Have you ever infected your beer/wort??

[springer]

where are the pics useless without them I'll start even though this was intentional

 

[wreals]

I currently have a gusher-type infection on my latest brown ale..it has a funky after taste. I keep it around, hoping that it will fix itself.

My first IPA had what I like to call a chlorine infection, it tasted like a wet band-aide, it was undrinkable.

 

[craven_morhead]

Photos of the infected batch

 

[Orogenic]

I lost 5 gallons over the summer because the water in my airlock evaporated in five 100-degree days. I went to check on it and had a several small patches of bacteria and mold growing. Needless to say, I did not even attempt to drink it...

 

[Soybomb]

My first two batches where I used one-step as my sanitizer eventually developed an infection. I can't positvely blame one-step as I was a new brewer then but none after I switched to star san, even with the occassional "stick your big hairy monkey arm into the fermenter" incidents.

 

[wendelgee2]

I added an unclean, cut beet to the wort while I was cooling it. I meant to add during the boil, but forgot. Not only did it ruin the IRA I was making, but since I used that yeast cake for a barleywine, it got that batch too. Acetaldehide.

Am I missing somethin? I didn't think acetaldehyde was the product of an infection, but of incomplete fermentation (filtering too soon, or racking too soon).

 

[passedpawn]

Am I missing somethin? I didn't think acetaldehyde was the product of an infection, but of incomplete fermentation (filtering too soon, or racking too soon).

Dunno. It sat on the primary for 5 weeks, 65F (I use a chest freezer). It had a bad taste that was cidery. Possible that I overpitched. But there's other data here that points to the beet.

 

[punk_rockin2001]

Well I think its funny I started this thread, cause I had a slight scare this evening when I noticed my ipa in the basement which has been in secondary for 3 weeks is bubbling about every 20-30 seconds. Its 45 degerees down there so I don't think ale yeast usually likes that temp. It now has a white bubbly cover over it, kind of like soap bubbles... we'll see how it turns out! I was going to bottle on tuesday or wednesday.

 

[Chuck_Swillery]

Took a beer from my 3rd or 4th batch of beer to a mentor's. It was only the second beer he'd tried that I made. It was only in the bottle about a 3 weeks but it had a nice pop when openned. An amber. He poured it into a pilsner glass and it had a great head on it, a bit to much for being so young. He took a sip and said it wasn't bad (didn't exactly say it was great either). He took another hit then held the bottle upto the light and was horrified to see something growing. LOL! This is a seasoned brewer and he refused to drink anymore. I finished it - thought it was pretty good. In the end, not exactly sure what it was. A mold of some sort I'd guess but it was gray and looked like a slug that was growing in the bottom of the bottle. Thankfully, it was just that bottle.

 

[BrianTheBrewer]

I have had 5-6 batches going in my basement at once. Last winter was the worst. Did not have all the time to watch each of them 24/7 and a few batches got screwed. Not enough air and they were ruined.

Learned from that mistake.

 

[yeoldebrewer]

Out of about 30 batches brewed so far, one had the classic signs of infection. Another had the 'band aid burps' that I think was infection, but may also have been cleaner or sanitizer contamination. The definitely infected batch had the telltale ring at the bottle neck and sour taste.

Possible off flavors from small scale infections bug me the most. These don't ruin your beer outright, but can skew flavors; especially as the beer ages.

Just heard a podcast by Jamil Z. in which he says he is so suspicious of junk lingering in bottles that he uses new bottles for every brew! His beers are apparently known for aging well over unusually long time periods; whether in bottle or in kegs.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I'd imagine the number of infected gallons to non-infected gallons of homebrew would put it in the tenths or hundredths of a percent.

I go to the other end of the spectrum, i.e. that most (almost all) homebrewed beers are contaminated to some degree just not enough to make it a dumper. There was a study done a while back (I can't find it now) where a bunch of experienced homebrewers brewed the same beer and they all sent the beers to a lab...most were infected.

 

[Houblon]

The buckets are good for about 10 batches before they start to make me nervous. Hoses and stoppers I change more frequently depending on their condition.

Thats a joke correct? What the heck are you doing to the buckets that makes you nervous?

Use-> wash-> spray with (a) starsan or (b) iodophor and you good to go

This was planned>




Heres the whitelabs.com/qcday-2009>
http://www.whitelabs.com/qcday-2009.html#Microbiological_testing_overall

 

[mattjmac]

I had my first ever sub-freezing brew session this weekend. I decided to not use my garden hoses outside to avoid an ice slick. So I filled my bottling bucket with snow and water and put it on top of my fridge. I hooked the IC hose up to the spigot on the bucket and let gravity run the ice cold water through the IC. While adding more snow/water to the bucket on top of the fridge about a golf ball size chunk of snow fell into the brewpot. I'm REALLY hoping this errant chunk of snow doesn't cause my first infection ever. It is bubbling away like normal, so hopefully no errant bacteria/yeasts etc. got in there. I'm crossing my fingers cause this is my New Years Eve brew. (a hefeweizen for the BMC crowd, even though it's out of season).