What exactly does an infection look like?

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C38368

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Maybe a silly question, maybe one without an answer. But I can't seem to find anyone who has actually, you know, described one before.

Here's the setup: I'm getting ready to brew up my next beer (batch #3) tomorrow. It's supposed to be a relatively large one (1.073 OG) and so I threw together a starter last night.

I rattled the starter bottle a bit this morning, and was out and about all day. Just now (about seven or eight hours later) I came home and shook it up again.

Before doing so, however, I noted two, maybe three, very large, very white islands of something floating on top of the starter wort. I have no idea if this is leftovers from fermentation, or is the result of gasses being released, or were a couple clumps of dead yeast cells or what. They almost reminded me of the kind of white mold islands that will grow on watery leftovers left too long in the fridge...

But now I'm curious, because if I did infect my starter, I see very little reason to, you know, actually put it into an otherwise good batch of beer! Sorry that I wasn't bright enough to take pictures first.
 
It's yeast. It takes days for an infection to grow. One like this takes about a month ;) intentional of course. Usually it will start with some waxy or powdery looking bubbles. Your starter is not infected.

image-2612875199.jpg
 
Hello, My infected brews don't look like they are infected at all what so ever, they have no residue on top what so ever, look just like good clean beer, but very very sour, lemon taste in them.

Cheers :mug:
 
Awesome, thanks both!

I didn't think that is was, but always nice to have confirmation from people who know better. Thanks for the link, as well.

Now, time to go get set up...
 
WileECoyote said:
Hello, My infected brews don't look like they are infected at all what so ever, they have no residue on top what so ever, look just like good clean beer, but very very sour, lemon taste in them.

Cheers :mug:

That just means that there is enough CO2 to discourage pellicle formation. Given enough time, one would start.
 
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