Who's had an infection? A show of hands.

[BierMuncher]

I thought it might be worthwhile to get some anecdotal data on who has actually suffered an infection and what type of brew they were doing...

So:
Have you had an infected brew?
Was it an All Grain, Extract/PM, All-In-One-Kit?
Some or all of the above?

 

[Dude]

I have had 3. Still not exactly sure where I picked them up though. All have had a strong phenolic, medicinal taste and smell. 1 was extract, 2 were all grain.

I've grown to not even enjoy hefeweizens anymore because of that aroma.

 

[user 574]

4 or 5 I believe. Pisses you off. Getting sloppy I guess. Not saving yeast anymore to see if that was it. All AG. You?

 

[Glibbidy]

Presently my ear is infected, but other then that, never had to dump a batch!

 

[BierMuncher]

Presently my ear is infected, but other then that, never had to dump a batch!

Keep that ear away from your beer.

 

[Bsquared]

I've never had a problem with Yeast, probably because I don't re-pitch or save yeast too often. Nor have I ever had a Bacterial infection, But I have had Mold in the secondary.That was a bummer because the beer smelled good when i dumped it, I guess I might have still been good to drink.

I think we have some fib'ers in the poll, looks like more than half have not had a infection.

 

[olllllo]

One.

All beer is an infection isn't it?

Language is a virus, too.

 

[EdWort]

Nope. Not one since 1987 when I started brewing. knock, knock, knock.

I'm pretty anal when it comes to sanitation (that sounds like an oxymoron, but it's not).

I did extract in the beginning, then added steeping grains, then mini-mash, and all grain.

It's not the loss of money spent on ingredients that drives me, it's the waste of time spent brewing and fermenting, racking, bottling, & kegging that would drive me bonkers if I had a batch go bad. So far my obsession with sanitation has paid off.

 

[olllllo]

A show of hands??


I'll answer for Aiken:

We DO know where those hands have been.

 

[Caplan]

None yet. I'm expecting to get caught out at some point of course.

 

[Buford]

I had a ropy infection on batch #6 (partial mash). Nasty.

 

[Yooper]

No infections so far! I've made two batches I wasn't crazy about (a nut brown ale, and Cheesefood's caramel cream ale) but they weren't infected, just not very much to my taste at all. I gave them away.

 

[Evan!]

Bacterial infection on 2 batches. Not sure how it happened. Turned them all sour and dry and gushy. That sucked.

 

[Vermicous]

I've had 6 lactic infections, 4 in a row before I learned to toss my plastic, and 2 recently that I didn't even wait to see, just retired the plastic right away. It's always annoying/frustrating.

However, the lactic really did some cool things to a 100 schilling scotch ale. I was the only one drinking it, but I liked it.

 

[JeepGuy]

I've not had one to affect my whole batch. Had a couple of bottle gushers, but that happened only to a couple of my bottles that I suppose I didn't get clean enough. I've also only done 6 or 7 brews now though.

 

[Monster Mash]

13 years and never had an infection. When I first started I was using bleach and had problems due to not rinsing properly (band aid flavors) but since switching to better sanitizers I have had no problems other then a few unspectacular batches..

 

[BierMuncher]

I'm beginning to see a distinct trend.

As of 6:00PM Central

2/3rds of respondents have never had (or will admit to ) an infection.

Of the 1/3rd who have had an infection, 73% were in the form of Extracts/PM or Kits.

Is it the extract?
Is it because extracts make up the majority of the early brews for most people (when we were all at our most inexperienced)?
Or are we most careful when we're most inexperienced???
Are there just a lot more Extract/PM brewers than AG brewers?

Keep on voting if you haven't...

We now end the BUMP of this thread.

 

[Alamo_Beer]

I had 1 bottle that was infected.....there was a big nasty brown spot on the side that I somehow didn't notice

The beer was really carbonated and sour as hell

I did have to dump a batch though but it might have been ok...

I was having REALLY big siphoning problems....the entire beer was foaming while I was trying to bottle and each bottle would only fill about half way bc the rest was foam

I might have been able to let it sit and try to bottle later but i was really pissed and worried about oxidation so I dumped it

I then bought an auto-siphon and have lived happily ever after

 

[Brewpastor]

Infections? Too many to remember, but only a small fraction of the batches I've brewed. Haven't had one in years, but I assume it will happen again. Don't get too cocky or the beer gods will come and teach you a lesson!

I have also had contaminated batches, actually only one I can recall. Sucked a whole bunch of blow-off water with bleach in it into a 100% German Vienna malt Oktoberfest, 12 gallons down the drain. The batch was warmer then the room it was placed in to ferment. As it cooled it sucked up the water.

Things happen.

Once I was making a 28 barrel batch of ESB and wanted to use 100% EKGs but put Clusters in instead but at the amount figured for the lesser AA EKGs. I caught the mistake quickly and fished a bunch out, and the beer all sold, but - it happens.

 

[McKBrew]

I had some major gushers on my last small batch. Didn't matter if I chilled them or not, they went nuts as soon as I popped the top.

 

[ajf]

I had one in 1981.
Tasted good at bottling time.
Tasted evil 3 weeks later, and it went rapidly downhill after that.
I retired my bottling bucket after that batch.

-a.

 

[Axegod]

Not yet.....

I've even done the farmer temp test: put my hand in the fermentor to check for "optimum" pitching temp.

I would cry if an AG got infected.

 

[Chillibeerman]

I just dumped out 5 gallons of my fall cider. It didn't taste that bad, but looked awful. It had what looked like a "jellyfish" in every bottle.

 

[BierMuncher]

I had one in 1981...

Was homebrewing legal back then...oh yeah...Uncle Jimmy signed the law in 1978.

Thought I was gonna have to turn you in there for a minute.

 

[MA_Brewer]

One batch that I, at the time, though was infected - I dumped it.
[HBT commercial]
Now, I might have let it rest, it was high ABV and I think it might have done alright with some more age on it. That was before I read HTB though! I've always said, it is hard to know how well or poorly i make beer since I don't have any real brew buddies - but since I started reading HBT, the whole community has become a great resource! HBT rocks! Oh, and thanks everyone.
[/HBT commercial]

 

[FlyGuy]

I picked up a nasty infection once from a 'no-boil' all-wort beer kit that was spoiled. It smelled a bit strange when I pitched it, but it was one of my first batches so I didn't think much of it. It contaminated 2 or 3 more batches after that, until I threw out ALL my plastic. I was so upset by all the failures that I almost quite homebrewing (glad I never).

 

[chillHayze]

I had a beer.

That had a stuck ferment.

So I dumped.

Some dry yeast I'd harvested in.

It got infected.

Experience.

Is priceless.

 

[LS_Grimmy]

Well I had a hose running into a 2l empty pop bottle for my air lock because I had to much foam glogging the air lock. For some reason when I pulled it out of the 2l water it sucked some into the carboy. So since I had some nasty stuff in the 2l bottle I tossed the entire batch...

 

[david_42]

One serious infection, a ropey stout. I don't have a record of the recipe, guzzleboy was keeping track back then. Given the moldering, cave-like qualities of the carport we brewed in and the level of ale consumption during the process, I'm amazed there was only one batch.

 

[BierMuncher]

Still pretty consistent.

2/3rds have never had an infection.

Nearly 3/4ths of the infections have come while brewing Kits/Extracts.

Might be interesting to learn who held the actual (kit/extract) ingredients responsible and who is willing to blame their own process.

 

[jpuf]

Very first batch turned to green apples and vinegar. Haven't lost one since. Knock on wood.

 

[BierMuncher]

El Bumpo....(yes, that's 10 characters)

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

My beer? No. My ex-wife had a yeast infection once, though.

 

[Ivan Lendl]

Ive had about 5-6 in a row...Bad bucket(primary)

 

[BierMuncher]

My beer? No. My ex-wife had a yeast infection once, though.

Harvest it....

 

[magno]

Im not sure it has so much to do with whether the batch was AG or PM so much as attention to detail when sanitizing. Perhaps most AGers are more experienced and that spills over to sanitation as well.

Ive had one batch go south and got a few bottle bombs from that one. The ESB I bottled in January has really developed a gushing infection lately, although it was fine for most of the time that Ive been drinking it. Luckily at this point I only have two bottles left,and its (barely) drinkable.

- magno

 

[chillHayze]

I have always had good sanitation except for my first PM where I used the pasta strainer to "sparge"through. That was bad beer #1.

My other bad batch I used some reharvested yeast before I really knew how.

 

[Biermann]

I've never had an infection that I'm aware of.

I've had off flavors, and I've wondered, but nothing confirmed.

Most recently, I made a porter that gives off a brief sour twang to the aroma, but the taste is ok. I just kegged it today, so we'll see how it fares. I'm thinking that was due to a third generation yeast strain and a funny fermentation, rather than a true infection.

Funny, I had the same off aromas in my doppelbock-- its still lagering, and the aroma is fading away.

 

[Hopleaf]

First pumpkin batch, didn't do anything to my pumpkin.. just tossed in the ol' primary.

Also, had a wheat blow it's top while I was staying at a friend's house for new years. By the time I got over to the LHBS for a blow off hose it was 5 gallons of vomit.

 

[Buford]

Dangit, I think my ESB is infected. It smelled sweet-ish but had a bit of a sour edge to it when I kegged it today.. It also had a cloudy haze to it near the top liquid in the carboy. It's either aceto or lacto infection, I'm pretty sure - not sure if that sour edge is vinegar or lactic acid. I kegged it anyway and am hoping that after it's cold and carbed it might be palatable. If not I suppose I could boil some of it and add it to a porter for an interpretation of 1800s "industrial" porter.