infection

[brewdrew2]

I have been helping a buddy brew some beer for his wedding reception and we went to bottle our last batch and opened the lid on the bucket of a blackberry wheat to find this. We went ahead and racked it to the bottling bucket and were careful not to get anything from the top layer. I tasted a little of it from the bottom of the bottling bucket when we were done and it didn't taste bad. However, I am relatively new to brewing and had not had anything that looks that bad. I imagine its some sort of Lacto infection ??? We have a month until the reception and plan on tasting it before and seeing how it tastes. Is it safe to drink if it tastes ok?

 

[HomeBrewMaster]

How did you clean the berries? and If it tastes ok and you all the top stuff off let it condition and see how it goes.

 

[brewdrew2]

They were frozen. I thought I had read there wasn't any need to pasteurize if they were frozen, but looks like that would have helped.

 

[TopherM]

Those white bubbly things are definitely lactobacillus, and your beer is going to sour. If you are at OG, keg/bottle and carb ASAP, then get the beer to fridge temps after it's carbed. That's the easiest way to stop the lactobacillus from producing lactic acid and souring your beer. It looks like you may have a couple other bacteria strains in there as well.

Taste it underneath the infection first to make sure it isn't already too far gone. If you have a month to produce a beer for a wedding, you need to know if this one is a lost cause so you can start a new one.

Good luck!

 

[dstranger99]

The hell with that, I would take it to the CDC, It could be the new MERS strain...........

 

[brewdrew2]

Thanks for the input. I tried it out of the bottom of the bottling bucket after we bottled and it did not taste bad. I will definitely get them in the fridge soon after they carb up and maybe make a backup batch.

 

[fearwig]

If you need shelf stability you can pasteurize at 165 once they're carbed. You can also do this bulk in a pot if you force carb.

 

[shortyz]

id like to name that apple crumble