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Hi I just did my first brew and am a little worried about infection. My beer was in the primary for 16 days. I made the mistake of waiting 4 hours to pitch the yeast. I had to wait that long because it took that long to get to about 78. I will chill it next time. The temperature in my room where I was brewing has been in the high 70s as it is summer. After about 12 days I could smell a banana smell in the airlock. The beer also has a strong banana smell when I went to bottle it. Also a banana taste. Is this a bad sign?

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Hi I just did my first brew and am a little worried about infection. My beer was in the primary for 16 days. I made the mistake of waiting 4 hours to pitch the yeast. I had to wait that long because it took that long to get to about 78. I will chill it next time. The temperature in my room where I was brewing has been in the high 70s as it is summer. After about 12 days I could smell a banana smell in the airlock. The beer also has a strong banana smell when I went to bottle it. Also a banana taste. Is this a bad sign?


Those look like yeast rafts to me not an infection
 
Thanks I feel a lot better. Do you think the banana flavor will diminish. It's not really a good banana flavor. And was not expected.
 
The banana flavor is a result of the high fermentation temps = unwanted yeast esters. You will need to figure out a way to keep it more in the 60's to get a nice clean beer. I don't think the banana taste will fade.
 
OK thanks I guess I'll be drinking banana beer for a while ������
 
Is it safe to drink a beer like this with a strong banana Ester taste? In a few days I will trying it when the in bottle carbonation is complete.
 
Is it safe to drink a beer with a strong banana Ester taste? It will be done 7 days of carbonation soon so I will be trying it.
 
Of course. Heck, there are styles where banana is mandatory.
Anyway, they're teeny tiny esters. What could they do to a big guy like yourself?

Cheers! ;)
 
I may just be paranoid, but I thought I spotted the start of an infection in my latest IPA. I dry sprinkled US-05. The krausen fell but I still had some weird bubbles and yeast rafts that stuck around. After some research, I figured this was normal. However, last night when I was about to dry hop I saw that there was the tiniest hints of some whitish icepack looking stuff forming on top. Not very white...like diluted milk. It was mostly grouped around the bubbles. Well, I dry hopped anyway and now I think I'm screwed because I should have tried to skim it off the top or done something else. It's doubtful I could try to rack from underneath at this point. I also had a handful of fruit flies in the airlock..luckily I use vodka in my airlock.

The only thing I can think is that I did not clean or sanitize my blowoff hose from my last batch a couple months ago. I realized this after about 4-5 days of fermentation. The funny thing is that I ended up with 6 gallons in my 6.5 gallon carboy and the krausen barely rose. It didn't blowout through the hose at all. Figures..I try to be proactive and I didn't need to.

I failed to get a photo of it before I dry hopped, but I'm hoping that based on the explanation someone may have a little insight. Thanks!
 
Better picture. Any thoughts of racking some of it into a smaller carboy and adding cherries for a few months? Then dump the rest.
This is lacto, telltale signs are the film covered bubbles and the planetary landscape looking spindly spider threads. Racking under it is definitely the move, although you will not remove the infection by dong so and it would look just like this after some time in secondary. Whatever you want is what you should do, it will remain potable regardless but the flavor will more than likely suffer the more time you give the batch.
 
This is lacto, telltale signs are the film covered bubbles and the planetary landscape looking spindly spider threads. Racking under it is definitely the move, although you will not remove the infection by dong so and it would look just like this after some time in secondary. Whatever you want is what you should do, it will remain potable regardless but the flavor will more than likely suffer the more time you give the batch.

So if maybe I keg it and drink it quick I'l be okay?
 
That's your best bet if it hasn't gotten too funky yet. But by all means you can try and rack a small amount into secondary just for kicks if you want to see if it takes to the berries well.
 
This still smells ok but... What the hell is it?! Of course it's infected but with what organism?
 
I pulled off a pint or so to save, took a gravity sample (1.006ish) and pasteurized at 165 for 20 minutes and saving it off into a keg. We'll see!
 
@baja Looks like lacto had its way. In a big way - assuming this isn't what it looked like last time. Drink it up

Person above me, looks like the beginning of an infection. Those sort of iceberg looking chunks that float on top are, in my experience and to the best of my knowledge, not atypical of lactobacillus, though I can't say what strain or whether it's solely lacto at fault. Don't worry too much but additionally err on the side of caution with wait times
 
3 days @ 95*F was supposed to sour (WLP 677 lactobacillus brevis, 2nd use) the beer, instead I got this. Pasteurize and ferment or dump?

Pellicles look different for different reasons. If that's sour wort with an l. brevis pitch, I'd say you're on schedule. Proceed.
 
Hey

Beginners nerves are setting in. Im about 5 days into my first brew and was wondering if this is normal?

EPAuTIN.jpg


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Its a Coopers IPA.

Any help appreciated.
 
Yep looks fine. Close yer bucket.


...and I recommend keeping it closed. If you want to look, and I completely understand, get yourself a clear fermenter. ...and keep it closed, too!
 
Thanks for the responses - the fermenter has a clear lid the photo was taken without removing it. The gravity is currently sitting at 1014 & the temp is 21 degrees. Its been in the fermenter since Tuesday.
 
Thanks for the responses - the fermenter has a clear lid the photo was taken without removing it. The gravity is currently sitting at 1014 & the temp is 21 degrees. Its been in the fermenter since Tuesday.

Once again - this is a contaminated wort, the telling signs are highlighted in my zoomed in screenshot below. The connecting spiderweb-like spindles, the very much white film that has accumulated around the rim, as well as which is coating the bubbles (unless the white effect is caused by the clear lid, though doubtful). If you poke one of the smaller coated bubbles you should see that it is not a normal healthy head. At the moment the infection is very early on/low level - as long as you don't stretch the fermentation out too long and clean the piss outta your equipment, theres nothing to worry about.


EDIT: Photo didn't upload. Refer to your 2nd photo - top left quadrant is a good area to look at.

2ND EDIT: See my post on the next page where I change my mind when presented with new evidence.
 
Where do you think the infection came from? It was all new equipment which im sure I cleaned thoroughly?
 

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