High FG brew more susceptible to infection?

[bknifefight]

This is probably a stupid question, but... Would a brew with a high FG be more susceptible to infection? My thought behind the question is that there are more sugars, albeit complex sugars, left for the bacteria to eat/do it's nasty thing to.

My reason for asking is I recently bottled a RIS which has developed the horrible ring in the bottle neck. I chilled and drank a bottle. Right now there is a lot going on, so there is no off taste, but when I opened it, large bubbles started rising to the surface, just like the last infected beer I had (another high FG). With time, I suspect these will be gushers and develop a cooked vegetable flavor. My FG was 1.022 which is about 10 -12 points higher than my average beer.

 

[phenry]

I'm assuming since it's a RIS there's a lot of alcohol to offset those residual sugars. If it's still early in the game I'd say there's no need for alarm, the CO2 just hasn't fully gone into solution yet. Or, possibly the beer wasn't done fermenting yet and now it's slightly over-carbonating. With bottling there still is a mini-fermentation going on, so that ring around the neck could just be normal activity.

 

[Revvy]

The ring is probably a bottle krausen. Carbonation is really just a mini-fermentation, and since it's ale yeast, and when you ferment you get a krausen, it's not a stretch to realize that it can and does often happen in the bottle as well, BUT since most of us just bottle and ignore for 3 week, we mostly iss, them. Though I've actually seen the on occassion.

They'll fall.

Actually lower gravitiy beer would more than likely be susceptible to infections, since there is less alcohol present.

 

[Jakemo]

Interestingly enough, I have a stout that I bottled two weeks ago, and have found myself wondering similar things.

Noticed a very prominent ring of gunk on one bottle and decided to dump it (the bottle, not the batch).

It was a very either/or decision, I've seen bottle krausen in other batches, but this one looked much more significant, like an infection. It was also an emergency extra bottle that hadn't been cleaned as well.

However, there are a bunch of other bottles with signs ranging from thin ring to little clumps of stuff (yeast?) under a noticeable ring.

I'm giving the rest of the batch the chance to prove my fears unfounded... I "know" it's not an infection, but my brain sees gunk and jumps to conclusions. Self-prescribing a healthy dose of RDWHAHB-cillin.

Let's compare in a month or two and see if our haste would've gotten the better of us, eh?

 

[bknifefight]

I've read about the mini-krausens in bottles before, Revvy. You say that you've seen it before, right? When you did, was it in every single bottle or just a few? It is in every bottle of mine.

 

[Revvy]

In my loft I couldn't keep bottles in one place, so I bottle carb in various rooms. The ones I saw were purposefully bottled in clear glass and stored above my fridge.

But why would it be surprising to have the krausens in all bottles? All bottles are being carbed, right? Same amount of sugar being fermented by the yeast in the bottle? The same process is going on, right?

 

[bknifefight]

You say that these should "fall"? By fall, you mean disappear, right?

I've had this issue many times before and they do not go away. I am certain it is an infection because, like I said, they turn into gushers and develop a bad vegetable taste.

 

[Jakemo]

You say that these should "fall"? By fall, you mean disappear, right?

I've had this issue many times before and they do not go away. I am certain it is an infection because, like I said, they turn into gushers and develop a bad vegetable taste.

That, right there, is definitely an infection. If that's been the case with several batches, you might double check all your equipment that you use all the way from chilling your wort to bottling.

"Bad veggie" flavors are usually a result of Dimethyl Sulfide, which can be caused by bacterial infection (or covering your boil).

Consider buying brand new house and/or racking equipment if it's not too expensive. Also reconsider your bottling process.

Of course, is kinda tricky to get an idea of what's going on without discussing your process in detail, but that's where I'd start. Good luck!

 

[Revvy]

You say that these should "fall"? By fall, you mean disappear, right?

I've had this issue many times before and they do not go away. I am certain it is an infection because, like I said, they turn into gushers and develop a bad vegetable taste.

If it's a bottle krausen it will fall, just like a fermenter krausen and end up as/in the sediment layer in the bottom of the bottle, just like a mini yeastcake, just like what you get in the fermenter.

If it's gushing and tastes bad, then you do have an infection issue and need to look at your sanitization, especially in your bottling process.

But unless you have infection issue, which it sounds like YOU specifically have, one shouldn't assume that just because they see a layer on their beer in the bottle, that they have an infection.

You need to look at anythign you use for bottling. One thing that gets neglected is the spigot itself. It's not too difficult for some hop mater to get inside and get stuck.