Lacto Infection - What Now?

[hibbleton]

Hey everyone. I hate to contribute another infection thread, but I have 5 gallongs of English barleywine that's been in a glass carboy for bulk aging for 11 days that is starting to grow some lacto skin. This carboy previously housed a Berliner Weiss so I'm almost positive it's a lacto infection; I guess I didn't kill everything by cleaning and soaking the carboy in Star San. I thought lacto was alcohol intolerant and this beer is about 8% ABV.

My question now is what would you do with this? I'll be bottling this, not kegging. The options I'm thinking are:
1. Nothing. Let the lacto grow and bottle in a couple of months.
2. Bottle now from underneath and hope the infection hasn't done too much damage (or once it appears has it already taken hold?)
3. Toss a campden tablet in there to kill everything and repitch yeast at bottling.
4. Dry hop with 1oz Hallertau (lacto hates hops right? Is that enough to do the job?)
5. Toss in some bourbon and oak and see what comes out.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[stubbornman]

I vote wait for 6 months and taste it.

 

[spenghali]

Let the lacto be!

 

[hibbleton]

Once the lacto skin appears on the surface of the beer has the infection already taken hold or is there a way to kill the lacto and prevent further souring besides using campden tablets?

 

[KuntzBrewing]

I recently had an infection in my glass carboy and everyone told me to Oxyclean it then use bleach/water to sanitize

 

[jonmohno]

What do you use in your airlocks? I think idophor failed in some of mine.
I replace the fluid in it every week i ferment.

 

[KuntzBrewing]

Here is a good way to prevent another infection

Here is my "nuclear option" process after a beer is contaminated:

1. Wash everything in warm soapy water. Soap removes a lot of bacteria by itself and will break up any deposits or films produced.

2. Oxyclean everything for about in hour in warm water(1 scoop to 5 gallons of water). Will rip through any deposits or films left. It likely also has some sanitizer properties since its basically powdered hydrogen peroxide(but I wouldn't use it as such).

3. 10% bleach bath for 15 minutes. This will kill anything left.

4. Star-san it. Hit with another sanitizer and since I make mine with RO/DI it dries spotless.

5. Air dry

Rinse well in between each step so cleaning products are not carried over. Everything that touched the infection should be cleaned this way.

I used about one scoop per gallon of oxyclean tho

I'm actually in the process of this right now lmao
I skipped the soapy water since bumping the oxyclean makes it more like a soap also

 

[homebeerbrewer]

My vote is to let it age, and see what happens. Lacto can be your friend.

 

[jonmohno]

Ive racked everything, ive had skins and excellent beers, i just check them periodically for overcarbonation. I havent dumped yet.I dont want bombs or bad beers either,and ive had nothing undrinkable so far.

 

[TomRep]

Agree, I doubt you'll get any off flavors from the lacto. I get it in my beers from time to time and all of them are fine. Just make sure to rack from under it and don't transfer every last drop.
tom

 

[Alphonso]

Do you like sour beers? If so, let it ride, maybe pitch some brett.

Do you not like sour beers? Rack from under, being very gentle. Like Tom said.