Infection Or Not?

[kungy]

I made a ginger beer recipe as per GMKs recipe pitched with WLP001 starter. Good ferment at 22 degrees in primary for 8 days and secondary since last friday.

It tasted good all through the ferment, but i checked it out yesterday and it looked like it had an infection. It had 15-20 small white specks with the largest being 1/5 the size of the little finger nail scattered on the top. I skimmed the white specks and tasted it, tasted fine, but the specks reappeared about 3 hours later. The specks seemed to consist of weird tiny bubbles that had lumped together and were holding together pretty tight, until i pressed it with my finger whereby it would disintergrate.

Is this a acid bacterial infection or not. The GB seems to taste okay, if a little sour which i have attributed to much lemon and lime in my recipe.

I plan to bottle in a couple of days, should i continue or am i wasting my time

Cheers

Will

PS I will be stacks disappointed if it is an infection, as it tasted beautiful!

 

[Backlane Brewery]

Kungy, unless you can get these specks analysed you may never know what they are.

You are worried about bacteria- are you sure they might not be some sort of mould- a bit fluffy, blue or green in the centres? Did you check your lemons/limes for soft or black spots? Did you sterilise them or boil the mix before pitching? I can't find the recipe referred to to see what GMK recommended.

Assume you sterilised the secondary and the racking gear etc.

Do you have a lot of unclean empties sitting round, or spills that may be breeding nasties in a crack in the floorboards/behind your cupboards/wherever?

My advice (bearing in mind that what look like dodgy batches in the fermenter often have a way of coming good, and that I'm not a biochemist) is to skim them off daily until you're ready to bottle, then go for it. If you get really interested chuck some of the skim into a jar and see what develops.

However, if the whole thing turns into ginger camembert before you can get it out of the fermenter, disregard above, except for the bit about me not being a biochemist.

 

[Darren]

I vote for NOT. (Atleast until you stuck your fingers in it)
chhers
Darren

 

[kungy]

I skimmed it before i put my finger in it! And the spots have stopped which is always a good thing

The spots were weird as they didn't seem like mould, as in there was no threads or similar. They seemed pretty much like self contained units of tiny bubbles that were white.

I boiled the lemons and stuff, and sanitising powder is my best brewing friend. For this batch i was forced to use PSR as i had run out of idophor, that was the only different thing from usual, plus i have never had an infection.

I have bottled a sample bottle which i plan to bottle condition for a week or so, then i will pass final judgement

Cheers for help though guys

Will

 

[Jovial_Monk]

it may have been just dried yeast.


Jovial Monk