Is this an infection?

[jcarson83]

Getting ready to bottle today and opened the secondary to see this. Should I even bother?

 

[rod]

try racking from underneath the floaties and stop before it reaches your syphon
then taste it - if good bottle if nasty then dump.
good luck

 

[RichBrewer]

try racking from underneath the floaties and stop before it reaches your syphon
then taste it - if good bottle if nasty then dump.
good luck

I agree. Rack it to your bottling bucket and try a sample. Be careful not to get any of that white stuff into it. I've never seen anything like that.
Good luck.

 

[jcarson83]

Racked as suggested, tasted and it wasn't too terrible. Leaves an extreme bitter taste, not like hops. I guess I'll let it condition in the bottles and see.

Thats my second infection in a row. Bummer

 

[Torchiest]

Maybe you have some scratches in your bucket? I've heard they can harbor bacteria and other nasties.

 

[jcarson83]

Well I let my wife take a sample and she said it tasted good. Then she asked why. Maybe I just had a bad attitude about it.

 

[Torchiest]

Yeah, sometimes we can bias ourselves into thinking something is wrong with our beer because of some unrelated thing. That happened to me when I was checking the gravity on my trappist a while back. I'd been cleaning bottles all day and thought the beer tasted like soap. Caused me a lot of grief until I tried it weeks later and it was fine as you please.

 

[EdWort]

My Haus Pale Ale looked like that and it turned out to be one of the finest beers I've ever brewed.

 

[jcarson83]

My Haus Pale Ale looked like that and it turned out to be one of the finest beers I've ever brewed.

Well I guess I'm glad I bottled it then. I was just going to dump it until I got some replies. I love this forum.

 

[JnJ]

I'm not sure what that is, but it doesn't look like infection to me. Usually beer is infected with a mold that is fuzzy or hairy. Any way, I bet it will be fine.

 

[Beer Weevel]

I also have tried a beer and boy did it taste bad. Then a couple of weeks later I tried the same beer and I tasted great. Is there such a things as good tasting days and bad tasting days?

 

[Blktre]

Getting ready to bottle today and opened the secondary to see this. Should I even bother?

Classic example of a lacto infection. This usually is a result of sanitation. FYI, id get your beer cold as temp. can prolong the infection from growing until its not palletable any longer. Warmer temps will speed it up. It wont hurt you so dont worry about that. Also, if there was any grain dust from milling, this can cause it.

Id also double strength Starsan and soak all your equipment, bottles, kegs, everthing, replace all racking tubing. If thats a bucket your secondarying in, i would use glass or stainless to do that, check for scratches. Those harbor bacteria as suggested. Then revisit your sanitation techniqes and include starsan as your primary sanitizer. Happens to everyone if you keep brewing long enuff.....good luck!

 

[thenatibrewer]

i am all for not wasting any homebrew, but man that $@%^ looks nasty. i would have to cut my loses go to all glass and give it another shot. oh well good luck keep us informed.

 

[uglygoat]

make sure you tell eveyone it's a belgian ale prized for it's bacteria strains...

i've had one batch develpe that skin in the bottles. i just poured carefully, tasted just fine.

 

[Johannes]

I have that type of contamination from using plastic fermenters/secondaries. Each one infected the next until all my buckets were contaminated. I lost several batches before I figured out the problem. I was distraught. I switched to glass carboys and have been fine since. The plastic gets scratched over time. Get rid of the bucket and switch to glass. You won't regret it.

 

[Markusface]

Nobody's had this problem with Better Bottles have they? I'd be distraught if they could possibly cause this... I'll just have to be careful not to scratch them I guess

 

[Ol' Grog]

With glass comes other problems. Ever had one of those bad boys bust on you and you got 5 gallons of brew all over the kitchen or garage? Makes for a very non-happy wife.

 

[Blktre]

I think there are some misunderstandings here on infections and type of material to secondary in. As far as secondarying, plastic is frowned upon for allowing o2 to seep in over time. Thats the main reason.
It doesnt matter what type of material is used to ferment in, a infection can get ahold of glass, stainless whatever. This is a sanitation issue number 1. Of course scratches can harbor bacteria. Scratches are harder to clean and sanitize. So please dont think that because you are using glass or stainless that you are protected, your not.
Glass, plastic better bottles, buckets, and stainless use what you like. Clean and sanitize well. Starsan imo, is the best sanitizer out there. The foam gets into places other sanitizers cant get to. It has a short contact time and can be bulk mixed/stored for future use. Clean and sanitize well, and you will greatly reduce if not totally protect yourself from infections....And dont use plastic for long term secondary....good luck......

edit: I have read that better bottles reduce the amount of o2 saturation over regular plastic. But, im still a glass secondary guy for sure!

 

[JnJ]

I think there are some misunderstandings here on infections and type of material to secondary in. As far as secondarying, plastic is frowned upon for allowing o2 to seep in over time. Thats the main reason.
It doesnt matter what type of material is used to ferment in, a infection can get ahold of glass, stainless whatever. This is a sanitation issue number 1. Of course scratches can harbor bacteria. Scratches are harder to clean and sanitize. So please dont think that because you are using glass or stainless that you are protected, your not.
Glass, plastic better bottles, buckets, and stainless use what you like. Clean and sanitize well. Starsan imo, is the best sanitizer out there. The foam gets into places other sanitizers cant get to. It has a short contact time and can be bulk mixed/stored for future use. Clean and sanitize well, and you will greatly reduce if not totally protect yourself from infections....And dont use plastic for long term secondary....good luck......

edit: I have read that better bottles reduce the amount of o2 saturation over regular plastic. But, im still a glass secondary guy for sure!

I always use better bottles as secondaries and have never had a problem.

 

[SOB]

I don't need to read the rest of the post...

First question: Does it hurt when you pee?

 

[boo boo]

I primary in plastic buckets and have done so for about 200 + batches and never (knocks on wood) had an infection. I do keep my buckets filled with bleach water in between brewing for a few days before rinsing well with hot water and then sanatizing with star-san before storing them.

 

[Kaiser]

Another way to sanitize a bucket is to add boiling water to it (you can bring your sparge water to a boil and let it cool down in the bucket). This will also reach any bacteria hiding in scratches.

Kai

 

[jcarson83]

Honestly, I don't think it had anything to do with the bucket but I won't rule it out completely. I would rather blame it on the stupid long hair cat, that my wife loves, and its hair that floats around my house.

Actually I use starsan for all my sanitizing and since this was a secondary I would have used 2.5gal, put about .5gal in the secondary, swish it around, wipe down the sides and dump it back into the other bucket. It sat in secondary for about a month until I had time to get around to it so that might have contributed to the size of the infection.

 

[jcarson83]

For those of you who may come across this post and are looking for a solution to a similar problem, DON'T THROW IT OUT.

I went ahead and bottled it and let it set for a few weeks, not that great. It was already bottled so I kinda gave up on it and just left it in the closet until I ran out of bottles. Well I got t he bright idea of mixing it with a porter to help the taste so I went to the store, bought a sixer of porter, cracked the homebrew and gave it a taste before I mixed them up. It was AWESOME. Somehow the lactic acid flavor went completely away. Now its a nice clean tasting beer. Not that great of carbonation because the lactos infection ate up my priming sugar but its good enough that I can't get my wife to quit drinking them. I've got six left and its hands off for another few months to see how the flavors may change some more.

 

[delboy]

glad to hear the story had a happy ending