Is my Beer infected?

[Stef1966]

Hi there good people,
Just bottled a new batch of my usual Ale and i just noticed some little particles or white dots of stuff floating near the top or neck of the bottles.

The taste is ok, I was wondering if some of you have ever had this peculiar phenomenon, could it be contaminated by something?

Tried to snap a couple of close up pics of one of the bottles below,
thanks so much in advance for any hints.

 

[FlyGuy]

Hard to say from the photos. But that scum growing on the neck of the bottle looks like it might be a wild yeast infection. You will know right away because the carbonation in the bottles will start to become higher and higher, and the beer will loose body and flavour as the wild yeast consume the sugars the brewer's yeast left behind.

It might be nothing, but if you do start to notice any off flavours, get that beer in the fridge immediately (cold temps will slow down the infection), and waste no time drinking that beer (it won't keep long, even in the fridge).

Hopefully, its nothing though. I just make these comments to be cautious.

 

[Stef1966]

Thanks a lot FlyGuy,

I want to add, i use white labs liquid yeasts, i do save some yeasts picked from the primary cake in the fridge for future batches for each vial i buy, but this time, it took a while for the yeast to show any signs of activity.
(there wasn't any after 24 hours the first day)
so i pitched another bottle of yeast in it from the same strain, 24 hours later, still nothing.

Then pitched another strain of previously saved yeast, then after about 8 hours, it begun showing the usual signs of yeast activity in my primary.

I think that the first two attempts not working, it left a lot of time for wild yeast to take advantage of the whole batch...?

Anyways, I'll use all the advices i can get on here, and will always make a yeast starter from now on.

 

[tipicreeper]

+1 on the starter.
Brewed a 5 gal. AG ESB on Sunday and pitched a 1Lt starter at 6:00pm. By 10:00pm it started showing first signs. By Monday 6:00am I had foam in the blow off bottle and right now it looks as though it's winding down.

 

[FlyGuy]

I think that the first two attempts not working, it left a lot of time for wild yeast to take advantage of the whole batch...?

Yes, that is possible.

I sure hope that your beer isn't infected. But if it is, know that wild yeast infections are nasty. Years ago, I ruined 4 or 5 batches of beer in a row with a recurring infection that was harbored somewhere in my plastic equipment.

If you use a plastic fermenter, retire it and buy a new one. Replace your racking hoses. If your dishwasher has a sanitize cycle, put your autosiphon, airlocks, etc., inside for a double wash.

I don't want to be alarmist, but I wasted a lot of time, energy and money on that one infection that got out of control. If you run into the same problem, I hope you can avoid the frustration I went through.

Keep us posted on how things turn out. I'll be very curious to know.

 

[Stef1966]

Yikes! sounds awfully scary FlyGuy...

So far the bottles i drink show a normal carbonation and a nice taste.

One last thing, when boiling my worth, i had about half a jar of honey i threw in there just for the sakes of having something a little different, but most of this honey had already turned granulated (crystallized), almost waxy, could it be what im seeing in the bottles now?

Or maybe I'm being dead wrong here, if we heat granulated honey in the worth it should reverse back to it's liquid form right?

anyone ever used granulated honey as an ingredient?

 

[FlyGuy]

I can't say for sure, but that doesn't look like it is related to the honey you added. Glad to hear they taste great and have no open signs of infection. To be safe, you could keep as much of the batch chilled as possible, just in case.

 

[Stef1966]

Thanks again, i got a little fridge downstairs i use just for beer in the summer, I'll try to cram as many as i can in there, thing is, they aren't as carbonated as i like em to be, but it's better than loosing the whole batch.

 

[Stef1966]

Well, still drinking the stuff, so far it just tastes right.

Stuff is still flaky, so I'm filtering it trough a cloth as im pouring it to a glass.

Guess i'll never know what got in there... I'll just be double maniac about sanitizing next time.

 

[winzerz]

hey stef do not forget to SAVE the white lab vials

you can turn em in for stuff

in fact on their website it shows what stuff you can get

if you save 5000 of em the owner of white labs will come to your house and

brew a batch of beer with ya

 

[Stef1966]

*LMAO* i can already see myself piling 5000 plastic vials...

sent with a note: "Here are my 5000 vials, would like to exchange 'em for a liver transplant please..."

 

[BrewinJack]

Wheres Revvy... he hasnt weighed in yet...

 

[Stef1966]

Well all this batch is gone, and it was damn good stuff.