Infection! Will my beer survive?

[IndyBlueprints]

So I made an Imperial Stout. I took some oak, soaked it in bourbon for about 18 hours. Pretty sure i didnt soak it long enough to kill wild spores. A white forest, with some bubbles, grew on top in about 4 days. What is this, and did it ruin my beer? I did rack it off into another carboy, and added 1/4 tsp of potassium metabisulfite .

 

[applescrap]

Could that be tasty? I mean I like sours. What does it taste like. I am pretty certain it is safe to drink.

 

[IndyBlueprints]

Could that be tasty? I mean I like sours. What does it taste like. I am pretty certain it is safe to drink.

It doesn't taste sour. Right now it doesn't taste bad.

 

[day_trippr]

No telling what critter that is or what it'll do just by looking at it.
But it's surely a candidate for The Pellicle Collection in the Lambic/Wild Brewing forum.

If you're kegging you could rack under the pellicle and consume quickly. Bottling could be dicey if the wild beasties are dropping the gravity, could end up with a case of grenades...

 

[pinchegil]

If it tastes ok, drink it quick. I had the same thing happen when I was still using plastic, I managed to drink about half of until it actually started to get a nasty vinegary taste.

 

[divrack]

If it tastes ok still id guess it's a wild yeast like Brett and may be a good thing. (One of my best beers was a with that turned to the dark side when I was away on holiday.
If you keg it's no problem, just keep it and drink it. Bottles is harder as there is some risk of bombs. You can always bottle but you'd want to under prime a bit and be very careful to release some pressure if they started becoming gushers (not very advisable). The alternative would be to take hydro readings several days apart until you are confident no gravity drips are happening but this risks it turning as you will be letting in o2.
If you can spare the carboy I'd forget about it for a few months and you might have something awesome, or might have vinegar.

 

[Miraculix]

Either drink it really quick or age it. If it is a nice brett it might end up nice when aged, or maybe not, you never know. Brett works very slow, so if you want to be sure before botteling take two readings a month apart from each other.

 

[newtobrew1981]

I'd say you had some wild yeast in the cubes. Which formed a pellicle because of oxygen exposure. The bubbles your seeing was trapped co2. But putting metabisulfite in there you've killed every thing in there hope your fermentation was complete

 

[newtobrew1981]

So I made an Imperial Stout. I took some oak, soaked it in bourbon for about 18 hours. Pretty sure i didnt soak it long enough to kill wild spores. A white forest, with some bubbles, grew on top in about 4 days. What is this, and did it ruin my beer? I did rack it off into another carboy, and added 1/4 tsp of potassium metabisulfite .View attachment 568609

Should have left it alone it probably would have turned into a happy accident

 

[Jayjay1976]

So I made an Imperial Stout. I took some oak, soaked it in bourbon for about 18 hours. Pretty sure i didnt soak it long enough to kill wild spores. A white forest, with some bubbles, grew on top in about 4 days. What is this, and did it ruin my beer? I did rack it off into another carboy, and added 1/4 tsp of potassium metabisulfite .View attachment 568609

Your beer should survive but will humanity?
That looks like it's going to be very tasty.