Infection (possibly) your thoughts

[brcisna]

Hello All,

On about the 10th 5 gallon brew batch. NEWBIE. This is an Cerveza Sole clone recipe,,BUT substituted the bundled yeast with 2 oz of Saf-Instant yeast which is used at a local cookie/cracker factory. My previous brew with this recipe turned out great. Just wanted to try something different to see what results were with this type of yeast.

The picture shows the brew at 17 days fermentation. The bubbler showed light activity for about the first week then started going to very tiny bubbles,so I pulled the lid off,,,which I have never done before until ready to rack to bottling bucket. At one week on top was seeing what looked good small tan active 'fizzling' fermenting going on. The brew does have a very good smell to it in the fermenting bucket.
For clarification the bubbles in the photo are paper white.It is not what i would call the yeast pockets which are slightly tanish in color as i have seen this when getting ready to rack to bottling bucket before.

Have read in other threads were people have used bread yeast in recipes with good results.

Thanks.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I'm no expert, but that looks a lot like the pictures I've seen of a lactobacillus infection. A clearer picture would be helpful though.

 

[Brownalemikie]

A better quality pic would help, but that does look infected.

 

[jschein]

A better quality pic would help, but that does look infected.

Yeah better picture, what is that green bucket you are using?

 

[brcisna]

The green bucket is just a 5 gallon food grade bucket

Thanks

 

[Brownalemikie]

Hmmm, those don't look like yeast floaters to me. I guess we'll find out soon.

 

[brcisna]

Another thought. At one weeks time I did take the lid off to check to see what the fermenting looked like with this SAF-Instant yeast. This is the first time i've ever pulled the lid open priorr to racking to the bottling bucket. Is it possible the air let it caused this?
At the one weeks time as i said previously i was seeing lots of small tanish 'fizzling' going on on top of brew.
Bummer. The brew does have a good smell to it too.

Thanks

 

[IslandLizard]

That white skin on top blowing bubbles is a pellicle, it's definitely infected! Bacterial activity.

Is this an open fermentation or do you have a well fitting lid on it normally? Something got in there or your equipment wasn't clean and sanitized properly, which means something grew.

It's likely a sour taste will develop more over time, which isn't always bad, if you like that sort of thing. Now some bacterial fermentation byproducts could be less pleasing. You be the judge. It won't kill you.

 

[madscientist451]

I'd pull a small sample and taste it. If it tastes OK, you can still bottle, but I'd keep them refrigerated and use as soon as possible.
A sour lactic taste usually takes a while to develop. If it smells really bad, it might be better to dump it. If it smells OK but tastes just bad I'd dump it and start over.

 

[gromitdj]

How was the yeast packaged? You say it's the same yeast used by a local bakery, so did you bring some home in a container? If so, I might suspect the yeast. Bakery yeast is often not stored in a sanitary manner because there isn't a need to do so. Also, (I am assuming here) it may not acclimate to the beer as quickly as brewers yeast, leaving it susceptible to infection.