I Have An Infection - Can I let this ride and create a sour?

[Smeato]

Disaster! Looks like my hop sack has introduced a bug.

Any idea what this is and what I can do with it? I'm in a mind to just leave it and see where it ends up. is this a valid option and does anyone have any idea what will happen to it?

Not sure how great the pictures are, but these appeared very recently. The surface is also taking on a sort of sheen, like an ice rink.

 

[WayFrae]

You can definitely leave it. Most likely it isn't going to make an awesome sour since sour beers are brewed with being sour in mind. It might not be bad though. If you have another fermenter to use then you might as well let it ride and see what happens.

On the other hand if it tastes good you can still bottle it and then drink it quickly since the infection usually takes a while to notice as far as flavor goes. If you don't drink it quickly then you will eventually have bottle bombs on your hands. So be careful.

 

[Smeato]

The beer isn't ready to bottle unfortunately, not reached FG yet so I need to leave it anyway. Will I still get bottle bombs if I bottle it late?

 

[Talgrath]

The potential for bottle bombs depends, in part on how advanced the infection is at the time of bottling. The danger is that bacteria generally take longer to work, so they may take your beer down to very, very low numbers, even below 1.000 gravity. This means that bottling and priming if the bacteria aren't done will mean both the yeast in the beer doing its thing and the bacteria getting all new food too on top of what it was already eating. So, my advice, if you bottle, bottle very very low (below even the minimum for the style) and keep in mind it's going to taste a little funky. Either that, or wait a few months for the bacteria to do its thing and then bottle it as a sour.

 

[giant]

Tried it once and left it for a few months. Tasted like **** and vinegar.

 

[Smeato]

Thank you for the info! So pretty much wait for the gravity to settle (both from the yeast AND the bacteria) and then bottle, rather than bottling early and risking a bottle bomb? But I've to bear in mind that it will likely drop much more slowly due to the bacteria so might need to wait. Have I got this right?

Also I have Grolsch style swing top and PET bottles. Will this give me anymore leeway in the bottle bombs?

@giant: Well, tits.

 

[BlkWater_brewer]

Also I have Grolsch style swing top and PET bottles. Will this give me anymore leeway in the bottle bombs?

@giant: Well, tits.

I had some bottle bombs with mead once. All I was left with was the bottoms and a necks with the cap still secure. So the cap style really isn't a factor sometimes.

 

[Smeato]

Ah well, I'll just wait it out. It's a shame really, just had a try there and it's actually really good.

It's an attempt at a double IPA, but it was coming out far too malty. Now the malty-ness has been replaced with a crisp bitter hop kick and a slow sour after taste. It's brilliant but at 1.010 (and dropping), I'll just need to wait and hope the sour doesn't get too over the top. I think I'll bottle if I can get it to sit at the same gravity for 10+ days.

 

[FatDragon]

PET and swingtops are actually great bottles for something like this. PET will hold higher carbonation volume than most glass bottles, and a bottle bomb is far less dangerous if the bottle's PET. Just as important, venting PET bottles and swingtops is way easier than venting crown caps. If you bottled in either kind of bottle and had a bottle bomb or even just a gusher, venting and recapping the remaining bottles would be a breeze (but use protection if they're glass), so you'd have a much better chance of saving the rest of the batch.

 

[fastengine]

Wait it out, I don't see alot from the pics, is it getting dry powder on top or is it just little air bubble islands floating in the ferment. I've had several ferments that I dry hopped and they looked pretty scary until everything settled down.
Maybe the air bubbles around the hop bag are from the air that was in the hops. I am assuming you used pellets...

 

[madscientist451]

I'd say a little early to call it an infection. I'd wait till the ferment stops and taste it. If you get some off flavors, then I'd start thinking infection.
At that point I'd just dump it. If it tastes ok, get it cold and keg or bottle. If bottling, you can pasteurize after it carbonates, or just keep the bottles cold until its all consumed.

 

[Smeato]

Wait it out, I don't see alot from the pics, is it getting dry powder on top or is it just little air bubble islands floating in the ferment. I've had several ferments that I dry hopped and they looked pretty scary until everything settled down.
Maybe the air bubbles around the hop bag are from the air that was in the hops. I am assuming you used pellets...

The thing that screams infection (to me) is that I put the hops in more or less as soon as the krausen dropped. Visible activity was incredibly low at that point, with only the standard yeast floaters and a few bubbles here or there. Two weeks passed and then all those white bubbles popped up pretty much overnight.

I am using pellets, but surely those bubbles would have appeared pretty quickly after adding the bag if it was just because of the hops?

 

[FatDragon]

The thing that screams infection (to me) is that I put the hops in more or less as soon as the krausen dropped. Visible activity was incredibly low at that point, with only the standard yeast floaters and a few bubbles here or there. Two weeks passed and then all those white bubbles popped up pretty much overnight.

I am using pellets, but surely those bubbles would have appeared pretty quickly after adding the bag if it was just because of the hops?

The reason I think it's an infection is because the bubbles look like they're covered with a white film, which makes me think a pellicle is starting to form. If they didn't look filmy like that, I would chalk it up as regular old homebrewer's anxiety.

 

[WayFrae]

I agree that it looks like an infection. The bubbles appear thick and filmy.

 

[Smeato]

I'll keep you guys posted. Hopefully something good comes from this.

 

[Brauer]

I'm saying infection. I added unsanatized oak to a beer in secondary and got the same thing. After a little reading and posting pictures on the forum. I figured it to be a lacto infection. It was a six gallon batch. I bottled one gallon and it tastes great. 4 gallons went into separate 1 gallon carboys with various burbon and vanilla additions. The last gallon got pitched because I didn't have the capacity to store it. I'm gonna let it ride for a year and see how it turns out.