Hard to let go...

[LKABrewer]

I brewed 11 gallons of my own pale ale recipe three weeks ago. Fermented @ 66* for 2 weeks. When I tasted it last weekend, it tasted good, no off flavors, not even really green. Since it was still @ 1.020, I raised the temp to 70* and left it for another week.
Opened it up to rack into a keg last weekend, and it has developed an infection. Looks infected, smells infected, tastes infected (sour - lacto?). Out of >100 batches, I have only had a couple of infections, and have not had one in over a year.
I did have a problem with a clogged hopback when it was brewed, and had to pull everything out of the hopback (at this point, wort already cooled to around 160*) and dump it in the BK. Though I was as sanitary as possible under the circumstances, I knew when it happened that I would be lucky if the batch wasn't infected.
Can the infection wait that long to show signs? Why didn't I taste it last week?
For now, I have racked the beer into an older bucket, and will give it some time to sour and see what happens. I am not a big fan of sour beers, at least not nearly as big as the pale ale I was brewing.
I guess you learn your lesson (don't over-fill the hopback and, if you do, re-boil) and go on brewing. It just sucks to loose a 11gal batch...

 

[kjung]

I brewed 11 gallons of my own pale ale recipe three weeks ago. Fermented @ 66* for 2 weeks. When I tasted it last weekend, it tasted good, no off flavors, not even really green. Since it was still @ 1.020, I raised the temp to 70* and left it for another week.
Opened it up to rack into a keg last weekend, and it has developed an infection. Looks infected, smells infected, tastes infected (sour - lacto?). Out of >100 batches, I have only had a couple of infections, and have not had one in over a year.
I did have a problem with a clogged hopback when it was brewed, and had to pull everything out of the hopback (at this point, wort already cooled to around 160*) and dump it in the BK. Though I was as sanitary as possible under the circumstances, I knew when it happened that I would be lucky if the batch wasn't infected.
Can the infection wait that long to show signs? Why didn't I taste it last week?
For now, I have racked the beer into an older bucket, and will give it some time to sour and see what happens. I am not a big fan of sour beers, at least not nearly as big as the pale ale I was brewing.
I guess you learn your lesson (don't over-fill the hopback and, if you do, re-boil) and go on brewing. It just sucks to loose a 11gal batch...

I made 10 gals. of Pale Ale a couple of years ago that took a couple of months to show any sign of infection.

 

[sketerbuck]

That one is going to sting for a while. At least we had a big enough pipeline to weather the storm.