Possible Infection? Fixable?

[Weisgarber Beer]

Ij ust brewed my first beer and im worried there may be an infection in my yeast. now, I have no tangable information to support this other than a lost sleep over worrying about it if there is indeed a bacterial infection is there anyway i can save my brew?

 

[JustDave]

Why worry? Worrying over things without any valid reason is kind of silly, IMO.

Your beer will be fine.

 

[McKBrew]

Welcome the forum. Don't sweat the beer being infected unless you have evidence to support it. Every heard of the acronymn RDWHAHB? In this case your first beer is still brewing so please go to the store ASAP and buy a bottle of something good and enjoy.

 

[Special Hops]

What makes you suspect an infection? It's probably all right.

 

[Weisgarber Beer]

haha, you guys are awesome, thanks for the support. I just get nervous that I missed something or didnt sanitize enough. my roomate said it smells like a brewery in my house so what could go wrong. good adivice on getting something to drink while i wait, its only 11 AM here, but its 5 o clock somewhere!...I havent heard of that acronym. whats it stand for? and nothing makes me susspect other than the books i read make it sound very easy for beer to get infected.

 

[cheezydemon]

EVERYONE thinks that their first brew is infected.

99 times out of 100 the answer to "What is this wierd stuff in my fermenter?" is YEAST.

Come to think of it Yeast is a fungus, so you want your beer to be infected by it! Feel better? lol

Yeast do some strange things. Get a digital camera and post some pics if it will make you feel better.

 

[Special Hops]

Relax, Don't Worry - Have A Home Brew

While sanitization is important. It is not as crazy important as I first thought when brewing. And remember - people have been brewing for thousands of years. Way before Star-San and Bleach.

 

[Weisgarber Beer]

Thats a great saying...ill do that in a few weeks lol. good point on how long people ahve been brewing beer without cleaners. why doesnt this stuff ever occur to homebrewers untill they have already raised their blood preasure. Im not home now so i cant send pictures, but you guys clearly know what my issue is so i dont think ill have to do that. i feel better already!

 

[bethlehembrewer]

haha, you guys are awesome, thanks for the support. I just get nervous that I missed something or didnt sanitize enough. my roomate said it smells like a brewery in my house so what could go wrong. good adivice on getting something to drink while i wait, its only 11 AM here, but its 5 o clock somewhere!...I havent heard of that acronym. whats it stand for? and nothing makes me susspect other than the books i read make it sound very easy for beer to get infected.

If it smells like a brewery then whats the problem?

 

[Powchekny]

Hi Weis,

In my short time homebrewing and on these forums, I've discovered RDWAHAHB is the right answer to most worries you might have.

So far I've fretted over (pointlessly):

1. My first brew (extract kit brown ale) blowing krausen through the fermentation lock 5 times. I cleaned it out 5 times and reseated it. Sure it *had* to be infected. Nope.

2. The awful, watery, flat taste of my first brown ale after one week in the bottle. I was sure it was ruined. Nope. Another 3 weeks in the bottle and it was really nice.

3. The fact that I couldn't do a proper boil for my first AHS kit, a doppelbock. I could only do a 2 gallon boil because of my pot capacity, so I just adjusted proportions else where. I don't recommend this, but it turned out very nice anyway.

4. The fact that my doppelbock took a whole day to start fermenting (Ihad no starter) where my brown ale took off in 4 hours. Like I said, it turned out very nice.

5. The very slow carbonation in bottle of my spruce beer. It was three weeks before there was a good fizz. It all worked out. By the way, flat spruce beer is *nasty*.

6. Lots of small sanitation problems with my spruce beer (accidentally touching stuff with the bottling wand, and so on). It turned out really nice in the end.

Anyway, these guys are all spot on. I can't overstate the value of patience, and waiting to see how things turn out over the course of weeks or months. Beer is astonishingly difficult to screw up, if you've put any kind of effort into following instructions and basic sanitation.

--Pow