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Zzyzx3 said:
I hoped I wouldn't have to post here, but I must :(. I brewed a cream ale about 2 weeks ago and just checked the fermentor.

View attachment 325223
View attachment 325224

I tasted a sample and its hard for me to tell if it's the start of an infection. I used Safale US-05 and rehydrated. Fermentation didn't start until 2 days after I put the yeast in. I checked the gravity and it is 1.009.
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I don't think this is an infection either. Yeast rafts and CO2 bubbles. I would go ahead and use it if it were my beer.
 
After a few hours it looks like most of the bubbles have gone away. Only thing that scares me now is those thin patches of something. I think I'm gonna go ahead and keg it. Thanks guys!
 
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Brewed a Dunkelweizen. Wyeast 3068. Very aggressive fermentation which is to be expected by this yeast. 1L starter. Smelled fine while fermenting. 2 months later I open up the fermenter to find this. I've only seen a film like this on a sour I brewed using Lactobaccilus. Looks like pelicle formation. White/gray film on top. Here's the thing. FG was normal. Smelled like a dunkel. Tasted fine. Is there such thing as a secondary infection? I kegged it anyway to see if it turns out tasting fine. What do you think?

image.jpg
 
This is my first post on HBT. I've spent years reading and getting info off of the forum and it's been so much help. But now I'm in need of answers to a question I have! I have a feeling I know what's going on but I'm in the deepest pit of denial.

I recently brewed a 10 gallon batch of an Amber ale with my partner and we used two different types of dry yeast, we were in a pinch. I used Us-05 and my partner had US-04. We placed our carboys side by side in the same room. His started fermenting vigorously with 12 hours while mine started really slow. After two and a half days his had pretty much calmed down, that was when my carboy took off and blew the airlock off. I found this to be quite odd after many days (we aerate with a wine degaser and I've never had problems with stuck fermentation). I checked the gravity after 7 days and when I opened up the airlock I saw this. And the smell was extremely yeasty. When tasting both his tasted like every other beer I've had at this stage....young and green. Hop character was there..pleasantly malty. Mine tasted stale and yeasty.
Is this an infection ?

2016-01-10 15.30.39.jpg
 
sfrice80 said:
attachment.php


Brewed a Dunkelweizen. Wyeast 3068. Very aggressive fermentation which is to be expected by this yeast. 1L starter. Smelled fine while fermenting. 2 months later I open up the fermenter to find this. I've only seen a film like this on a sour I brewed using Lactobaccilus. Looks like pelicle formation. White/gray film on top. Here's the thing. FG was normal. Smelled like a dunkel. Tasted fine. Is there such thing as a secondary infection? I kegged it anyway to see if it turns out tasting fine. What do you think?
Click to expand...
Don't show your friends that picture when you serve it to them haha
 
Bartoszinski77 said:
This is my first post on HBT. I've spent years reading and getting info off of the forum and it's been so much help. But now I'm in need of answers to a question I have! I have a feeling I know what's going on but I'm in the deepest pit of denial.



I recently brewed a 10 gallon batch of an Amber ale with my partner and we used two different types of dry yeast, we were in a pinch. I used Us-05 and my partner had US-04. We placed our carboys side by side in the same room. His started fermenting vigorously with 12 hours while mine started really slow. After two and a half days his had pretty much calmed down, that was when my carboy took off and blew the airlock off. I found this to be quite odd after many days (we aerate with a wine degaser and I've never had problems with stuck fermentation). I checked the gravity after 7 days and when I opened up the airlock I saw this. And the smell was extremely yeasty. When tasting both his tasted like every other beer I've had at this stage....young and green. Hop character was there..pleasantly malty. Mine tasted stale and yeasty.

Is this an infection ?
Click to expand...


I only have issues with a certain infection, but it's hard to say with this info. I just brewed a Hefeweizen and it gave off the most stanky yeast/rotten smell, but it's not infected. If you think about it you guys did use two different yeast, and depending on the yeast you used, which I'm not that familiar with, it might take longer to start with the grain bill you used, give you a totally different yeast profile. I mean seriously if you look through Jamie's book brewing classic styles he takes the same recipe for a few of the styles and just changes the yeast and fermentation temps to make it a different style. I can't give examples right now, but I'm pretty sure the Belgian strongs are and example. I'm sure it will be fine. Just give it time.
 
sfrice80 said:
attachment.php


Brewed a Dunkelweizen. Wyeast 3068. Very aggressive fermentation which is to be expected by this yeast. 1L starter. Smelled fine while fermenting. 2 months later I open up the fermenter to find this. I've only seen a film like this on a sour I brewed using Lactobaccilus. Looks like pelicle formation. White/gray film on top. Here's the thing. FG was normal. Smelled like a dunkel. Tasted fine. Is there such thing as a secondary infection? I kegged it anyway to see if it turns out tasting fine. What do you think?
Click to expand...

That's definitely a pellicle, could well be from Lacto. That means it will sour over time. A hint of tartness is not necessarily bad with a Dunkel but it will get worse, so in that light, drink fast, but...

...all Lacto pellicles I've seen are white, never a gray one. Was that bucket well, well cleaned before use? Cleaned as in scrubbing with Barkeepers Friend, and re-passivated? I've read many of those buckets still had a coating on them from fabrication (China). That coating maybe in your beer now.

BTW, what do you mean by secondary infection? Is this SS bucket a secondary fermentor?
 
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Bartoszinski77 said:
This is my first post on HBT. I've spent years reading and getting info off of the forum and it's been so much help. But now I'm in need of answers to a question I have! I have a feeling I know what's going on but I'm in the deepest pit of denial.

I recently brewed a 10 gallon batch of an Amber ale with my partner and we used two different types of dry yeast, we were in a pinch. I used Us-05 and my partner had US-04. We placed our carboys side by side in the same room. His started fermenting vigorously with 12 hours while mine started really slow. After two and a half days his had pretty much calmed down, that was when my carboy took off and blew the airlock off. I found this to be quite odd after many days (we aerate with a wine degaser and I've never had problems with stuck fermentation). I checked the gravity after 7 days and when I opened up the airlock I saw this. And the smell was extremely yeasty. When tasting both his tasted like every other beer I've had at this stage....young and green. Hop character was there..pleasantly malty. Mine tasted stale and yeasty.
Is this an infection ?
Click to expand...

It's difficult to tell from that picture, could well be regular krausen. Does it look that orange/red in regular light? One would expect the beer to be about done after 7 days, and being in the conditioning phase now. If so, the pellicle should have fallen leaving some yeast rafts and a dried krausen ring around the fermentor.

If the yeast is still in suspension, your beer will taste yeasty. Give it another week, taste and report back. What can you lose?

As long as your cleaning and sanitation regimen are solid, infections are rare. Everything that touches your chilled wort and beer should be clean and sanitized in all nooks and crannies, including that wine degassing tool, spigots, siphons, thieves, hoses, etc. Everything!
 
That pellicle is pretty well advanced. I'd taste it first. Wild nasties don't always make good sours. Sometimes, it's just a nasty dumper, so check it out first.
 
Magnum25 said:
First possible infection 10 weeks on yeast cake and lid blew early. Keg it and see?
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Looks like a lacto infection. I would definitely taste it before dumping. I've had a really good sour stout from Burley Oaks Brewery. Now theirs is intentionally soured, but yours can be surprisingly good.

You can always make vinegar from it if it doesn't taste too funky.
 
IslandLizard said:
That's definitely a pellicle, could well be from Lacto. That means it will sour over time. A hint of tartness is not necessarily bad with a Dunkel but it will get worse, so in that light, drink fast, but...

...all Lacto pellicles I've seen are white, never a gray one. Was that bucket well, well cleaned before use? Cleaned as in scrubbing with Barkeepers Friend, and re-passivated? I've read many of those buckets still had a coating on them from fabrication (China). That coating maybe in your beer now.

BTW, what do you mean by secondary infection? Is this SS bucket a secondary fermentor?
Click to expand...

So update on my infection. Kegged it and it tasted great. Slight hint of tartness but hardly detectable. Tastes like a great Dunkelweizen. I'm sure it was an infection but not sure what the bug was.

I did clean it and sanitize but clearly not good enough. That was my primary vessel. By secondary infection I mean the beer fermented as expected by the yeast, krausen and head blew out the top coming into contact with the bottom of the lid which lead to a secondary infection creating a pellicle with a little time. I'm sure if I would have left it for some time it would have turned into a sour. I feel as though the infection was due to the lid but who really knows. I know I don't soak my lid because I don't have a vessel large enough to submerge it. Either way, it turned out to be a great dunkel and up'd my paranoia on proper cleaning.
 
sfrice80 said:
So update on my infection. Kegged it and it tasted great. Slight hint of tartness but hardly detectable. Tastes like a great Dunkelweizen. I'm sure it was an infection but not sure what the bug was.

I did clean it and sanitize but clearly not good enough. That was my primary vessel. By secondary infection I mean the beer fermented as expected by the yeast, krausen and head blew out the top coming into contact with the bottom of the lid which lead to a secondary infection creating a pellicle with a little time. I'm sure if I would have left it for some time it would have turned into a sour. I feel as though the infection was due to the lid but who really knows. I know I don't soak my lid because I don't have a vessel large enough to submerge it. Either way, it turned out to be a great dunkel and up'd my paranoia on proper cleaning.
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Just mop the lid thoroughly with a small washcloth soaked in Starsan over a (small) bucket of Starsan. You need to sanitize, be inventive!
 
sfrice80 said:
I feel as though the infection was due to the lid but who really knows. I know I don't soak my lid because I don't have a vessel large enough to submerge it.
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I soak my lid in a rope tub. I have also used that tub to sanitize bottles, as a swamp cooler and as an ice bath for post-boil chilling or cold crashing. It is easily one of my most used pieces of equipment and I think I got it for about $6.96 at Walmart.
 
Jwin said:
Spray bottles sanitize everything
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My lids have a ring of deep pockets, like the underside of a mushroom. The only way I can get them clean is soak in oxyclean, blast with high pressure water, and then soak in StarSan. A spray bottle can sanitize the surface, but I'm not going to trust my beer with it.
 
On my BSG buckets, I just flip the lids up side down, and spray well. But, I don't shake to aerate anymore. Bad back. I now use a aeration spray tip on my autosiphon and pump the autosiphon continuously during transfer.
Got a stone and pond pump now, so that is over as well.
Anywsu, to each their own. I just love spray bottles because I use 50 cents of star san each brew day. My last bottle lasted all of 2015.
 
Ok, enough sanitizing techniques; I want to se some more gross looking pictures.
I'm working up the courage to pitch some Orval dregs into a batch of belgian style ale that I don't care for that much. I'm also going to try some lacto plantarum, from good belly product, on some un-hopped wart from my next batch to boot.
 
Ugh, here you go . . .

XqLA1y3m.jpg


I haven't decided what to do yet. Odds are this came from taking a reading about a week ago. I might transfer below the gunk and let it sit for a while.
 
ncbrewer said:
I see that is your first post. I really hope it's not your first batch of beer.
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Thankfully not. I've been brewing about twice a month for the past three years. However, this is my first infection. Scrolling through this thread inspired me to finally join.
 
That is one of the cooler photos here. Can you get anything higher res? inquiring eyes want to see!
 
Went in on a cider buy at my local HBS. They sulfited it, and I pitched a packet of Safale-04 the next day (12/12/15). Checked it today, and found this. Tasted ok, maybe a bit sour/tart, but I don't know if I'll keg it or check again soon and see how it is. I'm open to suggestions!

Edit to add: Those are big raised bubbles on top of the cider, not just stuff floating.

20160127_152622.jpg
 

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