First infection

[beerclone]

Bottling day and here is what I find. I am going to siphon from underneath, will this work or should I expect bottle bombs?

 

[Pappers_]

No, you'll have a sour beer, at the least. If that wasn't your intention, I would toss the beer and go nuclear on all the equipment. For me, that means throwing away all the tubing, siphons, anything small and plastic like that. Bleach your fermentation bucket and anything else that might have touched the beer post-boil.

 

[rocketsan]

For us newbies...what is it? What caused that and how do we prevent it from happening (is it as simple as cleaning and sanitizing?)?

 

[jrgtr42]

I would think that you should replace the fermentation bucket above all. Who knows exactly when the infection took hold, but it's obviously in there.
If you've used the bucket a few times, you have tiny scratches in there that the bugs like to hide in, and the best cleaning and sanitizing routine can't be sure to get them.
Rocketsan: what it is in infection. If you're intentionally brewing a sour beer, something like that is beautiful to behold. If not, it's normally the kiss of death for beer. It basically is the bugs that cause sours, in a regular beer.
WHere it comes from is not always knows, but it partially comes from law sanitation procedures and some people who like to pop the top constantly looking at the beer and taking samples. (I'm not saying the OP did this, but I always shake my head at the people who talk about opening it up every day wondering if the beer is done)

 

[beerclone]

I suspect it happened when I opened the fermenter to check gravity. It was fine up to that point.

 

[unionrdr]

You may not need to dump it. It's a Lactobacylis infection,a wild yeast. you have to clean AND sanitize everything that touches the beer. Especially spigots. They have to be removed cleaned & sanitized,including the mounting hole. You can soak the bucket with bleach solution,rinse all the smell out,then hit it with PBW solution for a couple days,tyen rinse again. Sanitize very well after that. And don't use abrasives when cleaning plastic fermenters. Very small scratches aren't rooms with sealed doors,the cleaners & sanitizers can get in their. Just use something non abrasice to scrub inside plastic FV's with. toos the racking tubing,etc. Soak & clean the bottling wand real well.
Anyway,I saved my next batch of Maori IPA from a lacto infection I posted. Still great in the bottles after a week or two fridge time. The co2 rich environment in the bottles seems to kill it. I racked out from under that broken ice pack with slimey bubbles stuff. Lost a few bottles,but it was worth it to save an expensive batch. The beer under that gunk tasted ok. Came out pretty good a few weeks later. So never say never.