Maggot Beer

[MarkBastard]

Just went to check my two fermenters in my chest freezers as both batches have been fermenting for two weeks.

To my utter disappointment there were bloody ants in the chesty. Oh well I figure as long as they didn't get in the fermenter, and they didn't, so all is good.

Pulled one out and noticed there was about 3 very small maggots (probably fruit fly maggots?) in between the two layers of glad wrap, like floating over the opening of the fermenter. So I very carefully pull the glad wrap off but as I'm half way they bloody fall in! ARGH!!!

I put glad wrap back on and put the temp down to 1 degrees for the crash chill. Just at least as an experiment. Dare me to drink this crap? It was a fresh wort kit blonde ale I'd been hanging for. Maybe they will drown and not infect the brew somehow and become part of the yeast cake and the rest will be okay? I know it's dodgy but 20L of beer over a couple of pin heads of insect babies?

What would you do?

BTW this was deleted due to bad language. Sorry about that kiddies

 

[deadly]

Thought this was gone...

 

[MarkBastard]

Thought this was gone...

it's back and better than ever :icon_drunk:

 

[Adamt]

If you found maggots in some steak in your fridge, would you still eat it? Common sense should hopefully prevail here...

 

[jonocarroll]

I was replying to this... then I wasn't. Thought I had a stroke. Anyhoo.... saved it just in case;

1. Ewwww.

2. EEEWWWW.

3. All may not be lost. I'm sure I've heard of (or have been drinking too much and imagined) some people re-boiling their fermented beer. Off the top of my head, I can't think why not, except you'll obviously need to pitch more yeast if bottling. Presumably if you crash chill to settle everything, then carefully rack the liquid into the kettle, you would leave any nasties in the fermenter (drunk as they must be, they won't mind).

Just a suggestion. Don't blame me if it ends up even worse for it

 

[kook]

What would you do?

Use a properly sealing lid with an airlock The main reason I use one is to prevent flying insects. They seem to love some of the smells that come from fermenting wort.

Just taste the finished beer. If it's fine, RDWHAHB. If you don't like it - ditch it. Shouldn't be too hard

 

[deadly]

it's back and better than ever

Thats a matter of opinion

 

[MarkBastard]

I was replying to this... then I wasn't. Thought I had a stroke. Anyhoo.... saved it just in case;

1. Ewwww.

2. EEEWWWW.

3. All may not be lost. I'm sure I've heard of (or have been drinking too much and imagined) some people re-boiling their fermented beer. Off the top of my head, I can't think why not, except you'll obviously need to pitch more yeast if bottling. Presumably if you crash chill to settle everything, then carefully rack the liquid into the kettle, you would leave any nasties in the fermenter (drunk as they must be, they won't mind).

Just a suggestion. Don't blame me if it ends up even worse for it

Boiling fermented beer? Wouldn't that boil off the alcohol too though?

I wouldn't eat meat that had maggots on it, but if it was a nice fresh cooked steak and some maggots fell on top of it I'd consider it. There's been plenty of times where I've had a fruit fly commit suicide in my schooner at the pub and I just pick it out with my finger.

I saw a girl at work once drop a piece of vegemite toast FACE DOWN in the carpet and she picked it up and used the 5 second rule. After seeing that this beer may be OK hahaha.

 

[MarkBastard]

Use a properly sealing lid with an airlock The main reason I use one is to prevent flying insects. They seem to love some of the smells that come from fermenting wort.

Just taste the finished beer. If it's fine, RDWHAHB. If you don't like it - ditch it. Shouldn't be too hard

Yeah I was thinking that actually.

 

[jonocarroll]

They seem to love some of the smells that come from fermenting wort.

Insects are attracted to the CO₂ - you can make a nifty little insect trap with a coke bottle and a tiny yeast starter.

Boiling fermented beer? Wouldn't that boil off the alcohol too though?

Yes. Options: Boil with the lid on, or put up with a lower alcohol beer. You wouldn't need to boil it for terribly long (10 mins at a guess), and it's surely better than throwing away 20 litres.

 

[Rodolphe01]

I'd still drink it, I doubt they'd infect the beer given it is fermented. You'd have to have a damn good palette to notice 3 fruit fly larvae (that will have settled into the yeast cake) in a whole batch of beer. Worst case is it goes bad and you chuck it, or you chuck it now so same same really. Only thing that makes larvae gross is what they've been living in, so yea a maggot in shit is pretty gross, but a fruit fly maggot in between some cling film (probably just there because of a small amount of moisture) not so bad.

Everyone here would of eaten fruit fly larvae before in fruit etc, just ignore the fact that you *know* they were there

Also, calling them larvae makes it sound way less gross than MAGGOTS!!

 

[Screwtop]

Gent's, sorry just fishing :lol: Wouldn't like to eat a maggot that had been eating"meat". But one that had been feasting on Beer, well that's different.

Screwy

 

[dr K]

Apart from a small risk of protein haze they won't hurt your beer.
I got maggots in a beer once, tasted great but left a queezy feeling, bottled some for comps only and ditched the rest.
Pity, it went very well..of course it goes without saying you don't judge your own beer.

K

 

[chappo1970]

Just get into it you sook! :icon_drunk:
You would eat more cockroaches in your weetbix if your that squeemish. Besides what you don't drink give to your tight ass neighbour.

 

[manticle]

It depends very much on whether you left them in there. Maggots don't take very long to turn into flies and flies in my beer is a little beyond the pail.

If you got them out quick smart then give it a go. I would bulk prime and bottle a small sampler though just to get an idea if anything is up with the final product. Drink 100 mL and see how you feel after a few hours.

If you develop sleeping tetse gout ringworm immuno-defiency bird ebola though - please don't blame me.

 

[achy02]

It depends very much on whether you left them in there. Maggots don't take very long to turn into flies and flies in my beer is a little beyond the pail.

If you got them out quick smart then - give it a go. I would bulk prime and bottle a small sampler though just to get an idea if anything is up with the final product. Drink 100 mL and see how you feel after a few hours.

If you develop sleeping tetse gout ringworm immuno-defiency bird ebola though - please don't blame me.

I cant believe that no one has mentioned tequilla yet? Im sure that grub is just a maggot on steroids.

 

[MarkBastard]

manticle, I keg. I wouldn't bottle this because of the effort if it went wrong, but I've basically got an empty keg anyway so there's no real harm at least kegging it and seeing how it comes out.

Some of the replies above are giving me confidence.

I didn't get them out, they were so small it's not funny and they dropped into the beer and sank straight away. I've probably had beard hairs thicker than these things and they were about 1-2mm long. About 3 of them.

Sitting in the middle of two layers of glad wrap, so you're right it's not like they were sitting in dung or anything.

The beer is probably already 1 degrees, I'd doubt they'd survive that and turn into flys, I reckon they're already dead (drunk) maggots floating around and once the yeast settles out they'll be firmly burried in the yeast cake.

So yeah I'll just cold condition until the yeast cake is nice and compact. Possibly even rack after that just to be sure. Possibly consider getting a filter because I've been thinking about doing that anyway, and then keg it.

Anyone ever made a DIY filter? I remember I used to use some inline hose filter that you'd use on a garden hose when I was distilling. It's just a black cylinder about as long as my hand and about as thick as my... tennis racket handle. Anyway I remember putting coffee paper in there and some carbon. I know that's probably no good for beer but is there some kind of cheap DIY filter that can be made? May give the forum a search.

 

[manticle]

manticle, I keg. I wouldn't bottle this because of the effort if it went wrong, but I've basically got an empty keg anyway so there's no real harm at least kegging it and seeing how it comes out.

Some of the replies above are giving me confidence.

I didn't get them out, they were so small it's not funny and they dropped into the beer and sank straight away. I've probably had beard hairs thicker than these things and they were about 1-2mm long. About 3 of them.

Sitting in the middle of two layers of glad wrap, so you're right it's not like they were sitting in dung or anything.

The beer is probably already 1 degrees, I'd doubt they'd survive that and turn into flys, I reckon they're already dead (drunk) maggots floating around and once the yeast settles out they'll be firmly burried in the yeast cake.

So yeah I'll just cold condition until the yeast cake is nice and compact. Possibly even rack after that just to be sure. Possibly consider getting a filter because I've been thinking about doing that anyway, and then keg it.

Anyone ever made a DIY filter? I remember I used to use some inline hose filter that you'd use on a garden hose when I was distilling. It's just a black cylinder about as long as my hand and about as thick as my... tennis racket handle. Anyway I remember putting coffee paper in there and some carbon. I know that's probably no good for beer but is there some kind of cheap DIY filter that can be made? May give the forum a search.

Mate if you reckon they drowned and dropped then I'd give it a go. Fresh protein dropping out with the yeast shouldn't do too much.

Nothing wrong with making a sample bottle though, regardless of kegging habits.

I wouldn't be in a hurry to offer it to others though. This is a brew for you. If I cook for me and drop something on the floor I may consider no harm done. If I cook for someone else, floor spillage goes in the bin, no second thoughts.

 

[chappo1970]

MB
Bring it to the BABBS meeting mate I have a drink of it with ya :icon_drunk: .
How about drop a hop sock down the throat of the keg when racking if your that worried (ya sook h34r: ), you only want to strain the buggers out of the beer, yeah? If ya don't have one PM me and you can borrow one of mine.

 

[Whistlingjack]

Ferment it out, and taste it. If you like it, bottle it.

If you get any off flavours, boil it then use it as a cleaning agent.

WJ