Post your infection

[Brewbrewman]

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[Brewbrewman]

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[Brownalemikie]

Looks ok to my rookie eyes.

 

[Decimotox]

^Yeah, that looks good. No worries.

 

[unionrdr]

It sure is!...perfectly normal. Nothing to see here, folks, move along...

 

[Brewbrewman]

I guess i shoulda shook it the first time when it looked funny lol. Thanx guys

 

[Jwin]

Shaking a secondary with that much headspace is a bad idea.
Lots of o2 in there. Hopefully semi purged by now. If you run into this again and have co2 at your disposal, maybe consider purging the headspace some.
Glad you brew is good.

 

[tgolanos]

I hope I'm just being paranoid, but I have a feeling my German Pils is infected. It's been lagering at about 4°C for a 3 weeks now, I cracked it open to batch prime and saw what looks like the broken ice pack and a suspicious looking bubble in the corner. I can't tell if this is just hops oils or not, though. Hydrometer reading hasn't changed since I lagered it and it tastes great, though (no sourness, acidity, or tartness at all), so I still have some hope. You guys haven't failed me yet, what do you all think?

 

[shelbinator]

Here's a slightly tolerable infection--I'd love to hear thoughts on whether it's Brett or lacto or what. Made a basic pale ale with equal parts Citra and Galaxy. Ground water was so hot I couldn't get it below 90 in the kettle--outdoors in the evening so god knows what flew in. Over-chilled it in the cooler overnight by mistake to 58, so waited till it was 62 or so and pitched rehydrated US-05, a usual yeast for me, late the following morning and let it keep warming toward 68. There was no activity till almost 3 days after it went in the fermenter. After two weeks I went to rack it into smaller separate Little Big Mouth Bubblers on fruits for secondary and bottle the rest. Opened the fermenter: first thought was BODY ODOR. Then the fruity aroma kinda came through, but it was still like...freshly-washed-with-fruity-soap crotch of someone you would like to smell the crotch of. The primary fermenter had these massive floating islands of spongy looking crud that reminded me of brackish water marina algae in Florida (see first attachment), and my US-05 had always, always obediently flocculated into a nice cake. I'd never seen this before. But the internet said it could just be floating yeast cake. But still the SMELL. Since the surface flora wasn't stringy, I didn't think bacteria... And "horse blanket" came to mind. It definitely smelled barnyard. Musty. Funky stank. So I went ahead and racked it onto fruit. Two weeks after that, I still have tropical fruity sweaty horse blanket. My mango secondary has floating islands that look like a pan you left in the sink to soak after cooking bacon, with fat globules rafting (second/third attachment). Haven't looked in the grapefruit one yet. But it's still rather potable. A tiny bit sour, almost like a dry cider. Not very pleasant bitter aftertaste, almost chalky, like citrus pith. I drank the whole gravity sample (1.005 and rather dry even though I mashed at 151 for a little sweetness) and if I don't poop myself I'll totally serve this to the neighbors at the cookout as a "farmhouse ale." So not a total loss. I mean it ain't that terrible, but it's definitely not the magical tropical sweet delight my Galaxy pale ale was last year. Thoughts appreciated, hope this is helpful to other n00bs.

 

[Mihkelj]

Should I be buying new fermentation buckets or is this just CO2 bubbles with stuck yeast. I've had this before (all with US-05) and the beer was perfectly drinkable

 

[foam_top]

I'm pretty convinced this is an early infection but second opinions are good. The islands were not there 4 weeks ago when I added the oak cubes. I soaked the oak cubes in bourbon for about 2 months, completely submerged. It tastes pretty good with the exception that it's a little young and the flavors still need to marry.

One pic with flash and one without.
If this is an infection should I bottle ASAP or let it sit for a decade? Thanks in advance.

 

[TorMag]

View attachment 366573

Is this saveable? My first infection, proud pop. I kegged it, left a few inches on top in the fermenter.

So I stopped by my LHBS and was talking with the owner and I showed him the picture of my infection on my Porter. He studied the picture for a few minutes and said, "That does not look like an infection to me. What's it taste like?" I replied, "Crap" He said, "That does not help" So he proceeded to tell me that what I had was some mold floating on top of my beer. He gave me a glass carboy and an airlock told me to go home, spray some co2 into the carboy and transfer the Porter into the carboy and keep an eye on it for a bit. If there is nothing growing on it, it should be fine.

Well just now, I got ready to do all that, cleaned and sanitized the carboy, degassed the key and opened it. Being the curious type, I got a flash light and picked it. Looked and smelled like a Porter. Ok, so I grabbed my wine thief, gave it the old starsan treatment and pulled a sample. No longer taste like crap, it actually tasted fantastic.

So cleaned and sanitized the keg cap and put it back on gas.

 

[unionrdr]

In the above pics, the broken ice pack-lookin' stuff is an infection. rather minor at the moment. so if it's ready to bottle now, do it. & try to limit airspace in secondary & you'll virtually eliminate this sort of thing.

 

[sleepspeaking]

Ok so no batch lost to this, but on straightening my brew closet I found this in my silicone hoses, I didn't break down the cam lock hose connections when I cleaned after my last brew day. This section in the picture was the very end where the house barb and clamp go. All black and won't scrape or scrub off.

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[foam_top]

I'm pretty convinced this is an early infection but second opinions are good. The islands were not there 4 weeks ago when I added the oak cubes...

Okay, I bottled today. It smells and tastes great so I hope I can keep it that way until It's gone.

Follow-up question: How long should I let it carb without it turning foul?
I have a completely vacant fridge dedicated to beer in the basement. I figure once it's in there it should slow the infection.

 

[beergolf]

In the above pics, the broken ice pack-lookin' stuff is an infection. rather minor at the moment. so if it's ready to bottle now, do it. & try to limit airspace in secondary & you'll virtually eliminate this sort of thing.

That is bad advice. Bottling something with an infection that is just starting is a recipe for good bottle bombs. Just because you bottle it, it does not stop the infection. It will continue to work and best case scenario is gushers. Worst case scenario is a bunch bottle bombs.

Since you bottled it already, put them someplace to contain the bottle bombs. Check them often and if they seem to be overcarbing. Drink them fast or dump them. Bottle bombs are nothing to mess around with.

 

[55x11]

Agreed. Not like an infection

 

[foam_top]

That is bad advice. Bottling something with an infection that is just starting is a recipe for good bottle bombs. Just because you bottle it, it does not stop the infection. It will continue to work and best case scenario is gushers. Worst case scenario is a bunch bottle bombs.

Since you bottled it already, put them someplace to contain the bottle bombs. Check them often and if they seem to be overcarbing. Drink them fast or dump them. Bottle bombs are nothing to mess around with.

I put them in a cardboard box. When you say check them often I assume you mean open a bottle. When should I open the first bottle and how frequently after that?

 

[beergolf]

I normally say leave them for at least three weeks before checking. But in this case, check them in 7-10 days. Monitor the carb level and if it starts getting over carbed. Have a party and drink them fast. This is not a beer to try to age. Too bad because you put this on oak so it probably would be a good beer to age.

 

[foam_top]

... Too bad because you put this on oak so it probably would be a good beer to age.

Yep. I was originally going to crack the first one open on Christmas day. Oh well, I'll just have to tighten up my process from here out.

 

[unionrdr]

Lighten up. That one wasn't that bad looking, ie not very advanced. Bottling it eliminates the oxygen the infection needs to progress. I've only had one produce bottle bombs & it was more advanced then that one. Your continued attacks on just about anything I say are a mystery insomuch as my not seeing you talking to others like that.

 

[jjeffers09]

Is that a formation of some funk? or is that hop material? I should say this is my 48th batch and I have never seen anything like this before. It looks like "translucent" onions. Idk it is weird. There is also hop seeds, or what looks like hop seeds. They are hard little pellets. It is a Baltic porter with nothing crazy in it. I know it is kind of a crap photo, but it is sitting at 7.9% ABV and 4.3pH

 

[beergolf]

Lighten up. That one wasn't that bad looking, ie not very advanced. Bottling it eliminates the oxygen the infection needs to progress. I've only had one produce bottle bombs & it was more advanced then that one. Your continued attacks on just about anything I say are a mystery insomuch as my not seeing you talking to others like that.

A lack of oxygen will not stop infections. You only had one produce bottle bombs. That is one too many. Advising someone to bottle up an infected beer is just plain bad , and potentially dangerous advice. Again bottling will not stop infections. Since it is in the early stages, that just means it has the potential to continue for a lot longer and cause problems. I would hate to see someone hurt because of bad advice.

Look at posts #3101 and # 3110 in this thread. YOu gave that advice before and others have called you on it. It is just irresponsible to give advice that is potentially dangerous.

 

[kombat]

Lighten up. That one wasn't that bad looking, ie not very advanced. Bottling it eliminates the oxygen the infection needs to progress. I've only had one produce bottle bombs & it was more advanced then that one. Your continued attacks on just about anything I say are a mystery insomuch as my not seeing you talking to others like that.

FYI, that's not how infections work. They'll progress even with only a tiny amount of oxygen. They're much more voracious than yeast. If you think you have an infection, you should delay bottling, not accelerate it. Bottling at the onset of an infection is a recipe for bottle bombs.

 

[BGBC]

Lighten up. That one wasn't that bad looking, ie not very advanced. Bottling it eliminates the oxygen the infection needs to progress. I've only had one produce bottle bombs & it was more advanced then that one. Your continued attacks on just about anything I say are a mystery insomuch as my not seeing you talking to others like that.

Terrible advice.

FYI, that's not how infections work. They'll progress even with only a tiny amount of oxygen. They're much more voracious than yeast. If you think you have an infection, you should delay bottling, not accelerate it. Bottling at the onset of an infection is a recipe for bottle bombs.

Exactly this - you need to let it reach terminal gravity, which will likely be lower (and take longer) than with brewer's yeast.

If bottling stopped infections (i.e., wild fermentation), you'd never get carbed bottles because it wouldn't ferment the priming sugar.

 

[kcgator88]

This is a pumpkin ale that I brewed about three days ago. The pics were taken early this morning after about 60 hours in primary. Obviously, I know about krausen, but this is my fourth batch, and the bubbles seem a bit large compared to prior krausens I've had. Plus, I've seen a few infection pics in this thread that are pretty similar (to me at least). Is this just krausen? Thanks!

(sorry for the one sideways pic)

 

[rtracer]

OK, I bite, here is my beer 16 days in primary,2 days into Cold crashing. I plan on kegging tomorrow. The is my APA that I dry hopped last Friday with 4 oz of pellets.
Start of infection or hop residue? Couldnt get a good picture, but it is slightly green, like the hops and looks slightly....uhh I guess grainy or mealy would be a way to describe it?

EDIT:I just swirled the carboy pretty good and some of it clumped up and little dust like particles were snowing down thru the beer. I am thinking hop residue?? Beer is currently 38*

 

[Nico93]

i'm pretty sure that in the first photo there is a huge eye of a huge monster fish looking at the camera

 

[burninator]

This is a pumpkin ale that I brewed about three days ago. The pics were taken early this morning after about 60 hours in primary. Obviously, I know about krausen, but this is my fourth batch, and the bubbles seem a bit large compared to prior krausens I've had. Plus, I've seen a few infection pics in this thread that are pretty similar (to me at least). Is this just krausen? Thanks!

(sorry for the one sideways pic)

Looks like krausen to me. What kind of yeast are you using? Some of them can get pretty slimy.

 

[sleepspeaking]

This is a pumpkin ale that I brewed about three days ago. The pics were taken early this morning after about 60 hours in primary. Obviously, I know about krausen, but this is my fourth batch, and the bubbles seem a bit large compared to prior krausens I've had. Plus, I've seen a few infection pics in this thread that are pretty similar (to me at least). Is this just krausen? Thanks!

(sorry for the one sideways pic)

I think you're good.
Looks like krausen to me, but time will tell.