One Last Chance For an Infected Beer?

[libeerty]

I am very new to wild brewing, so I appreciate any input. I made a smoked robust porter that was quite delicious a few weeks ago on tap, but has recently taken on a tart/almost sour smell and taste. It has to be lacto, my first known infection. There is ~2.5 gallons left. I need the keg (I am going to kill everything in it), but could I possibly put the lacto-infected porter into a small carboy and age it for 6+ months? It is actually drinkable now, and I kind of like it, but I don't like serving it to others, so is it worth trying? I could also bottle it from the keg and age it that way too I suppose.

Or should I just toss it, kill everything, and put something else on tap?

It was this recipe here, except I subbed in 5 lbs. of rauch malt: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f126/bee-cave-brewery-robust-porter-56768/

I appreciate any insight.

 

[sweetcell]

depends on your risk tolerance. if you like it now, then i'd drink it while it's decent. you're not sure what bugs are in there - might be lacto, might be something else (or lacto AND something else) - so you have no idea what it will be like in 6 months. could be great, could be awful. spontaneous fermentations with unproven bugs are a total crap shoot.

 

[libeerty]

I think that is very fair advice. Probably not the best way for me to enter this uncharted (to me) territory!

Thanks!

Also, regarding your avatar, did you see that news article last week that showed how humans are projected to look in the future? Totally look like aliens... http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2013/06/07/how-the-human-face-might-look-in-100000-years/

 

[sweetcell]

nope, hadn't seen that... interesting. we're turning into little grey men - so they're not aliens, we're being visited by our future selves...