Another is my beer ruined

[Blind Dog]

I'm convinced that "secondary", like so many procedures in home beer brewing, is a hangover from the days when beer making was a quaint branch of winemaking circles where they would crank out a beer now and again but were still in the wine mindset. Another one is airlocks.
The old books such as CJJ Dennis insist on secondary fermentation to get the beer off the yeast cake. It was also an opportunity for brewers back then to have jargon trip off the tongue to impress others. "racking" "wort" "secondary" etc. We've moved on from there, nowadays it's "Bluetooth, VPNs, 4k Ultra HD" whatever.

Whilst racking may be an advantage in wine making to avoid musty off flavours from autolysis, there's really no point in the case of beer as you aren't normally going to have it sitting on yeast for weeks or months. It may be justified for a Baltic Porter or Russian Imperial Stout but not for daily beers.

Agree the above; basically racking to secondary is usually pointless and a potential infection source. Even with big beers I'd rack to a sealed sanitised keg purged with CO2, or bottle and age in the bottle rather than rack to secondary.

Plus, if i had a Bluetooth i'd head to the dentist sharpish; VPN calls for an embarrassing visit to the local quack; 4k ultra HD is just a fancy name for crack (at least that's what a bloke with a beard told me)

 

[woftam]

Maybe too excited with the secondary, but never had issue before, might be an excuse to get more kegs. nice idea with the sugar syrup

 

[brewermp]

Slightly OT ..I'm going to try a secondary next year sometime but that will be to rack into some raspberries for a saison. Other than fruit I wouldn't secondary.

 

[Weizguy]

Supposed to be my xmas beer, K&2K fancy caramel ale.
After not having an available keg till today (1st world problems right) im ready to go, upon opening the lid I found this

20141229_150121.jpg


Smell is not the best, but not eggy or overly rotten kinda, yeasty, can still smell the beer
this is the secondary, may have not cleared the air and had been moved once unsure if air got in then, best to say it did,
Ignore the reflection its the pergola.
everything was steralized and sanitized.

What the options here experts, my 1st bad batch since the beginning some 8 yrs ago.
is it infected or yeast?
scrape the top,
strain it
keg it and see,
fertiliser.???
Thanks in advance

Looks like yeast to me. Not thin or filmy enough to be acetobacter.

I'd siphon from below the surface. If it smells OK, it's prob no infection. Siphoning from below the surface, or draining from the tap will discourage the floaties mixing in to the beer.

Keep the beer cool once kegged too, again - precautionary.

 

[Bribie G]

Les makes a good point, a few times I've had a crusty layer forming on top of the brew in primary if I've let it sit too long at a high temperature - usually as a result of sheer laziness and procrastination, but it's kegged up alright. If you leave a glass of home brew out in the garage or brewhouse for a day or so it will get a similar white crust but not necessarily ruin the taste.
If it tastes drinkable then I'd keg straight away, if you haven't tossed it already.

 

[woftam]

Yeah I had drained it from the tap pooring a glass, well sour, so down the drain it went, live and learn, I have picked up a few tips, and secondary now will be in kegs. being a K&K brewer I have not been on for a while, might sneek around the back ground again.

 

[droid]

condolences...did you have a good look at those white flakes? if so what did you make of them?

 

[woftam]

Cheers, Partial, I have no idea TBH, they were thick,
kept 1 to dry out for shits and gigs, solidly stuck to the bucket
shoulda kept 1 in some of the beer to see what it did if anything besides grow

 

[Blind Dog]

Ditch or napalm the bejesus out of the ferment bucket, transfer hoses and anything else that may have been in contact with the spoilt beer. Getting one infection is bad luck, but getting another and then another is just (insert expletives of choice)

 

[vtchris]

i always rack to secondary by siphoning of the top , then siphon again off the top out of the secondary into a keg or fermenter when bottling , cuts down on the trub and make better clearer beer , no doubt about it , back to the original post , pbw or sodium percarbonate for cleaning and starsan for sanitisation , no substitutes imo