Do I Have An Infection?

[peas_and_corn]

Yes you are.

 

[PostModern]

Yes you are.

+1

 

[manticle]

I would store these 'questionable' beers in solitary if possible. You dont want a bottle bomb starting a chain reaction and lose other brews.

That hi-res picture helped make things clearer.

Mine looks nothing like that and there's no solvent odour so I reckon I'm safe. Isolating the bottles isn't a bad idea though.

 

[QldKev]

This isn't going to be of much help to you but I seem to have a similar looking layer on my ginger beer brew and was about to post asking the same thing.

My hydrometer read 1010 a couple of days ago but now it sitting at 1020 and the top layer seems to be more intense (as if the fermentation had started all over again).

If there is an infection and I bottle it anyway, I'm assuming it will smell and taste off when I open my first one. Am I way off base here?

OK if your gravity reading is going up, shoot yourself! Or is this still that same brew you dropped your hydrometer into??? *Yawn*

Now dont listen to crap again! If the fermentation started going again it would drop gravity!!! geeze!!! Unless you had some alien life form of yeast that sugars was a bi-product....

As you already know by now your brew is stuffed.
DO NOT EVER BOTTLE AN INFECTED BREW = bottle bombs. If its infected it will always taste like crap...

100% always before bottling, taste your brew. Sour/Bad/funky/hospital flavours = bin it.... liquid fertiliser?

Pour it out and a good dose of nappi san for a couple of days and then a good strong hit with bleach/vinegar mix to kill anything off. If you use the vinegar dont breath the vapours.

Good cleaning / sanatising only take 5-10mins more than a slack brew, so do it every time.

Hope this helps...

QldKev

 

[fergi]

well i have the belief that if you get an infection and you then get it in the next batch,toss the fermenter,airlock and tap, over the years i have had a couple of these episodes and after cleaning/scrubbing/bleaching they dont very often work. best to get a new fermenter etc,for the cost of about $30 dollars you get everything new and fresh,after all if you loose a batch of beer that is nearly the cost of a new tub, doesnt hurt to freshen up the brew side of things every so often
cheers

fergi

 

[david pridham]

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice. I went to keg a beer today and discovered a foamy film on the top of it. I haven't yet opened the fermentor, but i've attached some photos I took through the lid. I'm concerned that the beer is infected. I took a sample of it and it smells a bit sour and tastes very bitter, (although it has two cans of Coopers Stout in it, so I was expecting the bitterness). It was fairly bitter before, but I now had to spit it out it was so bad. Please can someone take a look at the photos and offer any advice - do I ditch it or not?

On a side note, I dry hopped with a hop bag, as you can see in one of the photos. Could this have caused the infection, (if that's what it is)?

Cheers,

Jon


View attachment 22385
View attachment 22384

Hi Fergi,
As a master of disasters perhaps I could suggest:-
A. Always rack or dry hop whilst the brew is still bubbling a bit still in the airlock.

B.I would suggest for safety's sake (in the instance of probably/possibly "infected" beer) bottle in plastic soft drink bottles-prime at the rate of say 10gm-14gm per litre -fill right up to the very top-tighten hard-its good to get the old ring off at the top of the bottle too. 2lt Coke bottles seem best...keep out of light or best cover in old newspaper/playboy mags etc...IMPORTANT drink quick (within weeks!) because if its what I think it gets a worse flavour as it ages.
(I can't advise on kegs...never been there)

cheers
Priddo