Latest brew - drink it or chuck it?

[pidgeonpost]

Folks...checked my latest brew late on Tuesday, and it hadn't quite worked out. Checked it again on Friday and the surface of the brew was covered in a thin film of white stuff, which I guess is a bug from somewhere and means the beer will have to go down the drain. I racked it off, but now, 24 hours later, the surface is again covered.

Common sense tells me to chuck it, but I'm grasping at a faint hope that someone out there might have a magic bullet to save it. Otherwise I'm out of homebrew until I can brew another batch.

I've been homebrewing since the '70's, and although I lost the odd brew in the early years, this is the first time in a l-o-n-g while.
What's nearly as bad as losing this batch is the thought that, despite sterilising everything, some mean little bug will somehow survive to infect the next batch! I normally use VWP sterilising powder, but if you have any tips I'd be glad to hear them. I don't bottle, by the way. It goes into a Cornelius keg.

 

[BigYin]

Welcome to the forum :drink:

I've not had a brew go off - YET! We did do an 'off taste' test at a craft brewers meeting, and while some 'problems beers' were bogging awful, others I'd probably have quite happily drunk :lol:

So, best I can advise is to taste test it and see if it's acceptable to your tastes.

If it IS infected, the best advise is to replace the fermenter, especially if it's a bit old, or you run a high risk of infecting a subsequent brew. :thumb:

 

[Runwell-Steve]

If it really tastes of vinegar I would chuck it, else hold on to it, it may surprise you and get better.

Acetobactor seems to be common this time of year, all them pesky fruit flies, they have caught me out this year.

I cleaned eith Oxy clean, then bleached then rinsed, then cleaned with the steamer, then rinsed out with Starsan before I reused the fermenter. Overkill maybe, but the subsequent batch was fine.

 

[pidgeonpost]

Thanks BigYin and Runwell-Steve for your replies. The brew is still sitting in my 'Bettabottle' with an airlock, and doesn't look any worse than yesterday (I did take a photo but have not yet figured the upload process for the forum).

I normally use finings in my brews, but have been disappointed in the results recently, so this time I didn't add any, just for the sake of comparison. At the moment the brew shows no sign of clearing naturally, but it's been 26C here in Gloucestershire, which may not be helping (though the beer is in my workshop which is probably the coolest room in the house).

I'm strapped for time in the next few weeks, so instead of the brew I normally make (the Fullers ESB look-alike from 'Brewing beers like those you buy), I'm probably going to use a kit. I haven't used a kit in years, so any recommendations for a nice hoppy English beer kit would be welcome.

I only joined the forum yesterday as I'm not heavily into brewing - I just like to make a decent tasting middle-of-the road bitter that won't cost £3.30 a pint. This seems like a very good forum though, and my brewing methods would no doubt improve if I studied some of the threads and articles posted here.

Thanks again folks.

 

[LewisA]

Dont throw it away just yet, it sounds like something I read on jack kellers page and you may be able to save your brew. (I know its about wine but I am guessing the principles still apply? )

Flowers of Wine: Small flecks or blooms of white powder or film may appear on the surface of the wine. If left unchecked, they grow to cover the entire surface and can grow quite thick. They are caused by spoilage yeasts and/or mycoderma bacteria, and if not caught at first appearance will certainly spoil the wine. If caused by yeast, they consume alcohol and give off carbon dioxide gas. They eventually turn the wine into colored water. The wine must be filtered at once to remove the flecks of bloom and then treated with one crushed Campden tablet per gallon of wine. The saved wine will have suffered some loss of alcohol and may need to be fortified with added alcohol (brandy works well) or consumed quickly. If caused by the mycoderma bacteria, treat the same as for a yeast infection. The Campden will probably check it, but the taste may have been ruined. Taste the wine and then decide if you want to keep it. Bacterial infections usually spoil the wine permanently, but early treatment may save it.

Hope this is of use :)

 

[BigYin]

Thanks BigYin and Runwell-Steve for your replies. The brew is still sitting in my 'Bettabottle' with an airlock, and doesn't look any worse than yesterday (I did take a photo but have not yet figured the upload process for the forum).

You're most welcome mate, that's what this forum is excellent for - answering questions! The only daft question is the one you don't ask :thumb:

Pictures - They aren't hosted on this forum - they have to hosted somewhere else (e.g Flickr or Facebook - there are plenty of others) and then then you put an image link in your post. Have a read at the How to Upload photo's to the Forum topic :thumb:

I normally use finings in my brews, but have been disappointed in the results recently, so this time I didn't add any, just for the sake of comparison. At the moment the brew shows no sign of clearing naturally, but it's been 26C here in Gloucestershire, which may not be helping (though the beer is in my workshop which is probably the coolest room in the house).

I rarely use finings - laziness and time pressures mainly - and have yet to have a cloudy brew. Patience is your best ally in this brewing game the high temps certainly won't be helping the clearing process, but then they won't last forever - some long range forecasts are predicting snow in about 4 weeks time :shock: If temperature control is an issue, and if you have space, keep your eyes open on Freecycle for a fridge (or with a home built temperature control system you could even use a freezer!) to house your beer :thumb:

I'm strapped for time in the next few weeks, so instead of the brew I normally make (the Fullers ESB look-alike from 'Brewing beers like those you buy), I'm probably going to use a kit. I haven't used a kit in years, so any recommendations for a nice hoppy English beer kit would be welcome.

Can't be too specific as I've not brewed kits for a while, but a mate who still brews kits thinks the IPA style kits tend to be hoppy enough for his tastes..... :hmm:

I only joined the forum yesterday as I'm not heavily into brewing - I just like to make a decent tasting middle-of-the road bitter that won't cost £3.30 a pint. This seems like a very good forum though, and my brewing methods would no doubt improve if I studied some of the threads and articles posted here.

We have a huge range of folk here - I confess when I first joined it I felt it a little too heavily weighted towards the All Grain brewing world, but I quickly learnt that was simply because there IS more to discuss in AG brewing :lol: We have plenty of members who will probably always be kit brewers, and frankly, so long as you are home brewing, this is the forum for you :mrgreen: :drink: :drink:

 

[pidgeonpost]

Thanks LewisA and BigYin. I've uploaded a couple of pics to Photobucket, which you will hopefully be able to see. The images aren't brilliant due to reflection and condensation on the bottle.

Despite how it looks the brew still smells OK. Have picked up a big tub of the Lidl oxygenated cleaning stuff in readiness for giving everything a thorough clean before my next attempt!

Cheers,

Tim

 

[BigYin]

Thanks LewisA and BigYin. I've uploaded a couple of pics to Photobucket, which you will hopefully be able to see. The images aren't brilliant due to reflection and condensation on the bottle.

Hey Tim, to get the image links to work you need one link per photo, and has to link specifically to the photo - if you click on 'Quote' you'll be able to see the what the code/link should look like :thumb:

 

[LewisA]

Thanks LewisA and BigYin. I've uploaded a couple of pics to Photobucket, which you will hopefully be able to see. The images aren't brilliant due to reflection and condensation on the bottle.

No worries mate :)


How does it taste or have you dared not try it? :hmm: