looking scum forming a skin, or traditional looking mold (whitish and fluffy, or green).

keep in mind some yeast's retain their krausen, so don't mistake that for infection.

in the end, no beer based infections are toxic to humans. so when in doubt, assume it's fine, and taste before you bottle it. if it tastes infected at that time, there's probably no point in bottling.

keep in mind that infections aren't that common unless you completely disregard cleaning and sanitizing. even a half-assed effort at sanitizing will give you good results. however that person might have 1 out of every 30 batches with an infection, while the dedicated brewer is more like 1 in every 500 batches.