Is my homebrew contaminated?

[Kilav]

Hey,
I'm new to this site and to brewing!
I know these pictures are a bit hard to make out but I'm wondering does anyone have an insight into whether these look contaminated or normal?
It's a Belgian blonde ale, a kit bought online (cooked own wart from grains).

This is how they look after having been bottled just over two weeks ago, different bottles have different amounts of this stuff floating on top. Any advice would be appreciated!!
Thanks in advance!

 

[Shenanigans]

Is the second picture from the beer in the fermenter?
Looks like hop oils I had on top of the wort of an IPA one time but I can't imagine there would be that much in a Belgian.
How does it taste?

 

[Kilav]

Is the second picture from the beer in the fermenter?
Looks like hop oils I had on top of the wort of an IPA one time but I can't imagine there would be that much in a Belgian.
How does it taste?

Ah now that you ask that it does look like it's in the fermenter but no it's in a bottle. We bottled some in glass and some in plastic. Haven't tasted it yet as wasn't sure if it was a good idea but have a bottle chilling currently for a taste test!

 

[kev211]

Welcome to brewing! Can you provide your recipe as well as any notes you may have taken? Did you take an OG or FG? What was your priming method for bottling? How long did you ferment before bottling? Definitely looks a little weird, almost like a SCOBY to me, which in a beer is not necessarily a good thing.

 

[Kilav]

Belgisk Blond​

Ølbrygging AS
Belgian-Style Blonde Ale
6.6% / 14 °P

BrewZilla / RoboBrew 35L​

72% efficiency
Batch Volume: 20 L
Boil Time: 60 min
Mash Water: 17 L
Sparge Water: 11.88 L
Total Water: 28.88 L
Boil Volume: 24.88 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.050

Vitals​

Original Gravity: 1.057
Final Gravity (Adv): 1.007
IBU (Tinseth): 24
BU/GU: 0.43
Colour: 8.1 EBC

Mash​

mash — 64 °C — 60 min
mash out — 78 °C — 15 min

Malts (5 kg)​

4 kg (80%) — Viking Malt Pilsner — Grain — 4 EBC
1 kg (20%) — Viking Malt Wheat — Grain — 6 EBC

Hops (60 g)​

10 g (19 IBU) — Columbus (Tomahawk) 16% — Boil — 60 min
30 g (3 IBU) — Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 4% — Boil — 5 min
20 g (2 IBU) — Tettnang (Tettnang Tettnager) 4.75% — Boil — 5 min

Yeast​

1 pkg — Fermentis BE-256 Safebrew Abbey Ale 82%

Fermentation​

Primary — 20 °C — 14 days
Carbonation: 2.8 CO2-vol


Thanks!
^ that's directly from the website where we got the kit & recipe etc.
It was fermented for three weeks before bottling. We added just grain sugar when priming, didn't think about making a sugar syrup until afterwards.

 

[kev211]

Original Gravity: 1.057
Final Gravity (Adv): 1.007

Are these your numbers then? Or the original recipe? One thing is to you the recipe from the website, but its always smart to take your own notes so you know what YOU did and not what the recipe creator did (I.E. your gravity readings, your mash temps, carbonation notes, etc)

Im starting to think that it might be a pellicle. The waxy coating in the second pic and the small island floating with the bubbles definitely looks like the formation of a pellicle. Have you tried one yet? Any sour notes?

Last question... What was your sanitation method?

 

[Kilav]

Original Gravity: 1.057
Final Gravity (Adv): 1.007

Are these your numbers then? Or the original recipe? One thing is to you the recipe from the website, but its always smart to take your own notes so you know what YOU did and not what the recipe creator did (I.E. your gravity readings, your mash temps, carbonation notes, etc)

Im starting to think that it might be a pellicle. The waxy coating in the second pic and the small island floating with the bubbles definitely looks like the formation of a pellicle. Have you tried one yet? Any sour notes?

Last question... What was your sanitation method?

Those numbers are the predicted ones from the recipe, we forgot to take the original gravity ourselves (as I say, first time brewing) but we took the final one and it was the same as the predicted one.
Will try one now and report on taste.
Tbh the sanitation method was probably not ideal, we made up a large batch of the disinfectant in the pot that we used for the cooking originally and used that to soak the bottles and then rinsed with water from the tap. Also soaked the caps etc in a smaller pot

 

[mac_1103]

we made up a large batch of the disinfectant in the pot that we used for the cooking originally and used that to soak the bottles and then rinsed with water from the tap

What disinfectant did you use?

 

[Kilav]

What disinfectant did you use?

Stellar clean by kegland

 

[mac_1103]

Stellar clean by kegland

This? It's a cleaner not a sanitizer.

 

[Kilav]

This? It's a cleaner not a sanitizer.

Ooooh it came with the fermzilla kit we bought and we thought it was disinfectant. I'm reading more now and yeah it's detergent. So basically we washed everything but didn't sanitize at all. We just tasted a bottle, smelled perfect but the taste was definitely weird, and had a strange aftertaste. Also the cap flew off, didn't explode the bottle but probably too much sugar or something also

 

[mac_1103]

Also the cap flew off, didn't explode the bottle but probably too much sugar or something also

You didn't necessarily add too much sugar. An infection can lead to excess carbonation by fermenting residual complex sugars that the yeast can't. You need to be extremely careful with those bottles since whatever bugs got in there might not be done generating CO2 and you could wind up with gushers or worse, bottle bombs.

 

[lumpher]

Based on the pictures, your description of a "weird taste", the bottles being over-pressurized, and not using a sanitizer, I will say yes, you're looking at an infection. Keep those bottles cold and contained, and be prepared to drink or dump fast so they don't become bottle-bombs and explode.

 

[hotbeer]

If you know what your FG was at bottling time, the let it go flat and then take the SG again. If it's gone way lower, that probably is a good indication it's infected.

Still infection doesn't mean dump it. Taste and aroma tell you whether to dump it.

 

[Kilav]

You didn't necessarily add too much sugar. An infection can lead to excess carbonation by fermenting residual complex sugars that the yeast can't. You need to be extremely careful with those bottles since whatever bugs got in there might not be done generating CO2 and you could wind up with gushers or worse, bottle bombs.

Yikes yeah we'll try to open them carefully tomorrow after they're cool and hopefully they don't explode!

 

[Kilav]

Based on the pictures, your description of a "weird taste", the bottles being over-pressurized, and not using a sanitizer, I will say yes, you're looking at an infection. Keep those bottles cold and contained, and be prepared to drink or dump fast so they don't become bottle-bombs and explode.

Definitely will get on it asap thanks for the advice!