A New Brewers Thoughts on Infection

[gmcastil]

I've brewed seven batches of beer since I started homebrewing. My second batch was infected because I didn't know how to dismantle my auto-siphon and the brew turned out really bad - legit infection.

I was looking through the forums earlier tonight and saw how many people were worried about infection, with each of them posting hi-res pictures of all sorts of funky stuff on the top of their wort. Anyway, this got me thinking about what I wish I had known when I started. I mean, I'd read most of this prior to starting, but it wasn't until I actually experienced it for myself that I really started understanding. Here's my thoughts:

1. Your beer isn't infected. Unless you completely ignore sanitation, it's fine. Monks and vikings were brewing beer for centuries and they didn't have any of the fancy sanitizers we do. Short of coughing loogies into your bucket at bottling time, getting an infection takes some work.

2. Fermentation looks nasty. I read something like 4 different threads tonight with pictures from terrified brewers that thought they had an infection. Maybe the reason I don't worry about this is because I have glass carboys and I can't actually see what's going on inside because the foam covers it. This is probably one of the best arguments for a new brewer going with glass carboys instead of a plastic bucket.

3. Uncarbonated beer tastes different than beer that has been bottled or kegged, so don't think it's infected because it tastes weird.

4. Beer flavor changes over time. If you left it in the fermenter for two weeks and then bottled for two weeks, don't complain when it tastes like swill. You don't have an infection, you're just impatient.

5. Make starters. Knowing that you're pitching a nice, healthy amount of yeast into your freshly boiled wort really helps with confidence about the brewing process. Most everyone has an "infection" of wild yeast or bacteria into their beer - sterilization isn't really possible. But watching a huge sandy-colored culture of healthy yeast get dumped into your wort is a real confidence booster.

That's about it. Quit worrying about infection. RDWHAHB

 

[Nateo]

Quit worrying about infection.

I disagree. You should be very concerned about infection if you want to make good beer. That means stringent sanitation. Don't lose sleep over it, but take it seriously. Sanitation is the most important factor in making good beer.

I strongly disagree with point 1. All of the historical evidence I've seen indicates that historically beer and other fermentables were always heavily infected. They were sour and funky. It wasn't until modern refrigeration, germ theory, and Pasteur isolating yeast that brewers were able to make "clean" beers.

 

[veritas524]

I think most people worry about it too much... I'm not saying don't sanitize, but a lot of people freak out over things that will likely not impact their brew.

 

[ChessRockwell]

I disagree. You should be very concerned about infection if you want to make good beer. That means stringent sanitation

I don't think he was saying "don't sanitize". Just not to worry about it so much. I sanitize everything like I'm supposed to, but I'm not "very concerned" about infection, in fact I never really worry about it at all. Haven't managed to get one yet, although I'm sure it'll probably happen eventually...
I agree that it's very important, but I also agree that some people just worry about it too much. I mean we have people so scared of infection they're asking if they should spray star-san on their dry hops.

 

[gmcastil]

You should be very concerned about sanitation if you want to make good beer.

Fixed.

 

[Machalel]

I'm going to have to disagree with point 1 as well. I sanitised the hell out of everything, and still ended up with an infected cider after fermentation was complete (although I'm kinda into sours, so this is actually exciting )

Definitely going to agree with point 2 though!

 

[venquessa]

I also got an infection a week after fermentation completed. Not the same microbe family as your cider, that definately looks like wild yeast.

In my opinion it was nothing to do with sanitation, I was just unlucky that something that could live in a low oxygen, high alcohol environment, floated by while I was taking a peak into the bucket. Then it looked like clear dark beer with some yeast rafts. 2 or 3 days later I looked again and it was covered in a white rubbery film with huge bubbles.

I also have several bottles I didn't clean after consuming, from different brews and a few of them have white cultures growing up the side of the bottle. Could be brewers yeast, but the question stands, why do all the bottles with sediment not have the same white carpet growing in them? These beers were fine when drunk, so it was most like something that got in there while pouring.