what are the signs of a bacterial infection?

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Usually the smell is a dead giveaway. Most common is acetobactum. The beer smells, and tastes like vinegar. That's just one. Bacteria in the beer is generally very very hard to miss.
 
Rarely does a homebrewer starting out actually get an infection...most of the time it is just new brewer nerves that leasd them to THINK they have an infected batch...

Seriously, after answering over 10,000 thread from new berwers (look at my post count, it ain't from playing word games) if you ask if your berr is infected, it isn't and you are just freaking out for nothing.

Read this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/has-anyone-ever-messed-up-batch-96644/

and this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/what-some-mistakes-you-made-where-your-beer-still-turned-out-great-96780/

And you will see how resiliant your beer really is...

So instead of asking a cryptic question, why the heck don't you just tell us why YOU THINK your beer is infected, and we can tell you how silly you are you and that you are being a nervous noob. :D

And if you show us an actually picture of what is scaring you (which more than likely we will call "krausen" or "yeast rafts" and proscribe as norma, we can help calm your quite predictably common fear...

I mean we calm new brewers down a hundred times a day, and it is all the same.....I have not seen an actual new brewwer's infection in 3 years of being on here 6 hours a day......so either proove me wrong, or prove yourself just nevous. :mug:
 
I call these "turtle threads" the nervous noob sticks his head tentatvely out of his shell and looks around, asking for help. But doesn't provide any info that can really help us help them...like the situation, any pictures, the recipe, ferm temp, etc......but more than likely the details doesn't matter, and the poor turtle is just scared...but we are here to help you, like the several thousand other before you. :D
 
Listen to revvy, he knows what he say. It's usually pretty tough to get an infection, and if you have one, it's hard to confuse it for anything else. If you are a noob and unfamiliar with the look and smell of brewing beer, just read some threads and tell us specifically why you think you might have an infection. Infections are generally quite putrid and unmistakable, so if you don't exhibit that symptom, I'm sure you're fine.
 
Cider gone bad? been a month on a hard cider wild fermentation process.
 

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Cider gone bad? been a month on a hard cider wild fermentation process.
Is that just apple juice? I don't think I've ever seen anything like that.

It's only "bad" if it tastes or smells "bad". However some off-flavors may improve over time.

It would be good to reduce the amount of open space in the fermenter. Otherwise you should keep it closed. You don't want to expose it to oxygen at this point.

Welcome to HBT
 
Cider gone bad? been a month on a hard cider wild fermentation process.
Doesn't look good. You can try racking out from under that stuff, whatever it is, into a smaller container with as little headspace as possible, preferably purged with CO2 first. At this stage any oxygen is detrimental.
Before you go to that much trouble though, check the aroma and take a sample for sensory evaluation. If it's solventy, it's lost. If it smells like apples it's probably fine. If it's sulfury, it's also probably fine - that usually clears up with age.

With ciders, especially wild fermented, it's super-important to exclude oxygen. Lacto, Pedio, Aceto, they are all present in abundance and ready to make acid (which your juice probably has plenty of already). Wild film-forming yeasts are also just itching to take that oxygen and build ketones, acetates, etc. to give your cider that lovely industrial solvent character.
 
^^^ This.

I really only do wild fermented cider. If you can be patient, let it go for a couple months. Seriously. I take fresh pressed cider from a local cidery, throw it in a carboy (sealed with a bubbler to keep out fruit flies and what not), and put it in the back of the closet for two months.

It forms a bacteria/wild yeast pellicle on top. I check gravity after two months and usually bottle it if the gravity has hit 1.000 or lower. It won’t be ready to drink until after another two months in the bottle. It’s really good after a year from start.
 
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