Lacto Infection?

[wboling]

I made a Belgian dubbel about a month ago now. It sat in primary for two weeks. I transferred it to secondary two weeks ago tomorrow, but I've got some weird stuff I haven't seen in the 5 or so batches I've done so I thought I'd get an opinion. Is this a lacto infection or did I just rack underneath an excessive amount of starsan foam? This picture was from after a few days in secondary. The bubbles are larger now with a film. I'll post an updated one shortly.

 

[ColoHox]

That's a bacterial infection all right! Sorry to say.

 

[unionrdr]

Yup, definitely infected. And to think this company that advertises on ID channel sells lactobacillus as a "probiotic"!? WTF?

 

[wboling]

Dammit! Thanks for the reply.

 

[unionrdr]

You can still rack out from underneath it & try to save it. I did that with my last batch of my Maori IPA & it came out OK.

 

[Hello]

You definitely have an infection. How does it taste/smell? You can let it ride or rack from underneath and drink it up fast. If it's souring you may want to let it ride.

 

[wboling]

Cool. I'll give that a shot. Thanks! I assume I'll want to create an opening before shoving a wine thief down there so I don't take it to the bottom?

 

[wboling]

You definitely have an infection. How does it taste/smell? You can let it ride or rack from underneath and drink it up fast. If it's souring you may want to let it ride.

I'm sick right now so I have no sense of smell, but I can give it a taste in a bit. Before I got sick, I didn't notice any off smells.

 

[wboling]

You definitely have an infection. How does it taste/smell? You can let it ride or rack from underneath and drink it up fast. If it's souring you may want to let it ride.

I'm sick right now so I have no sense of smell, but I can give it a taste in a bit. Before I got sick, I didn't notice any off smells.

 

[wboling]

Here's an updated picture. This is today.
What's interesting to me is that the spidering (pellicle?) is gone. So, it doesn't look infected to my untrained eyes. Does it still look infected to y'all?

 

[ColoHox]

Yes, still infected.

 

[unionrdr]

with the slimy bubbles & broken ice pack look, I think it's safe to say it's lactobacillus.

 

[jtratcliff]

I had my most recent batch of BierMuncher's OctoberFast Ale get infected. Never saw a pellicle but could smell something when going to bottling bucket and the hydro sample tasted like ass. Very sour and unpleasant.

I bottled it anyway. Tasted it every few weeks. After a couple months it wasn't so bad. Pleasantly tart but none of the nasty after taste. I ended up drink all 5 gallons. So either it got better as it aged or I grew accustomed to the nastiness

So, if you don't need the space/bottles/keg, it might be worth it to try to save it. It won't be what you planned but it might still be pretty tasty.

 

[Owly055]

I recently made a Cascade Session with the idea of achieving a shandy type flavor. It was wildly successful. I used Magnum for bittering, kept the IBUs very low (about 21 for an OG of only 1.041), adding half an ounce of Cascade at 5 minutes (2.5 gallon brew), and dry hopping with Cascade. I managed to evade the grapefruit taste, and the result was lemony more than grapefruity. I ended up with a lacto infection, but went ahead anyway. The lacto added to the sourness, and actually enhanced the result. It all worked out quite well by accident. ;-) I call it Cascade Lemonade. I doubt that I could repeat it. If I were to try, I'd probably sour the mash for a day or so before the boil.

Lacto infection is not all bad


H.W.

 

[AngryMonk]

You just made yourself a nice sour beer, just wait 8 month and try it out

 

[wboling]

Thanks, guys. All of that makes me feel some better. I'll see what it becomes after a few months in the keg. I'll still try to rack from beneath it and see what happens. Y'all are great!