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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...
24374_562524998690_45900919_32713792_4052336_n.jpg

this is a brett pellicle and not an infection
 
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-
 
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.
 
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...
 
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.
 
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...
24374_562524998690_45900919_32713792_4052336_n.jpg

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.
 
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?
 
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.

24374_562641155910_45900919_32717232_7398084_n.jpg
 
^^^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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
I think I have my first infection...

4554679842_993d631a54.jpg


4554679314_2b51354ebb.jpg


Irish red that has been in the primary for two months and when I cracked it open to bottle (unless I'm racking onto fruit or oak chips, I hardly ever use a secondary) this is what I was greeted by. Haven't seen this in my brews before. The small hole in the scum is from when I took a gravity reading. Instead of panicking, I tried to carefully siphon under the top layer into my bottling bucket. I did a decent job but might have got a small amount of this scum in the bottling bucket. Then I bottled it and am optimistic that everything will be fine in the end.

It didn't smell or taste funny, although I didn't taste the scum! I even had my wife try it to see if she noticed anything (I didn't tell her that I suspected it might be infected 'cause she never would have tried it!).

So anyway, what do you guys think? I kind of think it had an infection but everything will be fine but I might have to drink it fast once it is carbonates! If it grows scum in the bottles and that doesn't go away, I might start thinking about tossing it.
 
yeah, it looks gross but I tasted it anyway. Tasted like beer so I bottled it.

I guess we'll see what happens. I figure either it will be fine, turn sour, or become bottle bombs. Whatever happens, I should learn something.

Not sure how it got infected. I know that everything was well sanitized with Star San. I actually kind of suspect the lid seal on the fermenter. This and the previous batch that I brewed in this fermenter didn't have any airlock activity. None. While I know this isn't a reliable indication of fermentation but ALL of my other brews have had airlock activity. Of course I've only brewed two dozen batches total so who knows. What I do know is that fermentation did take place (gravity readings) and that the other batch in this fermenter turned out fine. So maybe oxygen got in there due to a bad lid seal?

I think I'm going to retire this bucket and use it for washing the car or something.
 
I think I have my first infection...

4554679842_993d631a54.jpg


4554679314_2b51354ebb.jpg


Irish red that has been in the primary for two months and when I cracked it open to bottle (unless I'm racking onto fruit or oak chips, I hardly ever use a secondary) this is what I was greeted by. Haven't seen this in my brews before. The small hole in the scum is from when I took a gravity reading. Instead of panicking, I tried to carefully siphon under the top layer into my bottling bucket. I did a decent job but might have got a small amount of this scum in the bottling bucket. Then I bottled it and am optimistic that everything will be fine in the end.

It didn't smell or taste funny, although I didn't taste the scum! I even had my wife try it to see if she noticed anything (I didn't tell her that I suspected it might be infected 'cause she never would have tried it!).

So anyway, what do you guys think? I kind of think it had an infection but everything will be fine but I might have to drink it fast once it is carbonates! If it grows scum in the bottles and that doesn't go away, I might start thinking about tossing it.

damnit now I want some yams.
 
Well, I think I had my first infection. Sorry, no pix. I had a pilsner with ale yeast and put it to rest on March 20th. On April 29th I opened the bucket and it had a thin white film floating on top that looked like the grease on cold hamburger or soup. It wasn't smelly and I still bottled it so I will know in about three weeks. I did taste the sample for the FG and it tasted OK but I think in the back of my mind, it was telling me to spit it out.
 
Geez even my lambic that I dosed with Brett B, Belgian Sour Blend, and some other buggy blend hasn't shown any signs of looking abnormal... Sort of makes me want to make a wort just to leave it open in my basement just to see what it would look like after a few weeks.
 
Ok I also have the same exact thing going on in secondary on an imperial brown ale! It appeared after about a week and I just tasted it and it seems fine to me. The gravity actually dropped from 1029 to 1025 since racking (was hoping for that) so is now at an ABV of 7.33. I was thinking maybe I should just keg and carb it now. Thoughts?

Here's another.

inf-1.jpg

inf-2.jpg
 
I don't know why I open up threads like this. All it does is make me worry about my next batch. Of course it could also make me continue to be obsessively anal about my sanitation procedures.

I'm surprised you don't get more infections if you clean it that way, or at least a smelly Carboy.
 
photopsw.jpg


anyone have any idea what this looks like?

if this helps at all, it is an all pils saison fermented with white labs belgian saison yeast...

i racked from underneath the bubbles, and the bubbles started forming after a few days.

it is hard to tell from the taste... this is my first time brewing a saison, so i am not sure if i am tasting the natural character of the yeast or if the flavors on the finish are in fact the sign of an infection...
 
Now i feel like i need to rush home and rack my beer out from under my fruit that has been floating for 2 weeks. It is probably molding.....
 
Now i feel like i need to rush home and rack my beer out from under my fruit that has been floating for 2 weeks. It is probably molding.....

No need to worry. Mold won't hurt your beer. If you don't punch your fruit down every few days to keep it wet, it will mold. Just rack from under it when it's ready and it'll be fine.
 
Thanks for the heads up. I did not push it down nor have I bottled yet and it still looks ok. I need to bottle it tonight though, it has been on the fruit about a month now.....
 
Brewed four batches in one week and they all came up with varying degrees of this

http://picasaweb.google.com/108488725530733315820/Pictures#5478289311210291122

finished 2 of the batches, drinking another now, and about to keg the last...

Flavor not really affected so far, the one I am drinking now was actually a kentucky common ale that was intentionally soured, so there is a very mild sour flavor but, it was done in the mash on purpose...

All fermented in different buckets and primaries, with different airlocks...May have cross contaminited when checking fg.

Plan on replacing the mash tun(not great to begin with), tubing, etc...

Will clean the bejeezus out of all else.
 
Brewed four batches in one week and they all came up with varying degrees of this

http://picasaweb.google.com/108488725530733315820/Pictures#5478289311210291122

finished 2 of the batches, drinking another now, and about to keg the last...

Flavor not really affected so far, the one I am drinking now was actually a kentucky common ale that was intentionally soured, so there is a very mild sour flavor but, it was done in the mash on purpose...

All fermented in different buckets and primaries, with different airlocks...May have cross contaminited when checking fg.

Plan on replacing the mash tun(not great to begin with), tubing, etc...

Will clean the bejeezus out of all else.

You shouldn't need to replace the mash. Any bugs that are in the mash will be boiled off anyways.
 
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