Post your infection

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Ok, I'm well aware nothing that can kill you can grow in beer but I think something grew in mine that is hurting me. My latest batch of homebrew beer from an extract kit got infected after week 4 in the primary. Not much to look at except a couple of spots of thin white mould floating on the top so I haven't added a picture. It tasted like vinegar though (it was tasting wonderful at 3 weeks) I know how the infection got in and am swapping out my fermenter next batch.

I bottled it anyway in 2L pop bottles as I had everything sanitised. 3 weeks later have been trying to blend it in the glass with various local commercial brews. I actually found a mix that tasted pretty good: about 1/3 homebrew, 2/3 commercial crap. It seemed to be an improvement taste-wise on both beers. But now 6 hours later I have really bad diarrhoea and terrible heartburn, nothing else I ate or drank is likely to have caused it as everything was fresh. My body has already got used to the normal yeasties in good beer, but REALLY doesn't seem to like these bad yeasts/bacteria.
 
blueseamonkey said:
Ok, I'm well aware nothing that can kill you can grow in beer but I think something grew in mine that is hurting me. My latest batch of homebrew beer from an extract kit got infected after week 4 in the primary. Not much to look at except a couple of spots of thin white mould floating on the top so I haven't added a picture. It tasted like vinegar though (it was tasting wonderful at 3 weeks) I know how the infection got in and am swapping out my fermenter next batch.

I bottled it anyway in 2L pop bottles as I had everything sanitised. 3 weeks later have been trying to blend it in the glass with various local commercial brews. I actually found a mix that tasted pretty good: about 1/3 homebrew, 2/3 commercial crap. It seemed to be an improvement taste-wise on both beers. But now 6 hours later I have really bad diarrhoea and terrible heartburn, nothing else I ate or drank is likely to have caused it as everything was fresh. My body has already got used to the normal yeasties in good beer, but REALLY doesn't seem to like these bad yeasts/bacteria.
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As far as I understand it, the yeast will do this to your body no matter what strain you ingest if in enough quantity. I say that as though you are drinking the trub at the bottom of your bottles though.
 
JLP said:
As far as I understand it, the yeast will do this to your body no matter what strain you ingest if in enough quantity. I say that as though you are drinking the trub at the bottom of your bottles though.
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No - I've been leaving even more dregs at the bottom of these bottles of bad beer than I normally do. The problems I was having last night seem to have mainly stopped for now, but this beer is now going to be boiled up to see if it'll work as malt vinegar. If not its going down the drain :(
 
blueseamonkey said:
No - I've been leaving even more dregs at the bottom of these bottles of bad beer than I normally do. The problems I was having last night seem to have mainly stopped for now, but this beer is now going to be boiled up to see if it'll work as malt vinegar. If not its going down the drain :(
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Well, it's good to see someone living up to their signature line:ban::fro:
 
Ogri said:
Well, it's good to see someone living up to their signature line:ban::fro:
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lol!

The bad beer made nasty vinegar too, hop flavours are not nice in that. I tried boiling it down even further to see if I'd end up with something Marmite-like but the taste just got worse and worse... So its gone down the drain :(
 
Gotta admire your tenaciousness in experimenting with the potential recycle-ability of a dodgey brew and attempting to replicate marmite :rockin:

I take it, from your familiarity with that infamous yeast extract spread, you're a Brit in exile, in the Orient, as well:tank:
 
I've had problems of the turd dimension from drinking too much of my infected Hefe, but nothing I would consider a health risk - just more trips to the bathroom before lunch than is usually expected
 
Ogri said:
Gotta admire your tenaciousness in experimenting with the potential recycle-ability of a dodgey brew and attempting to replicate marmite :rockin:

I take it, from your familiarity with that infamous yeast extract spread, you're a Brit in exile, in the Orient, as well:tank:
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It seemed such a waste to chuck it out without trying something first!
And yes I'm an exiled Yorkshireman - been here 5 years. I started brewing more because I miss beers from home rather than any other inspiration. Pretty well hooked on it now though :mug:
 
Hey guys, I went to take a reading tonight and saw this when I lifted the lid. Is this an infection? Is it correctable?

photo-4.jpg
 
PhillyDave said:
Hey guys, I went to take a reading tonight and saw this when I lifted the lid. Is this an infection? Is it correctable?
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Unfortunately that does look like it's got something starting. If it's done fermenting, get it racked, bottled and in the fridge. Cool temps will slow down any bugs, and the quicker you drink it the better. Most infected beer only gets worse, and there is not much that can be done to stop it.
 
blueseamonkey said:
It looks very similar to what was on the top of my last batch. Advice is as above - if it still tastes ok at the moment.
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Does it make sense to sterilize a slotted spoon or cheesecloth and skim that off first?
 
Yeah, so my first AG experiment has completely not gone to plan. Fortunately, it's only a 1gallon experiment.

This is what I saw when I opened it. Supposed to be an Altbier, but most likely it'll be drain cleaner :\

13+-+1
 
It looks so clear underneath. Is it done fermenting? How long in primary? Have you tried it? Seems like that could be yeast. There's no film over the whole top is there? I've had to change out my entire fermenting equipment to get rid of an infection that occurred in my last 5 batches. I have an ipa that's my first post new equip. batch and so far so good. I say try it. If it doesn't taste bad then I'd bottle it and hope for the best.
 
So.....came down to rack my Trois Pistoles clone and found this little treat. It was in primary and secondary for 6 months with no issue 1-2 weeks ago when I last checked it.

Should I dump it or rack below it?

Trying not to panic!!!!

image-3305188827.jpg



image-2888576463.jpg



Looks like a thin white shin....not hairy mold at all.
 
Even if it is an infection, it's only been there for a couple weeks. I would rack it to whatever you're going to rack it to and get some co2 on it. It can't have taken that strong a foothold on your beer in two weeks.
 
CaptainAl said:
So.....came down to rack my Trois Pistoles clone and found this little treat. It was in primary and secondary for 6 months with no issue 1-2 weeks ago when I last checked it.

Should I dump it or rack below it?

Trying not to panic!!!!

View attachment 117056



View attachment 117057



Looks like a thin white shin....not hairy mold at all.
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Rack below it and taste it....if it tastes bad, chuck it....it won't get better.
 
Does this look infected???

I posted this pic on another forum and someone said it looked infected. It's at about 10 days in primary and in a swamp cooler at 65F. I sampled it on Saturday and it did not taste 'off' in any way to me.

ZhPAlPM.jpg
 
I hate to admit this but I had a serious infection problem. I had to throw almost all my fermenting equip. away to get rid of it. That's not an infection. You have a healthy fermentation going there. That looks like a good krausen on top.
 
guidos858 said:
I hate to admit this but I had a serious infection problem. I had to throw almost all my fermenting equip. away to get rid of it. That's not an infection. You have a healthy fermentation going there. That looks like a good krausen on top.
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Thanks, I thought it looked OK but wanted to make sure.
 
Is this an infection? Never had this little 'white film on top' look before, this is the closest thing I've ever had to something looking like it might be an infection. Thanks in advance for the input.

CAM00043i.jpg


CAM00044i.jpg


CAM00045.jpg
 
casesensative said:
Is this an infection? Never had this little 'white film on top' look before, this is the closest thing I've ever had to something looking like it might be an infection. Thanks in advance for the input.
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I will go ahead and say though, that I just bottled this stout anyways, and it tastes pretty good...comparatively anyways...as most of my beers have sucked, this one tastes better than most.
 
I just discovered that I got a separate bottling bucket for sours and non-sours one batch too late. My first infection. I'm so proud.

Saison, 8.5 gallons of it, all soured in the bottling process. I wish that my Flanders Red soured this quickly. This was a test batch to see what effect the yeast had, so the batches were US-05, Belgian Golden, and a combination of the two with the Belgian added in secondary.

Oddly, it tastes better now - at room temperature - than it did at two weeks in the bottle. It was pretty boring. Now it's got some funky character. Cold it's pretty bad, but near 70 it's better than most beers at that temperature.

I discovered the infection by noticing a pellicle on top of the liquid in the bottle. That pellicle will not show up in pictures.
 
Yes you definitely have an infection. But if you were to go back on this thread, you would notice one predominate theme. Get it into a bottle to continue conditioning. There's a couple of reasons for this and you can explore that yourself, but you've done that so you're good.

The next step is to keep them in a cool place. Now between the limited amount of oxygen in the head space of each bottle and the cooler temps., the infection will be slowed if not stopped and your beer should stay good. Good Luck !!
 
casesensative said:
I will go ahead and say though, that I just bottled this stout anyways, and it tastes pretty good...comparatively anyways...as most of my beers have sucked, this one tastes better than most.
Click to expand...

Yes you definitely have an infection. But if you were to go back on this thread, you would notice one predominate theme. Get it into a bottle to continue conditioning. There's a couple of reasons for this and you can explore that yourself, but you've done that so you're good.

The next step is to keep them in a cool place. Now between the limited amount of oxygen in the head space of each bottle and the cooler temps., the infection will be slowed if not stopped and your beer should stay good. Good Luck !!
 
What is this?!?

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vMiTK_M4NuOaoPaAlsI28RooVpbL9cYcqA1KOD9Y3UA


This was just taken about 4 hours after pitching 1L starter with a questionable yeast that contains Brett. Just starting to ferment. I did use 1/2 a whirlfloc. I havent seen this type of coagulation before so not sure if will disipate during peak fermentation or not? Smells fine out of airlock :confused:
 
my infections seem to be following me around still, months later.. maybe it's time to replace my plastic carboys
 
Yeah, ditched transfer tubes, the infection is present before the bottling bucket stage so not worried about that carboy or bottle wand. I think I will replace everything plastic except the carboy itself
 
guidos858 said:
So...You're seeing the infection in primary then?
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yeah, a thin layer of cloudy **** in pretty much every brew. Sanitise the **** out of the carboy before transferring wort after boiling, before you ask:confused: doesn't have much effect on taste but I'm not too happy about it
 

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