Post your infection

[Gmulerulz]

I've been lurking for almost a year and have learned many things from the awesome folks on this site. Normally I can get every question I have answered by checking the archives but I need help with something. I brewed an AG Dunkelweizen and it has been sitting in my bucket for a month and now it has a dull film with yeast rafts all over the top of the beer. Is this normal for a wheat beer left for a month in the primary? This is my 22nd batch and I have never had anything like this before.

I checked the gravity a week ago and it was fine @1.010, the beer tasted a little bitter for a 12 IBU beer which I wasn't expecting. I plan on bottling tomorrow but I just wanted to reach out to all of you who have been so helpful too me these last 10 months for a little feedback.

The yeast I used was Wyeast 3068 with a one liter starter. I fermented at 64 the first week and ramped up to 68 the last 3 weeks. I decided to start letting my brews primary for 4 weeks but I am starting to wonder if I need to rethink that strategy now and stick to 3 weeks.

My gut tells me that everything is fine but the dull film on top has me a little concerned. I will post pictures if it will help.

Before I posted this I did a quick gravity/taste check and it is still more bitter than I expected but it doesn't taste sour or like vinegar so I feel I'm OK and just stressing a little.

 

[daggers_nz]

I decided to start letting my brews primary for 4 weeks but I am starting to wonder if I need to rethink that strategy now and stick to 3 weeks.

ale yeast has usually done its job in 1 week, not sure why you want it in there for any longer than 2

 

[Gmulerulz]

ale yeast has usually done its job in 1 week, not sure why you want it in there for any longer than 2

I found as my ability to wait has grown with my pipeline I like to let the yeast clean up a bit more. My beers that I have let go a few days over three weeks have really been a lot clearer and taste just a little better.

This was my first wheat and maybe I am worrying about nothing. Anyone have experience with a wheat beer sitting for 4 weeks that is different from a non wheat beer such as a dull film/layer on the top of the beer in the primary? Also what kinda taste would you expect from the hydro sample you pulled? I can post the recipe but it is best I can tell a typical Dunkelweizen recipe The only grain I used that is even slightly bitter would be the Black Malt which was only 2 oz or do I have a possible problem on my hands?

 

[Hyperion2]

This is a variation of drunken emu apple cider. Racked to secondary to let it age and noticed these deposits on the side of the carboy not long after. The yeast I used was s-04.

I am not overly worried as it doesn't look like any of the infections I've seen on here, but since I'm new to this I thought I'd check.

Thanks in advance!

 

[B33F]

Update!

My beer was definitely infected and it must have been pretty bad seeing as it was giving noticeable signs after less than 48 hours.

For anyone wondering, the signs included a nice sulfur smell (read: rotten eggs) and a strong ethyl alcohol smell once that dissipated. After from about 48 hours to 60 hours it was fermenting pretty hard and spewing out the egg smell. Then after that, the egg smell dissipated, the fermentor stopped bubbling and I took a gravity reading and got a look at the "krausen". There was a layer of bubbles with a thick brown skin on top. I took a gravity reading which read 1.035 (down from 1.085) and had a taste. It had a very astringent bitter taste which would be reminiscent of accidentally eating the rind of a citrus fruit. That's to say, not a bitterness you get from hops.

I left it alone after that for two weeks and the filmed up bubble layer sunk at some point but it still had the rubbing alcohol smell so I had to dump it. Tears were shed.

 

[casesensative]

Update!

My beer was definitely infected and it must have been pretty bad seeing as it was giving noticeable signs after less than 48 hours.

For anyone wondering, the signs included a nice sulfur smell (read: rotten eggs) and a strong ethyl alcohol smell once that dissipated. After from about 48 hours to 60 hours it was fermenting pretty hard and spewing out the egg smell. Then after that, the egg smell dissipated, the fermentor stopped bubbling and I took a gravity reading and got a look at the "krausen". There was a layer of bubbles with a thick brown skin on top. I took a gravity reading which read 1.035 (down from 1.085) and had a taste. It had a very astringent bitter taste which would be reminiscent of accidentally eating the rind of a citrus fruit. That's to say, not a bitterness you get from hops.

I left it alone after that for two weeks and the filmed up bubble layer sunk at some point but it still had the rubbing alcohol smell so I had to dump it. Tears were shed.

I still don't believe you had an infection, just bad beer. Your krausen looked perfectly normal, and all of the smells/tastes can just be a byproduct of the yeast used. Sounds like your yeast were either underpitched, not healthy, or stressed and they kicked off some ethyl acetate and other esters/phenols. I think what you really had on your hands was just bad beer.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,many euro yeasts will give a sulfur smell while fermenting that dissipates afterwards. I got a lacto infection on my Maori IPA. Discovered when I opened it up to dry hop. I skimmed it off dropped in the hop bag & sprayed the surface with starsan. This is a pic of it a week later. Bubbles were smaller. It starts off looking like broken pack ice in the spring,then gets slimy bubbles & looks like this;
http://[URL=http://s563.photobucket.com/user/unionrdr/media/PICT0003_zps902eee48.jpg.html] [/URL]
I pulled the hop sack & racked out from under it to tyhe bottling bucket since it looked clearer than before. Smelled & tasted good too. Got 47 bottles on 10/20 @ 2.3VCO2. I lowered the carbonation from my usual 2.6 volumes to account for the lacto maybe taking hold again & fermenting too much.

 

[Gabz101]

Hi brewers.

I've just registered do to a possible infection.

This is my first brewing process and, maybe in the picture you can't see, but there are some little white spots, arround 1-2mm, and i was wondering what could it be?

It's in the 2week of the 2nd fermentation/clarification, after 12days of the 1st fermentation.

Cheers

 

[inkman15]

Hi brewers.

I've just registered do to a possible infection.

This is my first brewing process and, maybe in the picture you can't see, but there are some little white spots, arround 1-2mm, and i was wondering what could it be?

It's in the 2week of the 2nd fermentation/clarification, after 12days of the 1st fermentation.

Cheers

Looks like CO2/yeast rafts to me. I think you're ok here.

 

[SemperFermentis]

Hi brewers.

I've just registered do to a possible infection.

This is my first brewing process and, maybe in the picture you can't see, but there are some little white spots, arround 1-2mm, and i was wondering what could it be?

It's in the 2week of the 2nd fermentation/clarification, after 12days of the 1st fermentation.

Cheers

Unless there's something small enough not to see in the pic, I doubt you're dealing with anything you didn't plan on.

 

[daggers_nz]

Yeah,many euro yeasts will give a sulfur smell while fermenting that dissipates afterwards. I got a lacto infection on my Maori IPA. Discovered when I opened it up to dry hop. I skimmed it off dropped in the hop bag & sprayed the surface with starsan. This is a pic of it a week later. Bubbles were smaller. It starts off looking like broken pack ice in the spring,then gets slimy bubbles & looks like this;

1. What is a Maori IPA?
2. Why would you spray sanitiser straight into the brew?

 

[unionrdr]

1. What is a Maori IPA?
2. Why would you spray sanitizer straight into the brew?

The Maori are the natives that originally settle the islands comprising New Zealand. Since the beer uses all NZ hops,I named it after the original inhabitants. This 2nd batch of it was going great till I opened it up to drop the dry hop sack in. It looked like broken pack ice with slimy bubbles on it. It turns out that's what the beginning of a lacto infection looks like. Broken pack ice,then the bubbles,etc.
Anyway,I skimmed it off,then dropped in the hop sack & sprayed the surface with Starsan solution,thinking/hoping that'd kill it. Or at least slow it down some. I figured it couldn't hurt to experiment for the good of all at that point.
So a week later,I opened it up. Grew back,but with smaller bubbles this time.
I pulled the hop sack with a pair of sanitized tongs before racking to bottling bucket To prime & bottle. It def tasted better & was slightly misty rather than cloudy at that point.
As of now,the bottles are crystal clear with nothing floating or growing in it. No bottle bombs either. Well see how they taste in a couple more weeks.
**PS-Just noticed you're in NZ!...& here's a link describing the infection here concerned with-http://perfectpint.blogspot.com/2012/03/infected.html

 

[45thparallelhopper]

Just found this in my secondary for my mint chocolate porter. It looks stringy and I know the picture sucks. But any ideas? Still drinkable?

 

[unionrdr]

From what I can see,a pellicle may be trying to form on the more normal groups of co2 bubbles left after krausen recedes.

 

[SemperFermentis]

Just found this in my secondary for my mint chocolate porter. It looks stringy and I know the picture sucks. But any ideas? Still drinkable?

View attachment 157242

Wait a week or two, you'll know for sure. As long as full fermentation took place it's drinkable, however it will depend on whether you want to drink it or not; could taste good, or not so good.

 

[shuckit]

I just read part of this thread. I see very few infections. Fermentation is a messy smelly process. Off flavors due to poor yeast handling and fermentation seems to be causing people lots of angst.

 

[Math0]

What kind of infection is this? Is there any way to know if it can be bottled or if I need to throw it away?

 

[jonmohno]

What kind of infection is this? Is there any way to know if it can be bottled or if I need to throw it away?

Both of those pictures previously posted are not infections. Unless some kind of flakey skin forms on top of them in the next few weeks they are good to go. And they are very normal looking for krausen dropping. That scotch tape on the outside of the carboy makes itn appear to look like the beginning of one faintly. You guys just have off gassing bubbles.

 

[Math0]

Actually, it was after fermentation. 3 weeks old.. And the top had a kind of crusty white bubbly skin. After fermentation it was very normal and flat, no bubbles, nothing on top. Then nice surprise of bad smelling and crust. Hmmm...

 

[Hello]

I racked my stout to secondary yesterday after spending 3 1/2 weeks in primary. Fermentation stuck and I was trying various methods such as repitching, rousing yeast, warming it up and adding calcium carbonate because my recipe was highly acidic and the yeast wasn't able to really survive. It has stayed at 1.030 from 1.067 for over 2 weeks.

Thoughts were to rack to secondary over the toasted coconut and then either bottle it and just have a very sweet stout or make another stout without any specialty grains and mixing the two.

Anyway, I racked yesterday, about 20 hours ago and basically ran into issues with the hop bag not fitting through the neck of the carboy and having to quickly grab a grain bag, dunk in star san, and load the coconut in that. It was a mess but now I just looked at it and found what I think (hope) is krausen of sort and maybe some star san foam (there was a lot) sitting around. The yellow arrow is what I question, the red arrow points to my grain bag full of sanitized marbles and coconut. After all of this work I am hoping it is not infected.
Also, when I racked it, the beer was fine and there was no concern of infection. I wish I had snapped a pic, but I didn't.

 

[unionrdr]

Hmmm...it looks like big caky yeast rafts,but has bubbles in it like a pellicle?...

 

[fab80]

I posted this pic before here (post #1327) and can confirm it wasn't brett!!

 

[Hello]

Hmmm...it looks like big caky yeast rafts,but has bubbles in it like a pellicle?...

So it's a wait and see how it tastes, bottle and do not let it age type of thing? It's a stout. I wanted it to age.
Would it all form like that so quickly? Here is today's image with flash (left) and no flash.

 

[unionrdr]

I still think it's yeast rafts,but maybe the bubbly,almost wet popcorn stuff is protiens coming out of suspension like cold break.?

 

[TownieBrewer]

This thread is looking at a bad car accident. But worse.

 

[Hello]

I still think it's yeast rafts,but maybe the bubbly,almost wet popcorn stuff is protiens coming out of suspension like cold break.?

So it is not infected or you're saying that this looks like it could be the result of an infection.

It was a brand new BB, coconut was toasted, grain bag dunked in star san and I wore food safe gloves (think the kind Subway workers wear) to get the coconut into the grain bag. So if there is an infection I would be sort of surprised.

I appreciate your input. Really.

 

[lowtones84]

So it's a wait and see how it tastes, bottle and do not let it age type of thing? It's a stout. I wanted it to age.
Would it all form like that so quickly? Here is today's image with flash (left) and no flash.
View attachment 158880

Yeah, I don't think that's an infection either. Sometimes fermentation just looks kind of gross!

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,it just looks different than anything I've seen in mine up to this point. Like a combination of things as it were.

 

[Hello]

Yeah,it just looks different than anything I've seen in mine up to this point. Like a combination of things as it were.

Yeah, I don't think that's an infection either. Sometimes fermentation just looks kind of gross!

You guys have eased my mind. I moved the carboy today and the rafts or whatever are settling. I am nearly certain it is okay but time will tell. I learned if it is infected I could probably make it a sour stout. I'd have to add somethings to it, but i can do it nonetheless.

 

[unionrdr]

If it's settling out,then it's likely just yeast rafts & cold break.