Weird Film On Beer

[sammydog]

I was just down checking on my bottles and noticed that a batch of bottles that were filled about 10 days ago have what looks to be a whiteish (hard to tell the colour through a brown bottle) film on top of the beer.

Its not in all the bottles and when you give the bottles a bit of a gentle shake, it mixes in with the beer.

I haven't done anything differently in the bottling process to what I would normally do, any thoughts on what is going on?

 

[Snow]

LOL I thought the topic was about a new avant garde movie about beer! :lol:

Anyhoo, the scum could be just minute amounts of krausen forming at the top during bottle conditioning, or it could be protein coming out of solution for whatever reason, or it could be infected. Either way, you won't know until you taste. I recommend drinking the "filmy" ones first in case it is infection and you can down them before they taste bad.

Cheers - Snow

 

[poppa joe]

If it mixes in with the beer...should be O.K.....
If it wiggles n wobbles like a baby duck..Could be troubles..??
Cheers
PJ

 

[sammydog]

The title of the thread is a bit misleading when you have it pointed out

Hopefully its nothing sinister as its my first foray away from Kit Beers. I'd hate for this to go bad on the first attempt.

 

[jiesu]

hold it to somthing bright. Does it have a sort of Oil slick appearance to it? or could it just be a layer of yeasties? I recon crack one of them and have a sniff. If it smells good there is no shame in drinking it

 

[br33zy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Brew

(not sure if that is off or on topic...)

 

[unrealeous]

Does it look like this?

Linky

 

[sammydog]

I think thats it, hard to tell with the brown bottles.

With the bottle I stirred up last night, it hasn't come back, but the neck of the bottle looks like there is some bits of hop left up there.

The beer tasted/smelt fine when it came out of the fermenter. The bottles were cleaned so I don't know why its done this. Fingers crossed now its not the whole batch.

 

[Scruffy]

If it looks like the pic in the above link, it's acetobacter.

Enjoy your brew!

 

[sammydog]

Thanks Scruffy, I just read you post in the other thread,

Right. There's FAR too much hysteria on this thread.

It's a variant of Acetobacter. In time it'll turn your beer into vinegar. It requires oxygen to thrive. That's why it's sitting on top. You could give your bottles a gentle shake to break up the crust, it'll then sink to the bottom (and die an oxygen starved death), and you can drink your brew...
Doubtless it got in whilst exposed to the air (or off 'dirty' equipment - by which I don't mean accuse the OP of smearing his fermenter with excrement...).
Are you adding Calcium Carbonate (chalk) to your brew... when the bacteria have produced enough acid this white film will dissolve and you're fooled into thinking it's suddenly got better!
Different ways to solve the problem include:
Sulphur Dioxide (wine preservative) will help,
as will good sanitation,
or you could brew in a vacuum - or at least keep contact with O to a minimum...
Or you could re-enter your brew in a different class, say Flemish (sour) ales.

I'll go give the affected bottles a shake up (gently) and wait for them to be drinkable.

 

[Scruffy]

yeah, your bottles'll probably be fine...


...in the short term, at least.

It's still taking me ages to find the cause, that's taking into consideration, making one too many gravity readings - i.e. sucking 'dodgy' air in through the air lock, and reckless bottling - i.e. splashing, not purging air out of the bottles, moving the whole process to a different area, your source might be equally obscure, probably!

tackle it, or work with it, nurture it... love it...


nope...


maybe not. ...dirty scum.

 

[Scruffy]

Vinegar Flies!

Them's what's done it... buggers!

Now I can move on!!!

As you were...

 

[sammydog]

Bit of an update from the Dirty Grommet Brewery.....

I cracked a bottle tonight, they have only been in the bottle for two weeks but curiosity got the better of me. Open the bottle and there was fizz, all good so far.

Poured it, nice(ish) off white head, all good so far. Looks very cloudy, but I can work with that.

Smells, mmm I thought it smelt nice, the wife thought it was sweet smelling, either way all good so far.

So onto the taste (it is a Pale Ale for what its worth), tastes fine, probably (definitely) needs more time in the bottle but there is nothing off tasting about it (unless you don't like a hoppy beer). So at this point at least all is fine in the Dirty Grommet Brewery and I will keep an eye out for those vinegar flies.