Post your infection

[Jayjay1976]

1.107 RIS, brewed last Sunday. I noticed some dark material floating just below the surface, kinda looked like coffee grounds. The next day a little smidge of white stuff. Gave it a gentle rock to observe whether a pellicle is forming, the next day it looked like this. Is it mold or just yeast colonies? No fuzziness observed and the still fresh high-kraeusen ring, as you can see, appears normal. Thoughts?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Looks ok to me

 

[ancientmariner52]

I've seen that sort of pattern a few times. I believe you'll be ok.

 

[Punx Clever]

Brewed an 11 gallon trappist single on monday, Tilt hydrometer showed no active fermentation 24 hours after pitching a pint of T-58 slurry harvested from a batch of cider. Ordered some T-58 to come overnight via amazon prime and went to pitch two packs... opening up the fermentation chamber I'm greeted by a sour smell and this:

Middle looks liek what I would expect a krausen to look like. Stuff on the right looked leathery and powdery. I'm thinking lacto by the smell.

So, what does the hive mind think? Did I pick up a lacto infection during the delay in fermentation? I still pitched the extra two packs of T-58 and plan to let it ride to completion... just wondering what to expect.

 

[RPh_Guy]

So, what does the hive mind think? Did I pick up a lacto infection during the delay in fermentation?

There's definitely yeast fermentation, likely the yeast you pitched.

If it smells or tastes weird, certainly could be something wild in there too. It looks like something wild.

There's no way to know what to expect. Maybe it'll be awesome. Good luck!

As always, make sure gravity is stable if you bottle, and clean well.

 

[Punx Clever]

Appreciate the feedback. Odds are that this won't do well as a 26a Trappist Single in next months local competition...

 

[RPh_Guy]

Appreciate the feedback. Odds are that this won't do well as a 26a Trappist Single in next months local competition...

Eh, yeah. Bummer.
Well, if it tastes good you could pasteurize the bottles.

 

[Tuck_M]

Hi All,

Newbie, so apologies if this is a bit naive of me but this is my fourth batch that had just been transferred from the primary to the secondary. I noticed the following day, small white disks floating on the top of the beer, could this be a lacto infection?

I have attached the best image I could take.

If it is what recommendations do you all have for saving the Carboy?

Many thanks !

 

[RPh_Guy]

small white disks floating on the top of the beer, could this be a lacto infection?

Hey Tuck
Welcome to HBT!

I can't tell anything definitive from that photo.

This one's taken through plastic. The white patches are a pellicle being formed by wild microbes. If it looks like this, then yeah there's wild stuff.

Can't identify something by the pellicle (except for mold, which looks fuzzy).

 

[Tuck_M]

Hi RPh Guy,

Thanks for coming back to me, attached are some more photos of the batch as the ones I did, I do agree are a bit lame. From what I can tell why are white misty disks.

I am worried from what I read online that I will have to throw my gear out. What the best practice for dis-infecting the
Carboy?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Sorry, I still really can't tell.

Floating spots might be:
-Patches of bubbles from the beer off-gassing at particular nucleation points. (Look closely for bubbles)
-Yeast rafts or krausen remnant/ coagulated proteins (hot or cold break)/ hop debris. These are all relatively common, should be recognizable.
-Mold (fuzzy).
-Early pellicle (smooth/powdery).

If you can't tell, I would leave it alone for maybe a week and see what happens.

Glass is not difficult to clean and sanitize; you won't need to discard it. Don't worry.

 

[Oyarsa]

I'm guessing it's not infected and just bits of krausen, but thought I'd check the general opinion...1 week, 3 days in...

This is my 3rd brew, and the first of this size, so I'm still getting used to what "normal" is.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I'm guessing it's not infected and just bits of krausen, but thought I'd check the general opinion...1 week, 3 days in...

This is my 3rd brew, and the first of this size, so I'm still getting used to what "normal" is.View attachment 608106

Definitely normal!

 

[ncbrewer]

I'm guessing it's not infected and just bits of krausen, but thought I'd check the general opinion...1 week, 3 days in...

This is my 3rd brew, and the first of this size, so I'm still getting used to what "normal" is.View attachment 608106

Keep the lid on it and trust the yeast to know what they're doing. Opening invites infection and oxidation. I don't open until two days before bottling day to get a gravity sample - then another sample on bottling day to make sure gravity is stable.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Looks good to me!

I've got a batch of vienna saaz ale that is one week old today, and though the airlock only bubbles every 3 minutes, the kraeusen hasn't dropped at all. Used 1007 German ale yeast.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Don’t want to argue, but here’s the deal, you are assuming things. My system is full turn-key from water addition to bottling. My gravity readings don’t use a hydrometer, they use a density meter and spectrometer with a resolution of 0.0001 g/cm^3

As far as keeping an eye on bottles goes, well with heatshrink black labels over my bottles, up to the rim, the only way to “monitor” is to open.

But yeah, you make good points, you just also make undue assumptions

Pics of this turn key brewery, or it didn't happen. The way you describe it makes it sound 100% automated from sacks of malted grain to full cases on a palette. Sounds more push-button than turn key to me. I call bull $hit. Such a brewery does not exist. Even if it did, it would require little more than a complete moron to push said button. Are you more competent a brewer than that?

Edit: If you sell locally for $18/bottle, then why are you brewing such small batches? Limited audience? Are all your customers relatives? We may have a girl scout cookie situation here. Aw heck, I'll buy a bottle to help you out sport! $18 per bottle, wow! Boy, this is (pflurg) great stuff! ::cough::

 

[Jayjay1976]

1.107 RIS, brewed last Sunday. I noticed some dark material floating just below the surface, kinda looked like coffee grounds. The next day a little smidge of white stuff. Gave it a gentle rock to observe whether a pellicle is forming, the next day it looked like this. Is it mold or just yeast colonies? No fuzziness observed and the still fresh high-kraeusen ring, as you can see, appears normal. Thoughts?

View attachment 588629 View attachment 588630

This RIS btw turned out awesome. Bottled just before christmas, I'm planning to age it several months but it already tastes delicious.

 

[kh54s10]

Pics of this turn key brewery, or it didn't happen. The way you describe it makes it sound 100% automated from sacks of malted grain to full cases on a palette. Sounds more push-button than turn key to me. I call bull $hit. Such a brewery does not exist. Even if it did, it would require little more than a complete moron to push said button. Are you more competent a brewer than that?

Edit: If you sell locally for $18/bottle, then why are you brewing such small batches? Limited audience? Are all your customers relatives? We may have a girl scout cookie situation here. Aw heck, I'll buy a bottle to help you out sport! $18 per bottle, wow! Boy, this is (pflurg) great stuff! ::cough::

Turn key probably means that he just bought everything as systems and did not DIY anything. For instance the water system would be a filtering or RO, then just plumbed in. The Milling, a pre built system fully integrated. And a brewing rig in the way Spike sells their Buy Once Cry Once systems. Then fermentation systems like fermenters with already installed cooling.

$18 a bottle?? I would not be a customer at much over 1/10th that price.

 

[Oyarsa]

I'll be kegging today. I figured it was done and the gravity is where it should be.

 

[Oyarsa]

It seems like every batch looks different. This is my tamarind ipa I brewed a week ago. I let it go 5 days till bubbling stopped. When I opened to dry hop (Wednesday), there were two big bubbles and some bits of krausen. I tossed in the hop pellets. Today I decided to take a peak and there appears to be more of what I thought was krausen. It's also a different color than the remnants of krausen dried on the side of the fermenter.

So...infected or normal? If it's infected, I'm not particularly concerned. It's going to be tart in any case and was considering doing a tamarind sour intentionally...

 

[Oyarsa]

Sorry, bad pic. Here's a better one.

 

[Oyarsa]

To be clear, I'm asking about the cream color. The rest is the hop material.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Normal

 

[Oyarsa]

Thanks for the quick reply, as always.

Think the dry hops simply restarted fermentation a bit? My OG was suppose to be around 1.056 and turned out at about 1.070. I think the tamarind and crystallized ginger added more sugar than expected. Maybe the yeast had temporarily slowed? I'm trying not to disturb it much, so I'm holding off on a hydrometer reading till I'm ready to bottle or keg next Thursday or Friday.

 

[peterpasha]

I made this wort 2.5 weeks ago, it's a Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout. Fermentables were

• 10 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (52.6%)
• 3 lb - Rolled Oats (15.8%)
• 2.25 lb - American - Chocolate (11.8%)
• 2.25 lb - American - Roasted Barley (11.8%)
• 0.5 lb - Maltodextrin (2.6%)
• 1 lb - Lactose (Milk Sugar) (5.3%)

and adjuncts were:

• 1 lb - chocolate, Time: 60 min, Type: Spice, Use: Boil
• 14 g - Habanero Chilies (dried), Time: 90 min, Type: Flavor, Use: Boil
• 2 each - cinnamon, Time: 15 min, Type: Flavor, Use: Whirlpool
• 4 tbsp - cumin, Time: 15 min, Type: Flavor, Use: Whirlpool
• 2 each - vanilla, Time: 15 min, Type: Flavor, Use: Whirlpool

I usually just add cacao nibs for the chocolate flavour, but I really wanted to hit up the chocolate for this one. I chilled and transferred to a Fast Ferment with an OG of 1.061, and added two packets of Safale S-04. I had very vigorous airlock activity for the first week (usually I just get a day or two for regular beers) and then nothing for the next week. Thinking it was finished, I dumped the trub ball and transferred to a sanitized keg. I took the FG and to my surprise, it was only 1.040, giving me only 2.7% ABV. While I'm okay with a session stout, I was expecting it to come down to (at least) below 1.020. There was also a LOT of clumpy trub still in the beer. So, I cleaned and sanitized the Fast Ferment and transferred the beer back to it, intending to give it another week. After a day or two of thinking about it, I added another packet of S-04, thinking that the large amount of additives had stressed out the yeast and it had given up.

I opened it on Friday, for a gravity reading and saw this film on top. I've never seen anything like this before, but there is no moldy smell. In fact, it smells amazingly chocolaty! I had sampled it right after the chill post-boil and it had an overwhelming flavour of cumin, but when I tasted it after 2 weeks, it tasted great, the cumin flavour had settled down to just a hint and the chili peppers gave it a real 'hot' kick.

What does the hive mind think of this?

 

[peterpasha]

Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout

• peterpasha
• Feb 10, 2019

 

[RPh_Guy]

I think I'm looking at a film from the chocolate rather than a pellicle.

What chocolate did you use? Fats (e.g. cocoa butter) will float on top of the beer.

Did you dry the chilies yourself? Sometimes commercially-dried fruits/veggies have oil added.

The s.g. is a problem. You are using a hydrometer, correct?
S-04 is known for flocculating and dropping out before it finishes. You should warm it up and swirl it to rouse the yeast. If you've already removed the yeast, rehydrate and pitch another packet.

I'd suggest troubleshooting this in a new thread, since I don't believe it's a contamination issue.

Hope this helps.

 

[Schulzy5]

Woke up this morning to pitch my yeast for an Irish Red I brewed Friday afternoon (let chill overnight and wasn't home to pitch yesterday) and found some airlock activity so I was a little intrigued. Opened it up to find a layer of krausen. Pulled a sample and it doesn't taste sour (yet). Looks like it lost 2 gravity points though. Thoughts?

 

[IslandLizard]

Woke up this morning to pitch my yeast for an Irish Red I brewed Friday afternoon (let chill overnight and wasn't home to pitch yesterday) and found some airlock activity so I was a little intrigued. Opened it up to find a layer of krausen. Pulled a sample and it doesn't taste sour (yet). Looks like it lost 2 gravity points though. Thoughts?

That's a lot of krausen over one night! Possibly a wild yeast?
I'd pitch that yeast ASAP, hoping for it to get a stronger foothold before the wild yeast does.

Are you pitching a fresh pack or starter? An active vitality starter is best as it will take off faster, esential in this case, but will take about 4-6 hours to grow.

The other route is reboiling the wort (it's now 'beer' actually), rechill and pitch your intended yeast starter. That will eliminate whatever is trying to take over your beer right now.

 

[Schulzy5]

That's a lot of krausen over one night! Possibly a wild yeast?
I'd pitch that yeast ASAP, hoping for it to get a stronger foothold before the wild yeast does.

Are you pitching a fresh pack or starter? An active vitality starter is best as it will take off faster, esential in this case, but will take about 4-6 hours to grow.

The other route is reboiling the wort (it's now 'beer' actually), rechill and pitch your intended yeast starter. That will eliminate whatever is trying to take over your beer right now.

I do use a lot of diastaticus with my other strains so there is a chance it's present, although the previous batch attenuated normally and didn't have diastaticus. I pitched a fresh pack of S04 just before posting on here to try to get a foothold like you mentioned.