Post your infection

[Dave11980]

This has been quite revealing. Honestly I don't know if this scares me or makes me feel safer. So many of those people said ended up fine.

 

[vtbeerman]

I had these weird bubbles for a while and then they went away. I think it is mold but I'm not sure. The Oatmeal Stout tastes great (so far). Any ideas?

 

[Arau]

what do you with an infected brew? just let it go till you rack in and rack from under it? or try to skim away all that crap? i would have a hard time letting that stuff sit on my drink

 

[vtbeerman]

I racked under it once and it came back. Now it's gone. I'm going to keg it and drink it before it turns nasty.

 

[jeffeezy]

I skimmed the thread and couldn't see anything super flaky like this. It was an absurdly hoppy (ie expensive) American IPA. We were experimenting with late extract addition and didn't notice until afterward that one of our DME bags was torn open--probably the source of the infection. Anybody know what this is?

It tasted pretty delicious anyway so we went ahead and bottled it!

Edit: there was a LOT of this stuff accumulating in the blow-off tube, nothing really made it to the bucket at the end, though. There wasn't any growth I could notice after fermentation had subsided. Never racked to secondary since there was so much unidentified growth; just tasted some on a whim and decided to bottle.

 

[slomo]

I skimmed the thread and couldn't see anything super flaky like this. It was an absurdly hoppy (ie expensive) American IPA. We were experimenting with late extract addition and didn't notice until afterward that one of our DME bags was torn open--probably the source of the infection. Anybody know what this is?

It tasted pretty delicious anyway so we went ahead and bottled it!

Edit: there was a LOT of this stuff accumulating in the blow-off tube, nothing really made it to the bucket at the end, though. There wasn't any growth I could notice after fermentation had subsided. Never racked to secondary since there was so much unidentified growth; just tasted some on a whim and decided to bottle.

That looks pretty standard. I see a lot of hop material. If it tasted good I would say your good to go.

 

[jeffeezy]

That looks pretty standard. I see a lot of hop material. If it tasted good I would say your good to go.

Thank you for your reply.

Whoa. I've never seen all that (any?) hop material before, or sediment on the side of the carboy--but this batch didn't use any irish moss or gelatin--could this be what caused it?

 

[SNPorter]

Does anyone ever take the top off an Ale Pale during fermentation just to have a look or is that a bad idea?

 

[KCBrewer]

Does anyone ever take the top off an Ale Pale during fermentation just to have a look or is that a bad idea?

My first batch I couldn't wait. After about 3 days I had to know what was going on. No matter how many pics you look at on the net of other peoples, you still want to see it. I then went immediately to e.c. kraus and picked up some glass carboys. No more need to open it.

It's not a good idea to keep opening it up just for SAG. Every time it is opened it is exposed to possible infection. You are going to have to open it for SG readings though. Just be sanitary when you do.

 

[geoffny25]

I've checked every batch several times (8 batches so far), and I don't seal the lid down after. No infection yet (knocks on wood), it's actually pretty hard to get in infection after fermentation has started if your sanitation methods are decent.

 

[jessup]

i'll join the party! guess away, it looks different than anything i've seen in the thread. this formed and dropped in only a few weeks...

this is a brett pellicle and not an infection

 

[jessup]

I've got one for you.. Bugs in my airlock...

^^^taken from page 9
ya know i've had this before and it totally stumped me. it was in a purposely soured beer, but not in the beer, just the airlock. i don't know how the hell they got there since of course they were stuck in there, but i would re-sanitize and they just kept on showing up time and time again. plus i had prob 5-6 beers in the same closet and they would continiously show up in the same carboy airlock. 80 proof liquor in every airlock taboot-

 

[SNPorter]

My first batch I couldn't wait. After about 3 days I had to know what was going on. No matter how many pics you look at on the net of other peoples, you still want to see it. I then went immediately to e.c. kraus and picked up some glass carboys. No more need to open it.

It's not a good idea to keep opening it up just for SAG. Every time it is opened it is exposed to possible infection. You are going to have to open it for SG readings though. Just be sanitary when you do.

I thought I could just take readings from the spigot.

 

[jessup]

I thought I could just take readings from the spigot.

you should never be fermenting in your bottling bucket. didn't you get the memo anyway you'd probably be overloaded with trub and settled yeast n whatnot if you tried that...

 

[SNPorter]

you should never be fermenting in your bottling bucket. didn't you get the memo anyway you'd probably be overloaded with trub and settled yeast n whatnot if you tried that...

I've got 2 buckets 1 for fermenting and 1 for bottling and both have spigots. I did filter out the trub from my wort into the fermenting bucket. My plan was to rack to bottling bucket after fermenting was complete. I am a newb though and this is my first batch but from what I've read(and I've been reading a lot) this is an acceptable way to go.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

i'll join the party! guess away, it looks different than anything i've seen in the thread. this formed and dropped in only a few weeks...

Honestly, this just looks like mold from not pushing your fruit down into the beer to keep it moist (at least, I hope that's fruit floating). I would probably rack from under it and keep the beer. Unless that mold has turned into a full blown infection, that is.

 

[indeedproceed]

If that's not fruit....yikes.

 

[jcarson83]

i'll join the party! guess away, it looks different than anything i've seen in the thread. this formed and dropped in only a few weeks...

I just spit up a little in my mouth.

 

[COLObrewer]

Thank you for your reply.

Whoa. I've never seen all that (any?) hop material before, or sediment on the side of the carboy--but this batch didn't use any irish moss or gelatin--could this be what caused it?

Just looks like a ton of hops to me, how much was added in this batch?

 

[SwampassJ]

Looks like Fruit Cake.

 

[jessup]

that photo is what i expect to be a brett pellicle, but not really sure. i took a 10 month old flemish red with brett L & brett B and reracked 3 gal onto 7 lbs of unsanitized cherries and that's what showed up. it was only there for maybe 6 weeks and then disappeared. the beer smells absolutely wonderful even though the photo is less than appetizing. you see the cherries just underneath that layer and if you look hard enough you can see the cherry stems and all. now to wait another year here's the photo after the mold/pellicle dropped.

 

[b33risGOOD]

I dunno how u guys bring urself to taste thee beers lol

 

[jeffeezy]

Just looks like a ton of hops to me, how much was added in this batch?

Um, about that... an ounce and a half of amarillo, about four ounces of Centennial.

 

[COLObrewer]

Um, about that... an ounce and a half of amarillo, about four ounces of Centennial.

How much of that was dry hops?

 

[Yan]

^^^taken from page 9
ya know i've had this before and it totally stumped me. it was in a purposely soured beer, but not in the beer, just the airlock. i don't know how the hell they got there since of course they were stuck in there, but i would re-sanitize and they just kept on showing up time and time again. plus i had prob 5-6 beers in the same closet and they would continiously show up in the same carboy airlock. 80 proof liquor in every airlock taboot-

I can't exactly tell by the blurry pic what the bugs are, but they very well could be fruit flies. Fruit flies will be attracted to anything with alcohol in it, since they their eggs in rotting fruit. They will fly into strong liquor and drown. I've seen them in a leftover shot of 80 proof rum in the morning, dead. Some of them can be very small, so I could imagine they might be able to get through the little holes in an airlock.

 

[jeffeezy]

How much of that was dry hops?

I was going to dry-hop with another oz of amarillo, but saw all the hop discharge in the blowoff tube and thought it was a lost cause.

I've never seen anything like that before!

 

[luniz7]

I hope my first batch isnt infected like some of these pics!

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I hope my first batch isnt infected like some of these pics!

Honestly, I wouldn't even be looking at this thread if I were you. I find that reading about infections tends to make you a bit paranoid of them. In reality, they don't happen often. I've brewed for years and have only had one infection. It was last year, and it was due to my lazyness and not making a starter. My yeast didn't take off fast enough and my wort got infected.

 

[luniz7]

Honestly, I wouldn't even be looking at this thread if I were you. I find that reading about infections tends to make you a bit paranoid of them. In reality, they don't happen often. I've brewed for years and have only had one infection. It was last year, and it was due to my lazyness and not making a starter. My yeast didn't take off fast enough and my wort got infected.

Honestly I'm not really worried about my beer getting an infection. I just saw some posts and wondered what does an infected beer look like.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Honestly I'm not really worried about my beer getting an infection. I just saw some posts and wondered what does an infected beer look like.

Cool... just figured I'd throw it out there. I know when I first started brewing, I got super paranoid after looking at threads like these. Just trying to save other people the stress, haha.