Lacto infection woes

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

ajbosley2015

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2018
Messages
202
Reaction score
154
i brewed my newest creation: Southern Charm (pecan pie stout)
At 6 weeks OG went from 1.054 to 1.022
My calculations expected to come down to 1.008

Against my better judgement I added Safale-04 to hopefully finish fermenting the sugars that still remain, however 3 days later the wonderful signs of Lacto reared their ugly head.

I racked one more time from the spigot on my fermenter and am going to make an attempt at bottling and drinking it like a fiend til it’s gone.

Am I crazy or should I just dump?

It tastes wonderful right now. I plan on bottling tomorrow, so quick help is appreciated!
 
What signs of lacto are you detecting if it tastes wonderful? The primary sign of lacto should be sourness.
 
What signs of lacto are you detecting if it tastes wonderful? The primary sign of lacto should be sourness.
Obvious lacto pellicle. About a quarter inch thick with very small bubbles. Thought for sure when I removed the cover it was gonna be a second smaller krausen from pitching more yeast...nope

edited: the fermenter never gets "opened" other than removing the airlock bung to pitch yeast and add alcohol based topnotes; when I said I removed the cover, I mean the cover protecting the fermenter from light and it;s integrated heating and cooling pad which helps to maintain a constant temperature.
 
Last edited:
Lots of microbes can form a pellicle.
If it's not sour, it's probably not Lacto.
I would hesitate to bottle it at this point.
Monitor gravity for another few weeks before bottling to be safe. I guess you could drink it really fast instead... but that sounds like a worse option imho.
 
Yeah, so it was definitely lacto, which is fine with me. I cultured and inspected (I know...I know! I’m a scientist)
I talked to a fairly large brewing establishment and he had me bottle under, and inspect carbonation per day after day 6.
We are at day 4 and the SG hadn’t changed since the addition of the new yeast (so 2 weeks)

We shall see what happens, but luckily I have some people to help drink fast haha!
 
post your recipe? Love me some pecan pie
Will post next week. I just tasted it after 4 days of bottling, fairly decent carbonation, not extremely bitter. Graham cracker comes through in flavor profile, pecan is a back note, but is balanced well by molasses. There’s an inherent sweetness that speaks like the molasses-base of the pie. I hope I can age this one but might not be able to because of the infection and overcarbonation. We will see what happens, but it’s damn good.

Oh it’s an extract-based recipe I created, and I added a non-traditional cascade to the hop bill but it works surprisingly well with the fuggle
 
Back
Top