Do you still drink if it's "infected"?

[hoopdogg315]

I've seen tons of threads of batches being infected and producing off flavors and terrible odors. I haven't had an infection yet...knock on wood...but do you guys still bottle it and drink it? Or pour it out and cut your losses and brew another...??

Hope its not a stupid question.

 

[opiate82]

I too have been lucky (and meticulous with my sanitation) with no infections. I have read people who have infections, but they aren't that bad, that they rack everything but the top inch or two of wort. The assumption being that the top portion with the infection is ruined and the rest of the beer is fine.

Guess it would depend on how bad the infection is.

 

[Pilgarlic]

I don't drink a beer that tastes bad simply because I brewed it. And, no, time does not cure all off flavors or flaws. Generally speaking if it tastes bad I'll dump.

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

If it's seriously infected, no. No reason to ingest several thousands of calories in truly bad beer.

You can leave it in the bottles for a few months and see if it improves. It may not actually be infected and may just not be conditioning properly.

 

[DPBISME]

I've seen tons of threads of batches being infected and producing off flavors and terrible odors. I haven't had an infection yet...knock on wood...but do you guys still bottle it and drink it? Or pour it out and cut your losses and brew another...??

Hope its not a stupid question.

If I identfy a keg that has an off flavor I chill it to make sure it does not "grow" stronger.

I drink it before all others...

I have found a few that I thoght were infected turned out not to me and as the problem went away.

Then again... beer does not last around my place all that long...

 

[Revvy]

It depends on the beer, and how it tastes. Do you like sours? If so you're drinking an infected beer.

But the thing to realize is that you only THINK you've seen tons of infection threads. Have you actually read them or just look at the titles? Because in truth, UNINTENTIONAL infections are rare...And most of the time those "infection" threads turn out to be just noob nerves threads...folks not knowing enough to know that their beer is fine and fermentation is just.....ugly.

It really is harder than most noobs think to infect their beer. In fact 90% of the "is my beer infected" threads are really just "I have noob nerves, hold my hand" threads and the beer isn't infected at all.

It's really a silly question to ask, or worry about. And you know, if your beer is infected? So what...it may even be tasty...hence all the folks who like sour beers....they're INTENTIONALLY infected, and often with the same micro organism that "accidently" get into our beers.

The worse one is really acetobactor...and then you end up with malt vinegar...which you might even be able to pack in cute bottles, or sell. You can't sell beer, but there's no law you can't sell malt vinegar.


Besides often what new brewers think is infected, is really just that their beer is green; they're drinking it too young.

And if it is, meh, it happens to everyone at some point in their life...even commercial breweries, did you ever see the brewmaster's series on tv with Sam Caligione and Dogfish Head? They had a couple multi million dollar dumpers on that show...they gritted their teeth and moved on.

Read this thread, Has anyone ever messed up a batch?? and relax....Infections are things new brewers tend to obsess about, while the rest of us know it happens, and just shrug it off and move on.

If your beer is infected...you taste it, if it still decent you drink it, nothing that can harm you can exist in beer infected beer cannot hurt you. If it doesn't taste good you dump it..So what?

*shrug*

 

[hoopdogg315]

Revvy,

That has to be the best explination I've ever read. Thanks for the insight. I'm only two batches into it, and don't think that mine is now, but am just curious.

 

[Revvy]

Every new brewer is worried about their first batch...they think if they look at it wrong it will go bad, and everyone who drinks of it will die a horrible, miserable death, or something to that affect....that's why we're here, to assure you that you're simply following the silly path of your predecessors, and everything will be fine.

Read this from the thread Why does there appear to be so much anxiety about brewing?

You've heard it a millions time RDWHAHB!

I (mis?) interpret a lot of posts here as being overly anxious.

Did I do this or that right?

How will variable X affect my beer?

Isn't that part of the fun of homebrewing? (Attempting to establish a repeatable process on your own equipment while making a drinkable beer, all through experimentation.)

Do you feel anxious about brewing? Why? Time/money wasted? If you had no one to ask, would you still brew?

You hit the nail on the head, new brewers are overly anxious. They only know enough to be "dangerous" so ignorance breeds fear until they gain the experience that leads to wisdom.

They often don't understand that nothing pathogenic can exist in beer, so they think that any mistake can be lethal or make you sick.

Also they think their beer is like a new born baby and that it need to be hovered over, and if they even look at it wrong it's going to be ruined, and more than likely anyone who drinks it will therefore die a horrible deat.

They furthermore don't realize just how ugly, and stinky fermentation can be, and don't realize that we're really drinking the waste product of a micro-organism, and like any waste product it can kind of look pretty disgusting, even when it is normal.

They don't realize how hard it really is to do a screw up that would actually ruin our beer. They don't think they can screw up.

We're human, we're always going to screw something up. The thing is, it's not about not screwing up, it's about rolling with the punches when it happens. It's about saying, "Oh well, I still made beer."

They don't realize that our beer is really resilient, that 99.99999% of our screw-ups are NOT going to ruin our beer, no matter what boneheaded things we manage to do. I've said it a million times, we've sunk body parts in our beer, and it's still turned out fine.

I've been brewing for years, and I'm sure I screw something up everytime I do it....BUT, I don't run on here asking for re-assurance or analyzing the "what if/what could happen " and worrying about it. Instead I trust that it's still going to be fine, because nearly every time, it is.

And if it doesn't, there's nothing I can do about it now. The deed is done and I won't know for 8 weeks or so anyway. And more than likely even if it doesn't turn out, if I stick it in the closet for 6 months or a year.....there's a 50% possibility it WILL still turn out fine.

I suggest all new brewers read these threads instead of worrying, they'll show you how strong your beer really i, and how all of us make mistakes.

Revvy's advice for the new brewer in terms of worry.

What are some of the mistakes you made...where your beer still turned out great?

And Never dump your beer!!! Patience IS a virtue!!! Time heals all things, even beer!

We're human, to expect that we won't make mistakes is silly. It still happens, I bet your pro-brewer made a bunch of mistakes while showing you what to do....but he didn't react to them, he just continued on.

That's what an expert does....it's not that he's perfect, he just doesn't let the screwups get to him.

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

As someone who's had several infected batches, I can tell you that odds are if your equipment is in order and you're sanitizing even acceptably your beer won't be infected. My infected batches came from a fermenter that was stained. If your bucket is stained or scratched toss it and buy a new one. That's about the only cause for concern if you're doing everything else right.

Most important thing that lead to me getting better beer was spending a little more money for better equipment. Things like an Auto-siphon and StarSan will go a long long way to making better beer and your brew day easier (starsan needs about a minute to sanitize not several and can be applied by a spray bottle, and provides yeast nutrients, and an Autosiphon makes the racking process go by faster and less risk of making a mess)

 

[Calichusetts]

I've actually had two infected commercial brews in the last two months, a pale ale and an English brown that soured...they were both fantastic!

 

[JFK]

Ive never had an infected batch but I was worried about it once when I was a green blood. Revvy hit it right on the nail 90%+ of those infected threads are not infected but merely someone who does not understand fully what they are doing yet. If you ever do get a real infection you will know. Ive heard stories of opening a fermenter to mold on top in abundance or smelling an infected batch and it smells like a rotting corpse. You will beyond a doubt know. At the extreme above DO NOT drink it. Sour beers are another story all together because people are systematically infecting their beer with microorganisms to get a sour profile. my favorite saying on the matter is Less Worry + More Patience = better beer (and better health for you from not being stressed).

 

[Beernik]

Ended up with a bottle infection from a previous pLambic. It developed a sourness after a couple months that only got worse as time went on. It wasn't horrible, just unexpected when drinking a stout. I drank them all.

Had a horribly astringent attempt at a GF beer. It never made it to the bottle.

 

[neosapien]

One of my first batches of my house amber was infected by this horrifying ice slick looking mess. I was pretty upset about it (because the previous two batches were less than stellar due to my own process screw-ups). I racked from under it though, it didn't taste terrible at the time. After about a month in the bottles though, it was one of the most well-liked batches of that particular recipe I've done. I just figured if it wasn't terrible at bottling time, no need to dump it. If it became undrinkable after carbing up....meh, oh well. Then I just dump the bottles. Little bit of lost time and effort.