Possible infection issue - help needed

[Pabs10]

I am fairly new to homebrewing and have been having what I believe to be an infection issue during my last few brews that I simply cannot identify.

After I pitched my yeast, fermentation was very active in about 12-18 hours. It kept bubbling away for another 3+ days, after which the beer steadily cleared and smelled great.

I kept the beer in my fermentation chamber for about two weeks and then when I went to keg it, I extracted a small sample with a turkey baster but the entire thing had gone from a nice clear pale yellow to a murky, opaque brown. The smell & flavor had changed significantly as well. The taste was somewhat musty or moldy, so I am thinking that mold in the ferm chamber or maybe acetobacter might be the issue.

Any ideas on what this may have been, and ways to rectify this? Thanks for any help.

 

[microbusbrewery]

It sounds like you definitely have something going on. Acetobacter is pretty unmistakable. It converts alcohol to acetic acid so if that's what it is, you should be picking up vinegar notes. With mold, you'll usually see signs such as a mold floating on top of the beer. Extreme color changes could suggest oxidation or some other kind of chemical reaction. Can you describe your sanitation and brewing processes, chemicals used, tap water, bottled water, etc.? Brewing equipment as well? Other things that might be helpful, take a sample to your LHBS and see if they can help identify off-flavors. And/or if you know a more experienced homebrewer or have a homebrew club, tap into them to do the same.