Post your infection

[thornton33]

Question for all: Just racked to secondary today with a 1oz dry hop addition. We put the pellets in a sanitized muslin bag, but accidentally set the sack of hops on an unsanitized surface before placing in secondary. Given the fact that primary fermentation is complete, our beer has a healthy amount of alcohol content (6.5%'ish), plenty of alpha acids (IPA), and we sanitized the sack. What does your collective wisdom say about the risk of infection under these circumstances?

 

[maazak]

Question for all: Just racked to secondary today with a 1oz dry hop addition. We put the pellets in a sanitized muslin bag, but accidentally set the sack of hops on an unsanitized surface before placing in secondary. Given the fact that primary fermentation is complete, our beer has a healthy amount of alcohol content (6.5%'ish), plenty of alpha acids (IPA), and we sanitized the sack. What does your collective wisdom say about the risk of infection under these circumstances?

You are fine.

 

[Radboud]

I just had another one of those OOOHHHh SH*T moments when I opened my fermenter to bottle my Altbier:

On closer inspection though it didn't seem to be a pellicle, just loads of yeast rafts but with an oily film here and there (a batch or two ago I had a bonafide ice-like pellicle so I know what it looks like). It might be oils from the hop as this recipe is on the heavy side for an Altbier (1.4oz on 4gal, Spalt select). I used Gozdawa Old German Altbier which is a Polish made dry yeast.

The smell that came of the beer was not that pleasant; a very harsh and hot fruity/apple-like smell but this could just be CO2 and normal yeast produced stuff. It finished kinda high, 1.015 (2 weeks @ 62.5f, 1 week @ 68f). It tasted fine, no sourness at all, just very bitter from the hops.

I decided to go ahead and bottle anyway. I noticed that the oily stuff ended up in my bottling bucket and in the bottles. What do you think, Altbier vinegar in a few weeks?

 

[DrunkleJon]

I did a terrible thing yesterday. I had a pumpkin ale I made 2 or 3 years ago that got an infection so I let it ride (bucket fermenter). I looked at it 6 months or more down the line and it smelled fine, but had a skin. I decided I would be lazy and relidded it, refilled the airlock and promptly forgot about it again. Every so many months I would remember it and find that the airlock was dry again and top it up just because. Yesterday when cleaning out my garage I found it again. Apparently something had landed on the lid and knocked the airlock off and broken it. The grommet hole was wide open to the environment for untold months.

I brought the bucket out of the garage and opened the lid. I got a distinct acetone type of smell off it so decided to dump it in the yard finally and dispose of the bucket. After dumping it I continued cleaning the garage. Now, here is the part that is terrible. I did this without sampling it. Last night and today when walking in the yard near where I dumped it I smelled... the wonderful aroma of a delicious tart sour beer. Much like the tart smell of a Duchesse or La Folie. Now, I am regretting dumping it without taking a sample. I really wish I had bottled it up one of those times I was too uninspired to do anything with it. It had been trapped in a corner behind stuff that was being stored in the garage for quite a while during projects.

On a positive note, I did find in my beer fridge a forgotten mason jar of the budweiser keg that was at a party last summer that somehow was months past its best by date and sour. I think it is time to play around and see what I can make out of it.

 

[wdprice3]

Is this the start of an infection? A couple rafts of tiny white bubbles, appearing over the last few hours.

View attachment 1461639666174.jpg

 

[brandonnys]

That looks normal to me. See if it doesn't go away in a few days.

 

[wdprice3]

Woke up this morning... tripled in size and airlock activity... about 1 month after brewing. Not good. I brewed this for an event at the end of may.

 

[brandonnys]

Pictures from today?

 

[wdprice3]

No, sorry; looks much the same, just more rafts. The inside of the carboy now has some condensation on it, so any pictures would be mighty blurry.

The only thing I can think of, is possibly some delayed off-gassing due a temperature change (pulled out of cold crash recently); seems odd that this would take so long, but I guess it's possible.

What has me somewhat concerned is that I was out of town for several days and when I got back, the airlock was low on sanitizer, so there's been some possibility of recent infection.

Was planning on bottling this tonight so it's ready by the end of May.

 

[lolcats]

How is that an infection??? It's just co2 bubbles

 

[brandonnys]

That's my thoughts too. Just looks like the change in temp reactivated dormant yeast and they started moving around.

 

[HBWarke]

Took a sample about 10 days ago and took a sample today, both at 1.006 for my Saison. Can someone tell me what is floating on it? I did use cardamom seeds in the recipe, but not sure this is them.

 

[tgolanos]

If your gravity hasn't changed in 10 days, I think it's OK. Could be the remnants of the Cardamom seeds you're seeing. Looks more like grain husks to me, though. Either way, I don't think it's anything bad.

How'd it taste?

 

[HBWarke]

Tasted like Saison DuPont.

 

[TheMuffinMan]

Looks like seeds to me

 

[Ipas4life]

Bubbles on top of fermenter don't know if infected

 

[jjw5015]

Bubbles on top of fermenter don't know if infected

That is fermenting wort

 

[Ipas4life]

I hope so don't wanna get pellicles in beer happened to last ipa I made

 

[Ipas4life]

It's been about a month now

 

[Jwin]

It's been about a month now

Recently dry hop?

 

[Ipas4life]

Yes was my first time dry hopping

 

[Jwin]

Yes was my first time dry hopping

It's the hops causing off gassing. Enjoy your brew.

 

[Ipas4life]

Thanks for the info still new to all this

 

[j_foamstache]

Thanks for the info still new to all this

I just recently dry hopped a pale ale for the first time and it had a very similar appearance after the hops all dropped out. The beer is super tasty. Enjoy your brew!

 

[thornton33]

Anyone have issues with tons of large yeast rafts sitting in suspension with US 05? When I racked to the bottling bucket you could see debris from the top to the bottom in various amounts. Is that a typical characteristic of the strain? 2 weeks in primary and 1 week in secondary at 60°-64° entire time. OG of 1.07 and FG of 1.015.

 

[kcoect]

I brewed a 10 gallon batch BIAB and forgot to sanitize the O2 wand before aerating the first of two fermenters... Went to bottle it this past weekend and it had this funky stuff on top that stuck to the sides of the fermenter as I started to drain it. I included a picture of its twin that had a sanitized fermenter for comparison, it's much cleaner... Just hope I haven't made any bottle bombs... Anyone have a guess as to what the funky skin like substance may be?

 

[maazak]

What was the Fg of the two batches ? Same? Did you taste them ?

 

[unionrdr]

That broken ice-pack stuff was an infection getting started.

 

[kcoect]

That broken ice-pack stuff was an infection getting started.

An infection getting started? It was in the fermenter for a month, how much more time did it need to "get started"? Or did the alcohol kill the infection?

As far as the FG, I didn't take a reading because I let it sit in the fermenter for a month (active fermentation ended in the first week, left it in the fermenter to clarify).

Did I taste them? As far as I can tell they are similar in taste but the "infected" one had a slightly stronger odor to it which I'm at a loss for words to describe. It's like it had a stronger alcohol smell or something strong like it that I can't exactly describe. It's in the bottle so I'll try one at the end of the week to see what it tastes like.

I'm more upset that I forgot to sanitise the O2 wand than I am at loosing over 5 gallons of beer... Such a simple stupid mistake to make and so easily avoidable...

 

[kombat]

Yup, the ice-pack batch is definitely infected. Once the bottles carb up, I would refrigerate them (to slow the infection) and drink them quickly, as there is indeed a risk of bottle-bombs. That's assuming you like the flavour. If not, then uncap them and dump them, as if you store them at room temperature and forget about them, they WILL eventually explode.