Growth/film on top of wort in secondary? Bad news?

[jmazz889]

Hey All,

I've got this growth/filmy layer on top of my beer in my secondary. First time I've ever seen and was wondering if anyone's experienced this? What did you do? How did it turn out in the end?

I racked to the secondary about 5 days ago and this stuff popped up after maybe 3 days or so.

I attached a few photos so you guys can see what I am talking about. Your comments and thoughts are appreciated!!

Jeff

 

[LakeErieMonster]

You, sir, have an infection. If it tastes ok/smells ok, I would roll with it. It won't be what you tried to brew but that doesnt mean it will be bad.

 

[poptarts]

lacto, 90% if not more of the time it means that batch is going down the drain. Sorry for you loss.

 

[zacster]

This may be the first time I've seen one of these threads where there is actually an infection. I was expecting to see a small krausen when I saw the title, but not this time.

I would sanitize another carboy and rack what I could into it, trying not to get any of the infection with it. It'll be hard though since you have to poke through it. And the infection may be to the batch, not just what appears on the surface. I've never had an infected batch in the 20 or so years I've been doing this so I don't know. I did once have a picnic tap leak into my cooler, and the leaked beer got infected and it was pretty gross.

Or maybe I'd just toss it and start over.

 

[trentm]

Hey All,

I've got this growth/filmy layer on top of my beer in my secondary. First time I've ever seen and was wondering if anyone's experienced this? What did you do? How did it turn out in the end?

I racked to the secondary about 5 days ago and this stuff popped up after maybe 3 days or so.

I attached a few photos so you guys can see what I am talking about. Your comments and thoughts are appreciated!!

Jeff

Please post this on the "Lambic & Wild Brewing" section of this forum. I am curious what the Wild Bunch has to say. There you will find a collection of pellicle photos. These folks love them.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Too much headspace and too much oxygen. I would either bottle it asap, and once carbed to the proper level keep it as cold as possible to halt further activity. Or let it roll and forget about it for 6-12 months and hope for a tasty sour.

How does it taste now? If it tastes ok, I would bottle it, carb it, chill it, and drink it....

 

[wilserbrewer]

Too much headspace and too much oxygen. I would either bottle it asap, and once carbed to the proper level keep it as cold as possible to halt further activity. Or let it roll and forget about it for 6-12 months and hope for a tasty sour.

How does it taste now? If it tastes ok, I would bottle it, carb it, chill it, and drink it....

 

[solbes]

I don't think you can rack underneath it and halt it in any way. Wilsers right in that you could bottle ASAP and then keep them cold. But I would roll with it and forget about that carboy for 12 months. Be careful with any equipment that touches it, plastic especially may need to be dedicated to sour duty.

My first sour (intentional) is really starting to get tasty, and its been 19 months since brew date. A fun side branch of the brewing world.

 

[Grannyknot]

That really sucks. I'm sorry.
In my 5 years of brewing, I've only had 1 infection, but I had to dump it.
I felt violated....like my house had been broken in to or something.

 

[jmazz889]

How depressing!! The optimistic side of me was hoping that all would be okay. Crap. I'll give it a taste and see how it is. I truly am not a fan of sours, so I will probably lean towards dumping it.

The primary fermenter was plastic, but there was no sign of this infection until the secondary. Do you think my primary could still be infected? What is the best way to sanitize at this point? Bleach everything?

Thanks for the responses.

 

[solbes]

Bleach bomb everything including racking cane. 1 tablespoon of bleach per gallon of cold water. Fill up your primary and soak the racking cane and anything else that came into contact. Hot water rinses. Palmer's advice.

I had a gusher bug move through once, this took care of it.

 

[WayFrae]

This may be the first time I've seen one of these threads where there is actually an infection. I was expecting to see a small krausen when I saw the title, but not this time.

I would sanitize another carboy and rack what I could into it, trying not to get any of the infection with it. It'll be hard though since you have to poke through it. And the infection may be to the batch, not just what appears on the surface. I've never had an infected batch in the 20 or so years I've been doing this so I don't know. I did once have a picnic tap leak into my cooler, and the leaked beer got infected and it was pretty gross.

Or maybe I'd just toss it and start over.

If it has a pellicle it is past the point of no return. The pellicle is not the only spot infected, it is just a byproduct of the infection.

 

[zacster]

I think my last comment really is the thing to do, just toss it.

But you should also look into your entire sanitation procedure. Something wasn't clean. When I first started homebrewing I would wash everything, then use bleach to sanitize, rinse and put out paper towels to rest the clean equipment. But the thing that always bothered me was that I had to rinse everything with tap water, and I also used tap water for top-off as I was doing partial boils. This was in the early days of homebrewing. I didn't get any infections, but it always seemed like a marginal setup.

Nowadays, I just make a batch of starsan and toss everything in the bucket and use it straight from the bucket. After a use I rinse and toss back in the bucket. Everything is always sanitized that way. I siphon the starsan into the carboys, slosh it around and then siphon back, I don't pour to minimize the foam. It also sanitizes the siphon and tubes that way. If something so much as touches a surface, it goes back into the starsan.

I don't think the headspace was the issue, we all have headspace in the carboy, otherwise it would overflow. As soon as the yeast starts, the space is filled with CO2.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I think my last comment really is the thing to do, just toss it.

Respectfully, I think tossing it without tasting it would be a mistake, I have kegged at least one (that I can recall) batch from underneath a pellicle that tasted fine. I have also read several times of people doing the same.
Homebrew mantra...NEVER toss a batch unless you are certain.

I don't think the headspace was the issue, we all have headspace in the carboy, otherwise it would overflow. As soon as the yeast starts, the space is filled with CO2.

This carboy was a secondary, the headspace was full of air / oxygen. Much different than a primary fermentation where CO2 fills the headspace.