Infected? (picture)

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

elielilang

Active Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
37
Reaction score
0
Location
Portland
Well, what do you guys think?
Looks nasty to me. White stuff looks like snow... big turd looking thing is a dry hop bag...
should i bottle it anyway? will it make me sick?

photo.jpg
 
Meh, yeah looks a bit infected. Did you clean and sanitize your hop bag first?

First of all, no... nothing that can live in beer can harm humans. It may give you a stomach ache if you're not used to or fond of sours. But sick? Never. Beer was used as a substitute for drinking water for many many years in areas where clean water was not available.

I'd recommend racking into a secondary but rack under the surface where the bugs are. Then take a gravity reading and the check the gravity again in a week and then again another week later. If the gravity hasn't changed then you're good to bottle.

I recommend such a long time to check (1-2 weeks) because souring microorganisms can often take a lot longer than beer yeast to get going.
 
Did you taste it? If not, go ahead and taste it. Thats the only way to confirm an infection. If it taste ok then skim that crap off the top and bottle it.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I did sanitize everything. im really good about it and have never had a bad batch... i did, for the first time, not use a secondary for dryhopping. i know this doesn't make a difference.. this infection happened over the last 48 hours. and the wort was already finished fermenting. before i read that last response i racked the beer into my bottling bucket... and added dextrose for bottling... should I go for it?
 
i just tasted it, i think it tastes fine, IBU for this beer is like 105, so the bitterness kinda covers the rest... leeeeroyyy jennnkins.
 
ya this puppy will be good if the infection doesn't stick. lots of bittering hops, lots of late cascade and lots of Amarillo in the Dry hopper. mmmm
 
Nice! I brewed an ipa last week and I only used citra hops. I will be dry hopping it next week. Hopefully I can find some whole leaf citra hops. I don't think I will use a hop bag after reading this though. Haha
 
Yah, rack from under the nasty stuff and bottle it. It might taste a little funky or it might not; it is worth the chance!
 
Nice! I brewed an ipa last week and I only used citra hops. I will be dry hopping it next week. Hopefully I can find some whole leaf citra hops. I don't think I will use a hop bag after reading this though. Haha

i did one of those last year, came out a little to "musty" for my taste. I think mixing citra with other hopps works out better.
 
"When the beer is fermenting, it produces co2, which mostly escapes out the airlock, but some of it can stay in solution in the beer. the hop particles are probably just attracting this co2 and that is the bubbles you are seeing."

"Probably just some dissolved CO2 coming out of solution and getting trapped in the hop debris. Elevating the temperature or creating nucleation sites (dry hops in this case) will release dissolved CO2 from the beer. If you usually dry hop in secondary you may not notice this because racking will degas the beer."
 
"When the beer is fermenting, it produces co2, which mostly escapes out the airlock, but some of it can stay in solution in the beer. the hop particles are probably just attracting this co2 and that is the bubbles you are seeing."

"Probably just some dissolved CO2 coming out of solution and getting trapped in the hop debris. Elevating the temperature or creating nucleation sites (dry hops in this case) will release dissolved CO2 from the beer. If you usually dry hop in secondary you may not notice this because racking will degas the beer."

It may just be me but that 100% does not look like bubbles, especially the stuff at the top of the hop bag a good inch away from the liquid surface. It looks powdery or flaky.
 
ya it was like white flakes of snow. I think it was the beginning of an infection but I bottled it, so we will see how it comes out. it tasted fine when I tried it so I have my fingers crossed. My only concern is that, because I added dextros for bottle carbonation, the infection will eat that extra sugar and get worse in the bottles. anyone have experience with this?
 
Just a quick update for anyone that is afraid they have infected a batch and it is ruined: DONT TOSS IT OUT. this batch look bad to me but i racked it to a bottling bucket, left out the top 2 inches of beer from the fermentor and bottled it. It has been warm here so bottle carbonation went quickly. I opened the first one today and it is 100% ok and has no infected taste. actually one of the better beers I have made.

Just a quick heads up to everyone out there with some funk on your wort, dont dispare, the beer gods are kind.
 
I agree I would not put in the effort to brew a batch and then pitch it until I was 100 percent sure it was not worth keeping
 
Back
Top