infected, yeast of brew last, or wild? you judge

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expatbrew

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Long time stalker, first time poster. Forum is a great help, and wealth of knowledge. Did lots of searching but figured a picture is worth 1000 words.

After a 5 year brewing hiatus in being stuck in China, I'm now in Singapore and back to brewing. This is my 10th or so batch I a year; all grain.

It's hot as he'll here so I brewed this Sunday, immersion chiller, put in my sanitized fermentor and left in the fridge over night to bring down the pitch temp.

Opened the fridge, temp looked good, grabbed my yeast, ready to pitch, opened fermentor and the saw this.

ForumRunner_20130128_231737.jpg



ForumRunner_20130128_231737.jpg

I've read if it has a krausen than its not bacteria, so I pitched my yeast anyway and hope for the best.

It's a single hopped, simcoe ipa. OG 1.070
Pitched SAF-05
 
When I first looked at the pictures I was preparing to reply " normal healthy ferment" then I read your post and realized that you had not yet pitched the yeast. It looks like spontaneous fermentation. How does it smell? Does it smell nasty? Did you put an airlock on it before you put it in the frige? Who knows, youm may have discovered the great missing Chinese yeast
 
Yes this is before I pitched my yeast. There was an airlock on the fermentor. I sanitize everything with a spray bottle of sanstar.

I bought a few lbs of hops while in the US, and brought them back.

Not much smell coming off. I'll check again today, and see how it's going.
 
Update; 12 hours after pitching, the saf-05 is starting to grow.

I took a sample which tasted bitter and sweet, no sour or strange flavors. Smell coming off fermentor is sweet and a little tropical fruity.

I have about 4oz of late addition simcoe in this batch, so that should explain the fruity smell.

Last batch in this fermenter was either a us-06 wheat, or pilsner.

Never used Brett, and only drank a few orval in the house way back. so not sure where Brett could have come from, if it is brett.

ForumRunner_20130129_074000.jpg
 
No other guesses? Wild yeast the best bet? Any way to test and tell what it actually is.
 
If it were mine, I'd let it go until the SG stops dropping, and then taste it. If it smells like beer bottle it and don't worry. If its an unhealthy bacteria, your gag reflex will probably toss it out of your mouth right quick. If it tastes OK, bottle. As a precaution I would cut the priming sugar to half what you would usually use. I have never had an infected batch, but from what I have read in other threads, bacteria in *general* ferment more slowly and drop to a lower SG. Reducing priming sugar should help reduce the likelyhood of bottle bombs should there be some bacteria working in there. Please update this thread when you are ready to taste. I'd be interested in hearing how it turns out. Also, I'd be interested in hearing yur sanitizing procedure for the fermenter, beginning with emptying the fermenter from the previous batch. I'm thinking that perhaps some krausen fromn the previous batch stayed in the recess of the bucket and was transferred to the new one. If that's the case you simply have fermentation with an unplanned beer yeast.
 
Day 3
ForumRunner_20130130_225022.jpg
Everything looks normal at this point. Fermentation smells sweet; not sure if that is good or bad. Slow bubbles on airlock. I ferment in a little fridge so temp is about 60 f.

Okay so cleaning.
I first spray and rinse with the hose about 2 to 3 time.
Next, soap and a sponge wipe down inside and out.
Rinse a few more times
Dry.
Put in storage upside down
Rinse with water.
Let dry
Spray with Sanstar
Let sit 10 min
Let deep dry
Add wort

And more than happy to play guinea pig and bottle the batch. Living in Asia for 7 years, originally from USA, not much food wise scares me any more.
 
Well if you look a little into spontaneous fermentation, the Saccharomyces(brewers yeast) always starts first and finishes most of the gravity, then everything else comes to play (brett, lactic bacteria, etc) over the next few months-years. So id be worried that it will sour over time in the bottle; drink it fast!
 
Okay, as an update. Went ahead and bottled the beer, and everything turned out 'okay'.

No of flavor or aroma, but it stayed cloudy.

Drank the batch while it was fresh, to no ill effects.

Spent the weekend scrubbing all equipment, and giving it a good bleach soak.
 
Okay, as an update. Went ahead and bottled the beer, and everything turned out 'okay'.

No of flavor or aroma, but it stayed cloudy.

Drank the batch while it was fresh, to no ill effects.

Spent the weekend scrubbing all equipment, and giving it a good bleach soak.

Fingers crossed it doesn't happen again.
 
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