Need help identifying infection

[jrhammonds]

Okay... so this is the second batch in which my beers slow/stop fermenting, but then tiny bubbles continue coming up to the surface of the beer for 2 weeks later (I thought it was just off-gassing). The airlock is also consistently bubbling (even after a desperate cold-crash down to 33F in order to isolate the problem).

The thing is, my beer does not taste acidic or sour, but the gravity continues to slowly drop, meanwhile the residual sugars are being eaten up--leaving the beer much more dry than suggested. (Final gravities below .010)

What do I have?

Is it a small bacteria infection; big enough to eat sugars, small enough to not leave acidic/sour taste? OR Is it a wild yeast doing the eating? OR ... something else? I practice fairly good sanitation practices, but after this I have thrown away all things plastic and will start again fresh with my next batch.

 

[bob1852]

recipe? OG?

 

[Willy Boner]

2 weeks isn't long enough for the bubbles to stop, I leave my brews in the primary for over a month and they are still bubble thruogh the air lock.Do you have a hydrometer? I don't think you have an infection unless you have monkey brains floating around in your beer. Do a search on infections and you'll probably find pictures worth a thousand words.

 

[WBC]

You are obcessing over your beer. Ales are usually fermented 2 weeks in the primary and bottled or kegged and conditioned over 2 weeks and then ready to drink. If you wait longer than that to keg or bottle it is not necessary. Counting bubbles is not a way to determine anything. When a hydrometer reads the expected gravity for 2 to 3 days and does not move much it has finished fermentation. You then Keg or bottle.

Good Bad or otherwise can be determined by tasting it. It can not kill you. The only other way to know is a microscope and some training to know what an infection looks like. Some experienced brewers can look at beer in a primary and tell you if it looks OK but the microscope will tell you more about it than you can determine by your bare eyes. If your beer is truely infected it will get an off flavor and the gravity will continue to plummet. It will eventually taste bad.