Infected Double IPA...What are my options?

[adamjackson]

Well, my 7th batch of beer went on crazy on me. After transferring to secondary for dry hopping, I let it sit for 6 days. I see now about 4 patches about 2 inches in diameter of what appears to be the beginnings of lactobacillus. Of course, right now, they're very small traces. I was going to cold crash this tomorrow and transfer to keg so I'm cold crashing it now instead.

So..curious my options. If I just keep this beer in the carboy for a year, will anything awesome happen to it? I wouldn't imagine a soured DIPA is any good. Most lambic wild beers use a majority wheat and this is a 7.5% IPA dry hopped with citra.

Now, I'm really starting to worry for a second reason. I currently have a wine glass culturing some dregs from a few lambic blueberry beers and it's just covered with plastic saran wrap style stuff. Can these babies permeate that plastic? Is that how the infection happened? They snuck in undetected throughout the week? If my brewery (aka beer closet with an AC unit) is now infested with critters, what do I do to get them out? Just had a big blow out where the blow-off tube on my Saison got clogged and was left uncovered for 24 hours...wonder if the Lacto will have its way with that as well?

I'm more worried now about long term sanitization of that glass of critters.

This is a loaded thread I know. I appreciate the help.

 

[beeber]

Infections tend to get worse with time, at least from my experience. I have had a few, and as soon as I recognized them I tried to consume what I could as fast as possible. If it was too hard to drink then down the drain it goes. I would dry hop to the extreme, then keg or bottle, and drink away until I couldn't stand it any longer. Good luck!

 

[TyTanium]

Take a deep breath. Relax, haha.

For the IIPA - rack from underneath & drink quickly. The "wait & see" method for unintentional infections rarely turns out well.
For your Saison - don't worry, pretty sure it's fine
For your glass - no, they can't go through saran wrap. The don't crawl, they drift on dust.
For your closet - no, it's not infested.

Post a picture. It may not even be lacto.

 

[adamjackson]

Take a deep breath. Relax, haha.

For the IIPA - rack from underneath & drink quickly. The "wait & see" method for unintentional infections rarely turns out well.
For your Saison - don't worry, pretty sure it's fine
For your glass - no, they can't go through saran wrap. The don't crawl, they drift on dust.
For your closet - no, it's not infested.

Post a picture. It may not even be lacto.

Ty, you're like my fairy homebrew angel. thanks man.

I'm just going on lacto based on online photos & what I'm seeing in this wine glass. It looked like a thin layer but really just tiny spots. I'll wrack from underneath and see what happens. It smelled wonderful (as dry hopping usually does) so that's a good sign

 

[TyTanium]

Haha, you ask great questions which I enjoy answering And they always seem to be when I'm waiting for a large data report to finish or something.

 

[RainyDay]

Kind of makes me wonder what an IIPA intentionally infected with Lacto or Brett would be like.

 

[david_42]

Lacto can't get through a plastic barrier, but if it is out and free in your brewery, you have a major problem. Scrubbing out the whole operation, walls, ceiling, cabinets, everything will be needed.

And ditto on consuming the DIPA ASAP. Less chance for the lacto to spread and, besides the aroma/flavor will fade in 3-4 months anyway.

 

[adamjackson]

Kind of makes me wonder what an IIPA intentionally infected with Lacto or Brett would be like.

Ya know, maybe I should move a gallon of this to my 1Gallon jug and see what happens in a year? I'm very curious. Lambics are mostly wheat....would a DIPA with Lacto survive + taste good?

Lacto can't get through a plastic barrier, but if it is out and free in your brewery, you have a major problem. Scrubbing out the whole operation, walls, ceiling, cabinets, everything will be needed.

And ditto on consuming the DIPA ASAP. Less chance for the lacto to spread and, besides the aroma/flavor will fade in 3-4 months anyway.

My "brewery" is a closet full of 400+ cellarable beers + fermenting beers. Cleaning would be VERY hard but I do trust Ty.

I'm gonna consume it very fast. It's my favorite beer. Have a honey Saison, oaked stout, DIPA and Blackberry wheat on tap. The DIPA always goes first so I'm sure it'll be alright.

 

[TyTanium]

david_42 is far more experienced than I am...I would defer to his advice. But hopefully you don't have an "out and about" culture...hopefully it's isolated to that carboy.

There are plenty of threads with more info for diagnostics, cleanup, etc.