Infected Beer Question

[sapper6fd]

Hey everyone.

I'm new to home brewing, just brewed my first porter batch, bottled it and am enjoying it as much as I'm looking forward to starting my a new batch.

One thing I've been reading up on is infections. So my questions are as follows.

I'm seeing people say its fine to drink when a beer is infected in some cases if it tastes alright (IE in the "post your infection thread - see this post: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=7911268&postcount=3593).

Is this safe to do? Drink beer that has a bacterial infection?

An a second question, sour beer - is there a relation to beer with an infection and sour beer?

 

[chickypad]

Yes. There are organisms like Brettanomyces (yeast), Lactobacillus and Pedicoccus (bacteria) that are used to intentionally "infect" the wort to create a sour beer. Other organisms can sour also, and with random unintended infections you may get something pretty foul tasting. If the beer fermented you shouldn't have to worry about any human pathogens though.

 

[Revvy]

Here, read this post from years ago....

The whole history of brewing in early america is based on the fact that beer was actually usually SAFER than drinking water..... That's why, for example in colonial times, there were "kid's beers" low gravity table beers that children drank instead of water.

 

[sapper6fd]

Learn something net every day!

Thanks Chickypad.

Revvy, I'm going to read through that post. There's a little history there I was unaware of.

 

[bernardsmith]

Yeah... historically, clean drinking water has tended to be a problem in many societies. Some societies adopted a process of heating water to kill the pathogens (think tea) while other societies transformed the water into alcohol.

 

[Dfitz]

Here, read this post from years ago....

The whole history of brewing in early america is based on the fact that beer was actually usually SAFER than drinking water..... That's why, for example in colonial times, there were "kid's beers" low gravity table beers that children drank instead of water.

I've been trying to convince my wife of this for years. She thinks I'm fos