Infected?

[A4J]

Sorry for sounding like a noob, but does this look infected?

It started out as a regular kolsch which I used 2-year old grain. It was in primary for 2 weeks before I racked it to secondary where I add hibiscus flowers. Those are the dark floaties you see. The flowers were soaked in vodka for a couple minutes before putting them in the secondary. Primary and secondary temps were in the mid 60's.

I just tasted it. There's a hint of sourness.

If it is infected, is there any way to salvage it?

Can I use this fermentor again?

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

i'm not one to say the sky is falling, but i don't like the look of those stringier things along with the clumps. it hurt my neck to look at your pic for too long, so maybe someone else has a better idea of what it is, but i've never seen something like that. hopefully someone else has and has a better idea of what it may or may not be.

 

[scottatdrake]

Does it taste infected? That's how you know.

 

[A4J]

Does it taste infected? That's how you know.

what does infected beer taste like? It's a little sour but not too overpowering.

 

[DarthMalt]

I've had beers look similar and they turned out fine. Of course, without the sour taste...

 

[Bsquared]

Don't hibiscus flowers have a tart flavor? if any thing you might have go some bugs from the hibiscus flowers, vodka is only around 40% alcohol. That would be plenty to inhibit growth, but for alcohol to be an effective sanitizing agent you need it to be 70-80% and have a 20 min exposure time.

you could streak some out on a culture plate and see if you get bacterial colonies, or make a little starter and incubate it at 100-110ºF over night and see if any thing grows in it. If its got Bacteria in it there should be grown, if its just yeast in there you wont see much growth if any.

Its hard to say what might be going on, best just let it sit for a while and keep an eye on it.

 

[A4J]

Don't hibiscus flowers have a tart flavor?

They do. But what I'm tasting is definitely sour, like a lambic or flanders.

you could streak some out on a culture plate and see if you get bacterial colonies, or make a little starter and incubate it at 100-110ºF over night and see if any thing grows in it. If its got Bacteria in it there should be grown, if its just yeast in there you wont see much growth if any.

I might have access to a lab tomorrow, but tell me more about the starter. Is it like a yeast starter without the yeast? And how would I incubate it at those temps?

Its hard to say what might be going on, best just let it sit for a while and keep an eye on it.

I was actually getting ready to keg it.

 

[Bsquared]

If you can make a regular starter, and you really only need like a cup of it. I made a little incubator for my Lacto starters by putting a heating pad (make sure its not one that automatically turns off after 90min) into an ice chest, and hooked it up to a ranco temperature controller, set it for heating, and set the temp to 100ºF. It worked great for me.

If you don't have a temperature controller, you might be able to get away with just putting the heating pad on low and put the starter on top of it, and just leave it on your counter top over night. Im not sure how hot it would get though, but you could check it out, as long as you are not getting over 130º you should be good.

One other thing I just though of, is heat some water (1 or 2 gallons) up to 110-120º and put that in to a cooler, then put your starter in it like a water bath. If you lose ~1º/hr (like we see when we use coolers for mash tuns) the temp should only fall about 20-25º over night. That should work.