Wild Yeast Infection

[NobleNewt]

I searched the forum but had trouble finding a straight forward answer. I brewed BM's Centennial Blonde the other day (a PM, no chill variety). I pulled a stupid and did not allow my wort to cool enough and/or add room temp water to my fermenter. As a result, I melted my 6.5 gallon Better Bottle. In an effort to save the disaster I grabbed my 5 gallon secondary, filled it and topped up in order to save my wort, added an airlock, and DID NOT pitch.

That was Saturday night. Today, Tuesday, I came back from the LHBS with a new Ale Pail, was preparing to clean and sanitize it only to realize that my wort was fermenting. It wasn't a vigorous ferment, but definitely fermentation.

Turns out in my panic, I didn't sanitize my 5 gallon, poured in the wort, and forgot about it. I either have a wild yeast infection or there are some good yeasties left in there from my last batch.

In an effort to save the batch I added 5 campden tabs and threw the whole 5 gallon fermenter into my kegerator hoping that between the Campden and the near-freezing temperatures, whatever is in there will be stunned and drop out of suspension. My hopes are that this will allow me to rack to my Ale Pail and pitch the original Nottingham as planned in ~24 hours or so.

Any other suggestions?

 

[ehedge20]

I would make sure to pitch 3 times the amount so that the Nottingham will overpower whatever is in there.

 

[Cambone]

I would make sure to pitch 3 times the amount so that the Nottingham will overpower whatever is in there.

I don't know if this is the best advice...

Maybe cut your losses, ride it out and see how the beer turns out. I mean, at this point why not? Maybe that wild yeast will taste good.

 

[NobleNewt]

Thanks for both of the replies. In a sense, I'm hoping that whatever is in there will either die, be stunned, and drop out of suspension where I coud create a starter with the existing wort and pitch a crazy amount of Nottingham.

But on the off chance that doesn't work, I guess I'll just keep letting it do its thing.

Not that it makes any difference, but the stuff doesn't smell abnormal.. Smells like your average fermentation.

 

[NobleNewt]

Here's what I've decided:

My gravity has not changed appreciably.. Started at 1.046 and seems to sit within 2 gravity points of that OG..

I'm taking 3 gallons of the "infected" wort, reboiling, adding some small flavor and aroma additions (I assume the originals may be boiled off), cooling and pitching my Nottingham.

The remaining 2 gallons, I will allow to ferment out and see what happens.

For the sake of experimentation and not wasting the $25-30 it cost for ingredients, I figured its worth a shot.. I'll report back in a couple of weeks.

 

[NobleNewt]

My Results:

The beer that I re-boiled and re-hopped turned out OK. It is certainly drinkable; however, there is a notable sulfur smell on the nose. I'm not sure if that sulfur smell is a result of yeast stress or the somewhat random hop additions.

The half of the batch that I decided to let ferment as-is was not very tasty, and I dumped it.

I was happy to be able to salvage half of the batch. I hope no one has to go through these shenanigans but if you do, I would recommend re-boiling.