My first infection? With pics

[ChrisPDuck]

So this is my 29th batch of beer and all previous brews have been fine but I think this one may have become infected

My brother sent me some hops that were growing in his garden so I thought I’d make an IPA with them

The brew was as follows

I added the hops at the end of the boil and all seemed to go ok

At the end I split the batch, cooling half down to 20 into the FV and adding some homegrown chilliest to the remaining half before brining it back to the boil for 5 minutes then transferring that into a separate FV

Fermentation was in my brew fridge at a steady 20.5 degrees.
Fermentation took longer to start than I’m used to at around 36 hours for both.

Fermentation has now stopped and my FG looks good at ~1.009 but the worst don’t look to healthy at all

This is the basic IPA

And this is the Chillie IPA

Sterilising was as normal. Everything that touches the wort from the counterflow chiller on was cleaned thoroughly then the FV is filled with 10l of StarSan at the recommended concentration with all smaller items put inside and its left for at least an hour with a good shaking at various points to ensure the StarSan touches all areas.

Thoughts?

 

[Oneiroi]

I'm honestly not sure by look. It doesn't look similar to the two infected batches I've had, and there's no mould or pellicle per se that I can see.

I'd just bottle it, give it a few weeks to condition and then do a taste test. If it tastes good, then you're fine

 

[ChrisPDuck]

Hmm, maybe the sheer volume of fresh vegetation has just led to a lot more cr@p floating about than I’m used to.

 

[strange-steve]

It's hard to tell from pictures but I don't think these are infected, it looks like yeast and break material floating rather than anything malignant. As Oneroi says, a taste test will soon tell you.

 

[Clint]

Looks like the krausen I had on my last wheat beer...totally awful,got out the bucket and everything!
Beer however is very nice!
Give it a slosh about and chill it.

 

[ChrisPDuck]

Cheers for the reassurance. What’s the logic behind sloshing it about?

 

[Sandimas]

Looks very similar to the brew I made with hops from my garden, and that turned out fine. Don't know why but there seemed to be a lot of hop debris floating on the surface like yours, vacuum-packed hops have never done that.

 

[Clint]

See if it sinks...then maybe it'll be easier to manage at bottling.

 

[Ben034]

Cheers for the reassurance. What’s the logic behind sloshing it about?

It may encourage the krausen to break up and flocculate to the bottom. Chilling will also help drop any remaining krausen and some of the yeast / hop debris in suspension.

 

[Dutto]

It looks normal to me.

The only two questions to ask are:

1. "Does it smell or taste of Turkish Wrestler's Jock-strap or Old Sweaty Socks?"
2. "Does it smell or taste of vinegar?"

If the answer to both of these questions is "No." (and the sample for the FG tastes roughly like beer) then I would use a filter at the end of my syphon (like the one in the photograph or a sanitised Hop Bag) to leave the hops back in the FV, keg it with the relevant amount of brewing sugar ...

... and then stop worrying about it until it had carbonated and conditioned for a month.

 

[peebee]

I moved to a new fermenter that cured all my "infection" worries. It's stainless steel, and I can't see a thing! Beer is kegged and out of the way before I get to look inside and start imagining all sorts from the sludge that is left behind.

 

[The Baron]

Looks ok to me no obvious pellicles ( stringing threads amongst the krausen) as Dutto said the old sniff and taste test tells all. Just do that and carry on as normal with it if it smells/tastes ok