Wow Liquid Fruit In A Beer Bottle

[agorganic]

I have just tried a few of my home brew coopers lager, the OG was 1.040 (on 30 July 2011). I hadn't recorded the FG when bottling on the 12th Aug 2011, but tested the bottled brew a few moments ago, its at 1.016.

The beer tastes really fruity, with a lingering kind of sick fruity taste that sticks to your pallete and the carbonation is almost bitter and got a strong bite to it, some of which seems to be the high carbonation, big head on pouring though doesn't last longer than 15 seconds. It seems to be the whole brew which is affected, as I bottled in two different glass bottles and tasted a few from each slab.

There are a couple of things which may have been responsible.

1# I bought a couple of heat pads on the 6th Aug, not sure if I put one under the fermenter to speed things up, but once I'd bottled the brew I definitely put the bottles on it for 24 hours....perhaps not the problem though.

2# The brew is infected from the bottles after gathering dust on bench for a week or two.

3# Brew infected as I didn't rinse them after sanitising

4# The jacket I had around it made it get too hot

5# Fermenter has become infected...Will be able to tell soon enough as I'm brewing grolsch at this very moment and if I make sure to sanitise and rinse everything before bottling and don't add heat, then the grolsch should taste like grolsch.

Actually I did brew a coopers mexican cervaza right after the coopers lager, which I recall got pretty warm with a thick jacket sitting over the fermenter and the heat pad on constantly....I bottled this mexican on 24 Aug and it also tastes fairly fruity and after double checking all my bottles there is white crud sitting on the surface of the bottle beer which sinks when the bottles are moved. GREAT!

Looks like I will be tipping out 4 slabs of bottled beer and possibly the grolsch in the fermenter, happy days. I may need to buy myself a slab to ease the pain, now I have no home brew to drink.

Surely someone could think of a way to reverse an infected brew.....with all this science about. What is it exactly that the infection lives on? I mean if I kept the beer bottled for 100 years (obviously my unborn son would need to take part responsibility), would the infection still be alive...I know...its pointless cause I wouldn't get to drink the beer, but I'm just curious. Maybe the taste testing infected beer has infected my brain.

 

[malt_shovel]

I have just tried a few of my home brew coopers lager, the OG was 1.040 (on 30 July 2011). I hadn't recorded the FG when bottling on the 12th Aug 2011, but tested the bottled brew a few moments ago, its at 1.016.

The beer tastes really fruity, with a lingering kind of sick fruity taste that sticks to your pallete and the carbonation is almost bitter and got a strong bite to it, some of which seems to be the high carbonation, big head on pouring though doesn't last longer than 15 seconds. It seems to be the whole brew which is affected, as I bottled in two different glass bottles and tasted a few from each slab.

There are a couple of things which may have been responsible.

1# I bought a couple of heat pads on the 6th Aug, not sure if I put one under the fermenter to speed things up, but once I'd bottled the brew I definitely put the bottles on it for 24 hours....perhaps not the problem though.

2# The brew is infected from the bottles after gathering dust on bench for a week or two.

3# Brew infected as I didn't rinse them after sanitising

4# The jacket I had around it made it get too hot

5# Fermenter has become infected...Will be able to tell soon enough as I'm brewing grolsch at this very moment and if I make sure to sanitise and rinse everything before bottling and don't add heat, then the grolsch should taste like grolsch.

Actually I did brew a coopers mexican cervaza right after the coopers lager, which I recall got pretty warm with a thick jacket sitting over the fermenter and the heat pad on constantly....I bottled this mexican on 24 Aug and it also tastes fairly fruity and after double checking all my bottles there is white crud sitting on the surface of the bottle beer which sinks when the bottles are moved. GREAT!

Looks like I will be tipping out 4 slabs of bottled beer and possibly the grolsch in the fermenter, happy days. I may need to buy myself a slab to ease the pain, now I have no home brew to drink.

Surely someone could think of a way to reverse an infected brew.....with all this science about. What is it exactly that the infection lives on? I mean if I kept the beer bottled for 100 years (obviously my unborn son would need to take part responsibility), would the infection still be alive...I know...its pointless cause I wouldn't get to drink the beer, but I'm just curious. Maybe the taste testing infected beer has infected my brain.

Hey mate,

First impressions on reading this, is that it most likely isn't infected. I am thinking this is a yeast issue. Either under - pitched, too warm (seems a large part of it given the description of the mexican brew), not enough oxygen etc.

If you could describe more on the yeast / oxygenation / ferment temps etc, that would be useful

Cheers
:icon_chickcheers:

 

[agorganic]

Hey mate,

First impressions on reading this, is that it most likely isn't infected. I am thinking this is a yeast issue. Either under - pitched, too warm (seems a large part of it given the description of the mexican brew), not enough oxygen etc.

If you could describe more on the yeast / oxygenation / ferment temps etc, that would be useful

Cheers
:icon_chickcheers:

Ok..but tomorrow though. Bed now, I feel like being sick from the taste and memory of drinking those beers, so no cheers for me tonight. They seemed to just get worse each one I cracked...spontaneous infection me thinks!

Tsnks mate

 

[Silo Ted]

Im going to echo the statement above, I think you fermented at way too high a temperature. and the rodiculous carbonation might be attributed to your beer not being quite fibished when you bottled. Tip it and start sgain.

 

[warra48]

If your OG was 1.040, and your FG 1.016, then you achieved just 60% apparent attenuation with your fermentation.
That's very low, and I wonder if your brew was really finished fermenting when you bottled. If not, you would certainly experience the high carbonation you describe.
That, and the probable high fermentation temperatures are most likely responsible for the symptoms you describe.

For the future, I would pay attention to:
1. Proper measurement to ensure your figures are correct
2. Ensure your brew is properly aerated prior to fermentation
3. Use an adequate quantity of yeast. If dry yeast, rehydrate it. Probably better to use a proprietory yeast than the often inadequate kit yeast
4. Forget about using the heat pad, unless it's absolutely necessary. Try to ferment in the region of 18 to 20C if using an ale yeast
5. Leave it for no less than two weeks in your primary fermenter before considering bottling

Good luck, and hang in there. You'll eventually get there. I remember my first kit brew, a Munich Lager, which also tasted appalingly bad, because I fermented it in mid-summer without temperature control, at about 28C. It was a very quick learning curve to get a fermentation fridge and install a TempMate.

 

[agorganic]

Hey mate,

First impressions on reading this, is that it most likely isn't infected. I am thinking this is a yeast issue. Either under - pitched, too warm (seems a large part of it given the description of the mexican brew), not enough oxygen etc.

If you could describe more on the yeast / oxygenation / ferment temps etc, that would be useful

Cheers
:icon_chickcheers:

Not sure what you mean by oxygenation, it has one of those airlocks that seperate i.e. external with internal sleeve that consists of the lid.
Yeast was just the standard coopers sachel that comes withthe brew tin, more details below:



Brew no.: 3rd

Coopers lager

Yeast code: 22808

Temp added yeast: 23c

Sugar type: Brew Enhancer 10

Volume of water added: 23L + 1kg of B.E 10 (the sugar stuff)so 24L volume (rookie error)

OG: 1040

FG: I didnt record, but after 3 weeks in bottle thespecific gravity is 1016

I may have had some food scraps fort compost sitting on thekitchen bench with rotting fruit in it around the time of this brew, would thisaccount for the fruity infection?



Brew no.: 4th

Coopers Mexican cervaza

Yeast code: 33610 Int

Temp added yeast 22c

Sugar type: Brew Enhancer 10

Volume of water: Same rookie error as above

OG: 1040

FG: 1010

2 weeks after bottling specific gravity at 1008

Seems I didnt clean the fermenter good enough after BrewNo. 3 above.



https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=e5e78b19b79c5bbe&resid=E5E78B19B79C5BBE!144



Also, the bottled beer is sweating alot more than previous brews in the neck where there is the pocket of air and there is definitely white crud developing on the surface of the beer.


I am thinking my fermenter is infected, as I tried some of the grolsch that I have sitting in it and it is slightly carbonated and fruity taste, nothing like what it tastes like from the store, more like my previous brews. But I haven't bottled it yet, thought I might need to let it sit longer ?? Any thoughts welcome!

Sorry for late response...flat out with uni.

 

[agorganic]

If your OG was 1.040, and your FG 1.016, then you achieved just 60% apparent attenuation with your fermentation.

how did you arrive at 60%?

I want to add that calculation into my excel brewing spreadsheet.

 

[Silo Ted]

(Opening Gravity *MINUS* Final gravity) / (Opening Gravity *MINUS* 1) x 100

From memory..... I like many others use brewing software !

You might also be interested in this spreadsheet : IanH's Kit and Extract Beer Spreadsheet

I don't brew like this, so have never used it - but it gets huge respect from those who do.

 

[brettprevans]

What infection gives fruit? Doubt its an infection. Do some reading and youll end up agreeing.
Sounds,like too hot ferment and not finished fermentation.
Mate do a lot of reading on ahb and brew books and youl more about correct brewing techniques and ur brews will get better

 

[goomboogo]

4

how did you arrive at 60%?

I want to add that calculation into my excel brewing spreadsheet.

40 - 16 = 24
24 / 40 = 0.60

 

[the_new_darren]

I have just tried a few of my home brew coopers lager, the OG was 1.040 (on 30 July 2011). I hadn't recorded the FG when bottling on the 12th Aug 2011, but tested the bottled brew a few moments ago, its at 1.016.

The beer tastes really fruity, with a lingering kind of sick fruity taste that sticks to your pallete and the carbonation is almost bitter and got a strong bite to it, some of which seems to be the high carbonation, big head on pouring though doesn't last longer than 15 seconds. It seems to be the whole brew which is affected, as I bottled in two different glass bottles and tasted a few from each slab.

There are a couple of things which may have been responsible.

1# I bought a couple of heat pads on the 6th Aug, not sure if I put one under the fermenter to speed things up, but once I'd bottled the brew I definitely put the bottles on it for 24 hours....perhaps not the problem though.

2# The brew is infected from the bottles after gathering dust on bench for a week or two.

3# Brew infected as I didn't rinse them after sanitising

4# The jacket I had around it made it get too hot

5# Fermenter has become infected...Will be able to tell soon enough as I'm brewing grolsch at this very moment and if I make sure to sanitise and rinse everything before bottling and don't add heat, then the grolsch should taste like grolsch.

All of the above.

cheers

the_new_darren

 

[brettprevans]

Darren if this is u, dont be a.dick again

 

[the_new_darren]

Darren if this is u, dont be a.dick again

Should I be a pussy?

cheers

the_new_darren

 

[the_new_darren]

Oh shieet Morgue,

You mean this guy?

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showuser=436

What a dick!!!

cheers

the_new_darren

 

[agorganic]

Darren if this is u, dont be a.dick again

:blink:

 

[agorganic]

Should I be a pussy?

cheers

the_new_darren

:beerbang:

<_< I have no idea whats going on!

 

[Tim F]

Darren if this is u, dont be a.dick again

Too late :/

 

[agorganic]

...the taste testing infected beer has infected my brain.

cough, cough...maybe it was beer infecting....urgh....affecting my brain. :icon_drunk: I no no english...when beer too many! lol
Ok I'll get back on topic, as soon as those boobies ( :icon_chickcheers: ) stop wiggling
.
..
....
.....hmmm they might take a while

citymorgue2 So lets rule out infection, how about too much fructose developing, rather than glucose? At least that would account for the fruity smell and the :icon_vomit: taste, which is still present in the coopers lager home brew bottles that I taste tested again tonight.

In general, the coopers mexican cervaza, at least what I put into a slab of corona bottles, actually came good a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps there was a little mix up with more than 2 corona bottles being used for the coopers lager bottling prior, but the summer XXXX beer is shit still. But until I have one of those spontaneous pointless memory recalls in the distant future, I may never know for certain.

So I only ended up with one slab of good beer out of 4 slabs from those two brews and therefore a little confused with my excel spreadsheet, as I have the Summer XXXX bottles listed as the other slab of mexican cervaza, but there is also a slab of Sol bottles unaccounted for and both taste crap.

I was at uni the other day and told some of the lab technicians I would bring in some suspect beer for them to taste/contemplate, as they work within the viticulture course at the uni and two of them have an interest in home brew. One of them mentioned he'd been brewing beer for over 20 yrs without an infection and seen how he's less vertically challenged, me just being an agriculture student, maybe I can organise some lab tests which one of the 3rd yr viticulturalists was testing glucose and fructose of his wine at time with a spectrometer (only time will tell).

Goomboogo and Silo ted - Silo ted's was best method for my excel spreadsheet, as it only took up one cell per beer, but I still need to manually put in the gravity number and a decimal point for the gravity figure, otherwise my alcohol % go wacko if I add decimals into that dedicated cell. Thanks for letting me know guys, I started drooling when I opened that excel spreadsheet, very nice!

I pitty thee gods and demi-gods for having to reply to us mere mortals, whom are granted only 1 or 2 beers....I am for ever in your debt and will endeaver to read more about beer other than just the label.

 

[agorganic]

I did take in a couple of the bad beers and the 3rd year viticulturalists tasted them during a class when I wasn't around, so I wasn't able to warn them the beers weren't any good for drinking as my verbal instructions were misunderstood. So I found myself explaining to those students why my beer tasted like crap.

I eventually ran into the lecturer from uni who worked for Carlton United breweries for many years, although I didn't get a chance to test my beers, we did have a brief chat and seems there were a number of factors at play for the ridiculously fruity undrinkable beer. But that is for another story for another time