Still hope for a contaminated batch?

[dmfa200]

I have a Blue Moon Clone that I know is infected. I opened the carboy too many times in my curious nature to take readings and sample.
Sat in primary for 3 weeks the last of which big bubbles that had a film on them developed. I bottled anyway.
Well, 3 weeks later this beer has turned cloudy.
My wife was making Reubens and while tasting and evaluating the beer I found that the smell is similar to Sauerkraut.
It is not undrinkable, just weird. Cannot place what I'm tasting.
My question is... Can this beer be salvaged? Maybe with fruit.

 

[FirefighterSR2]

Sauerkraut gets it's flavor from various lactic acid bacteria strains, so it's likely that's what you've got growing in there. Considering the style of Blue Moon, I can see a little lactic being a pleasant thing.

I'm no expert on lacto, but my guess is that adding fruit would facilitate the souring process due to the added simple sugars. If it were me, I'd seal it back up and put it in a dark corner for a couple months and see what time does to it. Of course, if you don't care for sour beers I don't know there's a lot you can do with it at this point. Good luck!

 

[AntX]

*BAMP*!

Resurecting a thread from the dead... what did you do with that batch?

I'm planning on voluntarily souring a batch of weissbier with a sauerkraut starter/whey, that's why I'm asking.

 

[dmfa200]

I dumped it.

Thought about putting fruit in it, but didn't want to possibly waste my time since it wasn't planned, and wasn't sure if it was even going to turn out.

I did learn a lesson though.

Any newbees that read this need to heed this advise...

LEAVE IT ALONE! Let the yeast do their job. It's either going to turn into beer, or it won't.
If you pitch the proper amount of healthy yeast, and keep the fermentation temp under control your gonna end up with beer.
Taking gravity readings every couple of days, or every week is really unnecessary if you've pitched enough healthy yeast.

Now that I have my process down I take a starting gravity right before pitching, and don't even bother with a finishing gravity reading anymore because I've never had a problem with attenuation after 26 batches.

Sorry, but I'm about to go on a tangent.

In my opinion someone starting out brewing beer should understand some of the keys to making good beer. Some of these things are not stressed enough.

I'm not going to say too much about sanitation because I think that is pretty much understood.
Sanitation, sanitation, sanitation. There, I think I've said enough!

First of all...

Know what is in the water your brewing with. Things like hardness, or softness of your water can affect the taste of your beer depending on the style your brewing.
For example I have moderately hard (tap)water and have found that just 3 to 4 grams of salt added to my brewing water counteracts the hardness, smoothing out the hop bitterness, and brings out the malt character in my beers.
So if you have an issue with the taste of your beer, do not overlook the water your brewing with.

Second...

Pitching enough HEALTHY yeast.
Their are calculators out there that can tell you how much yeast you should be pitching into your wort.
One Whitelabs vial or Wyeast smack pack doesn't cut it! You have to make a starter with these products.
Pitching plenty of healthy yeast may even save a batch when your sanitation was a little short of being stellar.
You want to make sure that you have enough of those buggers to out compete any other unwanted organisms that mave have made it into your wort.
A new brewer might want to consider dry yeast. One sachet contains around 150 to 200 billion cells, the proper amount for the average ale.
Dry yeast will make outstanding beer. I know that the selection of styles you can make is a little more limited than with liquid yeast, but you can make a close representation of a particular style with the proper strain.
Just know that you have to hydrate dry yeast properly. You can't just sprinkle it into the wort.

Third...

Controlling fermentation temperature is probably the most important variable in making good beer.
If you want to make GOOD beer, I mean beer that is as good as the craft beer your used to drinking, you have to put your yeast in the optimal environment to get those results your after.
Fermentation temperature is key!
A piece of equipment to control fermentation temperature should be on the top of a brewers list.

 

[AntX]

Very well summed up, and thanks for the reply by the way.

My 0.02 (CAD) cents:

I think there are many notions that most brewers do not fully assimilate, until they put more interest on the "how" and "why" of the fermentation process itself.

First, is the fact that the wort (at least for normal homebrewers) is NEVER gonna be 100% sanitized. Even with boiling, there are some organisms that will survive. Chill your wort, and you got an even better place to live for wild yeast / bacteria. Even if you clean your equipment like mad.

The goal here is to create an environment that is most favorable to YOUR yeast, in terms of: temperature, acidity, minerals, nutrients (sugars, oxygen, etc).

You don't need to be a chemist to understand these simple principles. That's just called survival of the fittest, given the ideal conditions.

The wort is dynamic, and changes over time, due to fermentation, agglomeration of bigger particles, etc.

Don't put enough yeasties, and they get overrun by competing species. That's pretty simple.

I was about to put out an jail/inmate comparison in terms of gangs, but I think that'd be off-topic, and I'd speak out of my hat, so, anyway... hahaha!