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mrgrimm101 said:
I brewed a milk stout 9 days ago. Krausen dropped 2 days ago, and it looks like C02 bubbles on the surface, but this big bubbly spot has me worried. Its different color than the other bubbles. Sorry for the potato quality..it was tough getting a good shot through my carboy.
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Nothing to worry. Its still letting off CO2 and fermenting. Looks alright. If its white and has a film on top then it is infected.
 
mrgrimm101 said:
I brewed a milk stout 9 days ago. Krausen dropped 2 days ago, and it looks like C02 bubbles on the surface, but this big bubbly spot has me worried. Its different color than the other bubbles. Sorry for the potato quality..it was tough getting a good shot through my carboy.
Click to expand...

No worries, your potato quality is probably fine.
 
Sadly no pics (nothing to picture), but my Irish Red got infected at bottling time. Infected with some kind of mildew or similar at a guess.

First few bottles were dissapointing, but fine. A month later I cracked a bottle and it volcanoed. Next bottle did as well. 3rd bottle again. I then went around and just jimmied each cap on the other 20+ bottles to releave some pressure. Opened one the next day, volcanoed. I then went around jimmying the caps on all of the bottles at LEAST 10 times each to let off pressure.

FINALLY they are properly carbed. At the top of the range, but maybe only 3 volumes, instead of probably 6+ (no idea how the heck I didn't have a single bottle bomb). Taste is also off slightly. A bit of an algal taste to it. Not horrible, but mildly bleh.

Finally dumped all but 2-3 bottles (because I hate to waste and it was already in my fridge).

I did pay much better attention to sanitation of my bottling gear and found disgusting mildew in lots of lovely places, like in bits of my bottling wand that I had only been sanitizing, and not disassembling to clean before and after and in my bottling spigot. Bleach had not cleaned them completely before (I use Idophor each time right before bottling and bake the bottles with tinfoil caps and 1 ounce of water in the oven at 350F for 75 minutes) VERY clean now.

Fingers crossed it did the trick as it has only been the last two batches I bottled since I found the infection.
 
P.S
I like the looks of the Graf recipe. Lots of great reviews too.
I think I'll make some up for this summer sometime soon.
 
Lemon lime hefeweizen that's been in primary for 10 days. Anyone else think this is infected? It tastes fine still and I saw something similar on my last IPA and that tasted fine in the primary as well. Still haven't tried it in the bottle as its too young.

IMAG0564.jpg
 
If you saw something similar in your IPA, I think you may have an issue with sanitation. Maybe a scratch in your fermenting bucket?

That looks like an infection there.
 
Don't think kts a scratch but I have definitely considered it seeing as it has popped up in two batches. The worst part is that both this and the IPA are the beers that I have brewed to be consumed at the local pub for a Home Brew Masters event.

Does it happen often that the beer tastes fine from the fermenter but goes nasty in the bottle over a short period of time? Realistically the IPA will be bottled for 5 weeks before being consumed and 3 weeks for the hefe.
 
CanAusBrewer said:
Don't think kts a scratch but I have definitely considered it seeing as it has popped up in two batches. The worst part is that both this and the IPA are the beers that I have brewed to be consumed at the local pub for a Home Brew Masters event.

Does it happen often that the beer tastes fine from the fermenter but goes nasty in the bottle over a short period of time? Realistically the IPA will be bottled for 5 weeks before being consumed and 3 weeks for the hefe.
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I believe that the longer it goes, the more the infection will take hold. I'd be more concerned bottling infected beers for fear of bombs or gushers, but I think they will only get worse with time if it is indeed an infection.

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can chime in, but would definitely check that bucket for scratches when it's empty, and anything else that touches your wort post-boil.
 
It can pop up in the bottles, but how much seems to be subdued compounded by how bad it was to start with. I had my Maori IPa get infected like this;

I scooped out the funk & hop bagg & sprayed some Starsan on the surface to at least slow it down. Beer wound up having a very slight belgian sort of sour thing that complimented the NZ hops. It never got to be more than a very slight sourness though.
 
Ya I'm pretty sure that's exactly what mine has looked like both times.

Crazy idea but considering that must beer infections are bacterial, might it help if I dosed the batch with antibiotics before it makes the beer go bad?
 
Any recommendations for how to treat all my plastic after this so it doesn't come back? I bleached the hell out of my fermenter after the last one but maybe it came from some other component.
 
CanAusBrewer said:
Any recommendations for how to treat all my plastic after this so it doesn't come back? I bleached the hell out of my fermenter after the last one but maybe it came from some other component.
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Did you check your plastic for scratches? If there is a scratch, it can harbor bacteria that is (from what I've read) almost impossible to fully eradicate.

Does your fermenting bucket have a spigot? If so, have you fully disassembled and cleaned it?
 
Is this anything to be concerned about? View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1423095788.451084.jpg
The white looking blobs are just Co2 bubbles and yeast floaters but the powdery looking stuff is what I don't like.
It's 10 days into fermentation and I've seen this film on the top since day 4. Hasn't gotten any worse so I don't know what it is. Almost looks like a oil or something? Could it be from hops?
 
unionrdr said:
It can pop up in the bottles, but how much seems to be subdued compounded by how bad it was to start with. I had my Maori IPa get infected like this;
[IMG]http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss71/unionrdr/PICT0004_zpsdf2ab485.jpg[/IMG]
I scooped out the funk & hop bagg & sprayed some Starsan on the surface to at least slow it down. Beer wound up having a very slight belgian sort of sour thing that complimented the NZ hops. It never got to be more than a very slight sourness though.
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Holy crap. Looks like you had a jellyfish in that bucket. Maybe that one was a man of war ipa.
 
Lolz. I like that one. Hadn't thought of that at the time. I soaked the hop sock in Starsan too. I at length figured out that I hadn't cleaned & sanitized the spigot on that bucket. Oops. So clean & sanitize those spigots after/before every use folks.
 
ncpierced said:
If the batch is a loss thats no big deal. I am more worried about what i need to do to ensure it doesnt happen again. Any extra steps to ensure the carboy is clean after i remove the batch?
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Looks OK to me, but as mentioned, that's too much headspace for a secondary. Also, I would strongly recommend that you NOT use that red metal handle shown in your photos to lift a full carboy (or an empty one, for that matter). That puts a tremendous amount of stress on the neck of the carboy, and you're risking a catastrophic shattering and possibly injury. Throw those handles out. Lift from the bottom, or get a decent carrier, like a milk crate or a BrewHauler strap.
 
Hey everyone. I unfortunately have an infection in my first batch :( . I am trying to place where it came from. I am fermenting in a plastic bucket and all looked fine when I went to bottle and the sample I had tasted very good in my opinion. After about a five days I was anxious to try some and refrigerated my first bottle which ended up tasting fine although undercarbed. Then a few days later I tried another bottle, after refrigerating for 24 hours, poured it and it had a huge head and a very prominent off flavor. I think kind of like a yogurt ish taste. Then last night I tried another one that had the flavor but it was not as prominent. I think/hope that this is just in the bottles and not in the fermenter because I already have another beer fermenting.

I used the dish washer to sanitize the bottles and my thought is that it may not have gotten hot enough. Is this a fair assessment? In 2 weeks I will be bottling again and will soak the bottles in starsan before bottling instead. Is there any hope that my next batch wont be infected?
 
I prefer cleaning them with PBW & sanitize right before filling with Starsan in my avinator on top of my bottle tree. The hole in the bottle is so small the hot water can't get up in there very well to clean or sanitize. But some use the heat cycle to sanitize with decent results. I just prefer sanitizer, as it's a sure thing to get the job done.
 
I might have a contamination problem with my equipment. Just checked on my secondaries and all three of my recent brews have small orange in color specks floating in them. They are distributed through out the beer. Tried getting a few pictures, this is the best I've have. These are my first beers as a home brew and I would hate to think I started with contamination. Please help.

IMG_0745.jpg


IMG_0746.jpg
 
Recipe was a Yungling clone.

7.2lbs Pale LME
1lb Munich
8oz Crystal 120
4oz Amber
.5oz Galena 60min
1oz Cascade 5min

I used three different yeasts, White Labs American Lager, San Fran Lager, and California V

Hope this helps
 
It's in three separate 5 gallon batches. All done over a week period. And looking at it again, it only seems to be in the first inch, inch and half of the brew.
 
mwfishy said:
It's in three separate 5 gallon batches. All done over a week period. And looking at it again, it only seems to be in the first inch, inch and half of the brew.
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I'd hold off and see what happens how long has it been since pitching? I doubt anything has happened and even if it has don't throw it out before tasting it.
 
So when I was taking a sample from my milk stout, I noticed a very slight, oily looking film on the surface. When I put in the turkey baster to pull a sample, the film broke apart into smaller pieces. I've seen this in another batch, but I was reading that it could either be star san residue or hop oil residue..However, I was reading an article that says it is more than likely a small, mostly unnoticeable lacto infection. The sample didn't smell or taste sour..it was very tasty. The film doesn't look like any infections that I have seen.

Can anyone confirm or deny what it could be?

I've attached a sample photo that someone else posted online **This is not a photo of my beer, but just what the oily film looks like.

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/a431/duckmanco/ee8c014bdfa1a8db4bb7fd04ae963c30.jpg
 
If the film breaks up like ice pack on the great lakes, then it's likely a lacto infection. The ones I've had started like that.
 
unionrdr said:
If the film breaks up like ice pack on the great lakes, then it's likely a lacto infection. The ones I've had started like that.
Click to expand...

I's not white, it's like an oil slick. Kind of blueish in color. There are no strands or spiderweb looking things, and the bubbles look like normal C02 bubbles.

I was reading that typically this is a very minute lacto infection that happens a lot with dark beers, especially milk stouts. Usually it doesn't give any noticeable off flavors.

I also read that many people claim this is either residue left from star san or that it is oils from the hops.

I was planning on bottling in the next couple days. Is there anything I should do differently?
 
When it's at a stable FG, bottle it. but infections do start out that way, kinda like a slightly milky-colored film that breaks like ice pack when disturbed. Hop oils on mine have always looked like motor oil on wet pavement. Never had Starsan look like anything. What foam was left in there when the wort was poured in has broken down long before bottling day.
 
It could, since infections are all through the beer, just more visible on top. but being in an oxygen-free environment (bottles) after a day or two, it's far less likely to get worse. Not saying it can't, but mine got better rather than worse the one time I had it bad. Slimy bubbles & all that I scooped out & sprayed Starsan on top just to slow it down till I got it bottled.
 
I noticed it at 15 days when i took a sample. It wasnt slimy or stringy or white. Maybe its nothing. I plan on bottling in the next couple days anyway. Today makes it 18 days in primary.
 
Yeah, when it's at Fg & clear or slightly misty, go ahead & bottle it up. That should slow it down enough to where you might not taste it at all at that level. That's my experience with it.
 

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