What is this?

[Bowfisher]

Northern Brewer's Chocolate Milk Stout, was 2 weeks in primary and 4 weeks secondary. Bottling today and saw this when I opened the lid.

 

[duboman]

They look like by east rafts, does it smell and taste OK?

 

[Bowfisher]

It tastes amazing! I was hoping it was OK, I'm really new at this and hadn't seen that before.

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

I know for a fact that several other forum members will ID that as an infection starting. Personally I can't say. If it tastes okay then just wait it out and make sure it's still okay in a couple weeks.

 

[surffisher2a]

looks alright to me!

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Rack from underneath and bottle it. Try a bottle every few weeks and make sure it isn't turning into gushers. It will probably be fine.

 

[DeutscheMaster]

I know for a fact that several other forum members will ID that as an infection starting. Personally I can't say. If it tastes okay then just wait it out and make sure it's still okay in a couple weeks.

Looks ok to me. I have seen similar on a chocolate milk stout.

 

[Yooper]

That sort of shiny stuff that has edges that break is the beginning of a pellicle. It's infected for sure.

Bottle it up, and drink it before it turns sour.

It looks like secondary was in a bucket. If you're going to do a secondary, make sure to do it in a carboy with reduced headspace and air exchange. Once fermentation stops, a wide headspace with oxygen in it allows things like lactobacillus or acetobacter to take hold.

 

[j1n]

Looks infected.

Def does not look like yeast rafts. at least none that ive ever seen with any of my batches or online.

 

[Bowfisher]

How fast will it turn sour?

 

[Yooper]

How fast will it turn sour?

Hard to say. It's early yet, so it may not go all that fast. It depends on what exactly you've got in there, as I can't tell from the photo.

You should be able to drink most of them, I'd guess.

 

[JayDubWill]

If it turns sour I would say your lucky. The couple of infections i've had the (dis)pleasure of tasting, one my own and one commercial, was more like bottled fountains of puke with a heavy mixture of black pepper and clove.

 

[johncieera]

It doesn't look infected to me and you should try the taste and drink it, if you are afraid that it might get sour for more information visit this time Swisscubancigars

 

[ong]

Once it's properly carbonated, keeping the bottles in the fridge will slow the lactobacillus down quite a bit and give you a longer window to consume the beer.

 

[Bowfisher]

Tried a bottle this morning, it's carbonated pretty well and tastes good! It's still a little green so I'm gonna put it all in the fridge and give it a couple more weeks. Thanks everyone for your feedback.

 

[passedpawn]

Given the style of the beer, I'd say there is a fair chance the stuff at the top there were oils from cocoa nibs. Did your kit have those? I think we've had the same sort of scare here in the past with nibs.

I will agree it's pretty similar to the waxy surface you see in the begging of a lacto bacterial infection. Even a few waxy bubbles!

[edit] well, then there's this: brewing with cacao nibs...infected?

 

[Bowfisher]

Yes, it did have nibs, soaked in vodka for a week.