Infection question

[afreitag]

This may be a very dumb question. I am very new to home brewing. If you get a infection in your beer, is it still safe to drink or no??

 

[CharlosCarlies]

Depends on what it's infected with.

Edit: And most of the common infections are safe to drink, but many of them you won't want to.

 

[OneShot1]

The yeast on my Cream Ale blew through the airlock while I was out of town and the batch was contaminated. It was still somewhat drinkable but not very pleasant. Obviously I was disappointed, but I drank the whole thing anyway. I just told myself it was an American sour. It helps to drink it when you've already had a few.

 

[OneShot1]

It should be safe.

 

[daksin]

It IS safe. There's just no debate about this. Nothing that can make you sick can live in beer. It might taste terrible, but it won't hurt you.

 

[highgravitybacon]

I drank 6 bottles of a hefeweizen. That will give you a proper colon cleansing. But that's about it.

 

[ACbrewer]

Short answer - nothing that will infect your beer will harm you to drink it. Tasty nasty 95%+ of the time yes (so maybe harm your tastebuds for a few minutes) but nothing will harm you.

With modern methods of getting the food to you, there is nothing that you should infect your beer with that will be hazardous. While some might suggest a mutant streptococal or some nasty could live in wort, how would it get there? do you play at the CDC by day and forget to observe proper protocol and make beer as a hobby? "Can infected beer kill me" gets to be a great SciFi movie, but the reality is, to get a litterally 'killer beer' there would have to be some serious intent (Cue a Revvy post about this).

So again, no infected beer can't harm you, beyond what harms your tastebuds endure.