Possible Contamination

[CodyClay]

I started my latest brew today. Everything was cleaned, sanitized, and laid out. I try to stay organized and tidy to prevent mishaps. Everything went great until the end. I just pitched the yeast and was about to put the lid on, but my 3 year old said he wanted to look at it first. As soon as he peered over the edge of the bucket, the little rascal sneezed in it!! Lol. Oh well. I guess time will tell if its spoiled.

 

[RM-MN]

Yup, the little beggars will do things like that. He sneezed in a billion or so germs but you'll be pitching a lot more yeast cells than that. Wort is quite acidic for most bacteria to grow in and as soon as the yeast start pushing out carbon dioxide the bacteria that need oxygen will be done too. I think your beer will be fine.

 

[CodyClay]

Yup, the little beggars will do things like that. He sneezed in a billion or so germs but you'll be pitching a lot more yeast cells than that. Wort is quite acidic for most bacteria to grow in and as soon as the yeast start pushing out carbon dioxide the bacteria that need oxygen will be done too. I think your beer will be fine.

I'm hoping you're right. Thanks for the reassurance.

 

[CodyClay]

Well I opened the primary today. (6 days after the sneeze) and there was a very powerful sour odor. It burns my nose a little. I noticed there wasn't very much lees either. I think that maybe it quit fermenting early. I guess I'm going to dump this one. Ill try again tomorrow. So to recap - sneeze = bad beer.

 

[Slow_Day]

I wouldn't dump it yet if you don't need the fermenter. Give it some time. Things work out. Forget about it for a while. It may turn out great. Or it may not. Then you can still dump it.

 

[CodyClay]

I wouldn't dump it yet if you don't need the fermenter. Give it some time. Things work out. Forget about it for a while. It may turn out great. Or it may not. Then you can still dump it.

Haven't dumped it yet. I don't need the fermenter. I just figured once it goes bad, there's no coming back. Are there any chemicals I can add to possibly bring it back?

 

[Slow_Day]

No. Nothing you could add will help. Let it be. Aging can solve lots of problems.

 

[RM-MN]

Yeasts will give off some interesting odors while fermenting beer. The burning in your nose was from CO2, every ferment does that. I agree with the other posters, its too early to be dumping a batch just from the slight possibility that it might maybe be contaminated. Give it another 2 weeks and then draw a sample for hydrometer testing and taste that after you pull the hydrometer. You might still get a hint of green apples but I'm betting it will be tasting a lot like flat beer.

 

[CodyClay]

Yeasts will give off some interesting odors while fermenting beer. The burning in your nose was from CO2, every ferment does that. I agree with the other posters, its too early to be dumping a batch just from the slight possibility that it might maybe be contaminated. Give it another 2 weeks and then draw a sample for hydrometer testing and taste that after you pull the hydrometer. You might still get a hint of green apples but I'm betting it will be tasting a lot like flat beer.

Will do. I'll update in a few weeks. Thanks for the advice.

 

[CodyClay]

I just put it in the secondary today. Still had a sour smell. I put a sample in a jar to take to the LHBS tomorrow. They said they could analyze it somehow. When I sniff in the secondary I still smell the sourness, but its nowhere near as strong. Just brewed another kit tonight and some of the other guys on the forum told me that the Nottingham yeast (same yeast used in the sour beer) needs to be fermented at a lower temp. Could this be the culprit of the odor?

 

[CodyClay]

Haha. I took a sample to the LHBS and I expected a fancy machine that would tell me the Ph, specific gravity and a whole bunch of other scientific information. Nope. It was a guy that smelled and tasted my beer and told me what he thought lol. Basically he said it was still a little young and it did have a slight off flavor. But he didn't think it was any type of bacterial infection. He said just give it time and it will probably be OK. I'm going to go ahead and add the vanilla today.

 

[RM-MN]

I just put it in the secondary today. Still had a sour smell. I put a sample in a jar to take to the LHBS tomorrow. They said they could analyze it somehow. When I sniff in the secondary I still smell the sourness, but its nowhere near as strong. Just brewed another kit tonight and some of the other guys on the forum told me that the Nottingham yeast (same yeast used in the sour beer) needs to be fermented at a lower temp. Could this be the culprit of the odor?

I'm having trouble smelling with your nose so I'm stuck with guessing but yeasts do make esters when fermenter too warm and Nottingham is noted for being one that is perhaps more sensitive that others to temperature that is too high. When yeast ferment beer we tend to thing that they ingest sugars and excrete CO2 and alcohol but there are a lot of things in beer other than sugars and yeasts make other compounds inbetween sugar and alcohol. Your water has a mineral makeup that will be different too and that can have some impact. Lets make a guess that your beer fermented a little warm and the yeast produced an ester that gives it the odor of bananas, plus there is the green apple or cider odor yet from incomplete fermentation, plus there could be a little sulfur. Now explain exactly what that smells like. :cross:

 

[CodyClay]

I'm having trouble smelling with your nose so I'm stuck with guessing but yeasts do make esters when fermenter too warm and Nottingham is noted for being one that is perhaps more sensitive that others to temperature that is too high. When yeast ferment beer we tend to thing that they ingest sugars and excrete CO2 and alcohol but there are a lot of things in beer other than sugars and yeasts make other compounds inbetween sugar and alcohol. Your water has a mineral makeup that will be different too and that can have some impact. Lets make a guess that your beer fermented a little warm and the yeast produced an ester that gives it the odor of bananas, plus there is the green apple or cider odor yet from incomplete fermentation, plus there could be a little sulfur. Now explain exactly what that smells like. :cross:

That's sounds a lot like what the guy at the store told me. (And he got to use his own nose) so I would say you made a pretty good diagnosis with the little information that you had. I appreciate your help and the others who told me to hold off on dumping the batch. I'm just going to let this one sit a while. As for the latest brew, I have it in an extra fridge we are not using in the garage. Hopefully I can control the temp and ferment around 55 degrees.

 

[eastoak]

if you have an infection it will probably drop the final gravity a good ways below your expected FG. you may also see a pellicle form at some point.

 

[CodyClay]

Just added 2 vanilla beans today that were split, scraped, and sitting in a few ounces of vodka. Took a gravity reading and the FG was right on target. The sour smell is no longer there. It smells like beer! I'm currently drinking my uncarbonated sample and it is actually pretty good. Thanks for the advice, everyone. I think this ones a keeper.