Infected beer...

[PaulCa]

So... recipe:

1 Coopers Draught + 100g Crystal 40, 100g Caramunch, 300g Carared, + 200g Corn Sugar + Cooper Yeast + 1/2 teaspoon YeastVit + 1 protofloc tablet

OG: 1.048
7 days in fermenter: FG 1.015
10 days in fermenter - Looked fine.
13 days in the fermenter (last night) it looked like this:

Full Size: http://www.campbell-multimedia.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/IMAG0359.jpg

It tasted okay, the beer I mean. I bottled it immediately, leaving most of that milky, matt scum on the side of the fermenter.

I acutally, to the disgust of my girlfriend, took a bit of the white film on my finger and tasted it. Didn't taste of anything, didn't dissolve in my mouth. I just swallowed it.

Due to it's concentration on one side of the surface (read right side in photo) and the timing of it's appearance, all I can suspect is something got in there when I was taking a peak on day 10 (Monday night).

I'm hoping that it is an O2 breather and bottling it will effectively kill it off. If it doesn't I can expect the bottles to potentially over pressure and the beer to sour, in which case I'll bin it.

First taste in 1 week.

 

[calumscott]

That does look highly suspicous, particularly if, as you say the highest concentration is at the bit where you crack the lid to take a peek.

That it's growing on the top is a fair indication of an oxyphile of some kind.

What texture did it have? Dryish and tough or slimey and soft?

...not that I would have a clue figuring out what it actually is but we might manage to get it down to fungus, bacterium, slime mold yeast or alga. I think we can rule out an alga straight off on account of it not being green...

 

[PaulCa]

When I sampled a bit of the film on my finger it was tough and hardy. It did not dissolve in my mouth and took some rolling on the tongue to break up. Didn't taste of anything.

If it's an O2 breather, it shouldn't survive bottling and if it hasn't started to taste of anything I think it will be grand.... I hope.

If the bottles start to over pressurise or it tastes foul at 1 week I'll dump it, otherwise if it tastes like beer it is beer. :)

 

[graysalchemy]

Sometimes the oils from the hops can look like that then it carrys on fermenting leaving the bubbles. However so can some other infections. However if it is not sour tasting then you will probably be fine, I have had a few like that and they were ok. However the key is not to leave it in the fv for weeks on end especially on ewhich it was fermented in, all that crap on the sides and lid is exposed to th eair and a whole host of nasties which will fall off into the brew.

 

[pittsy]

did you have a big foam build up in first couple of days cuz it looks ok ish to me just maybe the scum from top fermenting yeast that was a little too full in fv and has covered lid from foam rising up ,but maybe not

 

[calumscott]

Tough and hardy, if it is microbial, says fungus to me. The toughness comes from its filamentous structure. Bacterial plaques, slime molds and yeasts would tend to be quite soft and certainly wouldn't withstand tongue rolling...

I think you'll probably be OK with this - depending, of course, on how it reacts to being pressurised. If it likes its oxygen then at worst it'll go dormant and at best you'll kill it. If it has anaerobic tendancies well who knows really...

Let us know next week!

 

[PaulCa]

However the key is not to leave it in the fv for weeks on end especially on ewhich it was fermented in, all that crap on the sides and lid is exposed to th eair and a whole host of nasties which will fall off into the brew.

I'm thinking that 2 weeks is a good ferment + conditioning first phase, but... I can see your point. A lot of people refute the need for a secondary these days, but then again a lot of people are using well sealed carboys. These 'Youngs' buckets are barely sealed enough to blow an airlock with 2ml of water in it, without leaking. So when fermentation is complete and you open it to take a sample, you allow the head space to fill with air and seal it back in. If the beer is not generating enough CO2 to displace it out the sides or through the airlock, it will remaining, ecouraging any O2 using nasties from the air to colonate the lid/sides. Besides, when the beer is dorment and the temp drops or the ambient pressure rises, air can leak in.

Trouble is, moving it to a second bucket only gets you away from the "stuff on the lid and sides... and the cake", is it really worth it?

 

[Growler]

I always leave mine for 14 days in the fv but I never mess with it!

It goes in the cupbaord under the stair and isn't touched until it comes back out

as long as I see some bubbles through the airlock I'm happy :grin:

 

[RobWalker]

infections are usually pretty fricken noticable - but I would assume if anything the rather vigourous fermentation could have caused something to find its way in.

best of luck chap. its a sad day when 5 gallons of beer goes down the pan.

 

[Hollow Legs]

Looks like the FV was either a 25Ltr bucket or you have over filled it and the kreussen has hit the lid etc, good luck anyway :

 

[PaulCa]

The krausen always hits the lid on these buckets for me. Probably too high fermentation temps more than over filled. I've found 1cm past the 5 gallon mark and it makes 22 bottles.

Anyway... It's 1 week, so I sampled a bottle.

I used target hops, in an attempt to get a more bitter/hoppy taste to my red ale recipe, but, I don't think I like target, it is quite bitter and it's young I'm assuming that flavour is going to be way off what it will end up as. If I didn't know the beer may have been infected I probably wouldn't have noticed, but, there is a slight sour taste, it could just be that it's young, my last red ale stank of pepper and spice until 3 weeks.

If the sourness halts or retreats and the hops mellow some, it will be a grand beer. If the hops don't mellow and the sour sub tone increases... it will be a crap beer, but it will be beer.

 

[RobWalker]

What do you sanitiZe with btw?

 

[PaulCa]

VWP. Usually in the bath. I also have a 2 litre bottle of it for small stuff like sterilizing the syringe I use for sampling. Although as I don't return my samples I only sterilize the tube that goes into the beer.

 

[bobsbeer]

Looking at your photo's, it looks like it was still fermenting. The dried foam on the lid and sides will be the krausen. I think with a bit of conditioning you will be fine.

 

[PaulCa]

Looking at your photo's, it looks like it was still fermenting. The dried foam on the lid and sides will be the krausen. I think with a bit of conditioning you will be fine.

Yes the dried gunk on the lid and sides was the krausen. The white rubbery film covering the beer, being so thick that several large bubbles had formed in it from degassing, was definitely not a result of fermentation. The krausen had vanished over a week earlier and a sample after that had revealed an FG lower than expected. Looking at the beer a few days before noticing the infection, the top of the beer was dark, clear with one or two yeast rafts floating on it. Then suddenly it had a white film with bubbles and streaks.

The photo may not have done the appearance justice I realise.

 

[graysalchemy]

have you tasted it?

 

[PaulCa]

have you tasted it?

Yes. It has a pronounced bitter taste with a slight sour undertone. What I can't tell yet, due to it being young, is if that is as a result of the infection or just the Target hops in young beer.

I'll try another bottle this Friday and another the following Friday before I make any assumptions as to whether it is getting better and I got away with it or getting worse due to infection and it's for the bin.

 

[graysalchemy]

With a slight sour under taste I would say you picked up a infection of wild yeast. Sorry.

 

[PaulCa]

Well the week 2 bottle was actually showing signs of an oily film on the surface in the bottle.

Poured it, good carbonation, nice head, but... the head was oddly "lumpy".

Tasting it and the hops are mellowing, but the sour under tone remains and the "lumpy"'ness of the head seems to be "strings" of stuff, most likely some form of culture of wild yeast, I don't know.

It's still drinkable. Although my girlfriend said I dare not kiss her if I've been drinking it! LOL

I'm heading on holiday in a week, so I'll drink a few this weekend, that'll give me enough time to recover if I do indeed "get" something from these unwelcome guests in my beer.