Is this good for the drain

fcorna

Hi,
I started my first ever homebrew experience early July.
As I wanted to dry hop and bottle my production last weekend, I opened my fermenter and saw this (see picture).

uhko2vwth1a.jpeg

Can I safely bottle the beer or shall I just throw everything down the sewer?
Thanks for your support!
F.

IslandLizard

Sorry, that's clearly an infection! What you see is a pellicle. The infection organism lives underneath in your beer.
You can taste it, it's safe, but it may be a bit funky, even sour, or taste roundout terrible. That will get worse with time, and you should not bottle it in this state, you may get bottle bombs as the organism (bacteria most likely) will keep nibbling and make it more sour, while producing more CO2, the little white bubbles are testimony to that.
Any clue what could have gone wrong with your sanitation regimen?
2-3 months is a long time for an ordinary beer to be in the fermenter. Most regular beers are done in around 3 weeks.
Is that perhaps a "secondary" fermenter?

fcorna

There might have been some infection in the preparation, although we cleaned everything carefully.
The duration is indeed too long, we were not really aware of how long it should have stayed - and also, in Brussels the temperature was super hot over those last weeks.
As this was our first ever brew, we also made the mistake of adding sugar when launching the fermentation, that might have even accelerated it further.
As for “secondary” fermenter, not voluntary, but indeed Brussels is known for having some specific “ferments” flying around in the atmosphere - giving us the Lambic

zl2ih0hjern.png

MX1

The one and only infection I ever had was while I lived/brewed in Brussels, it is where I started home brewing...
Looks like a plastic bucket, and that is okay, but you have to be really careful with them, if they get scratched or scored on the inside it can be hard to get the bugs out, and now that that bucket has been exposed to infection, I would remove it from brewing duty, but that is just me.
T

day_trippr

"Aliens!"

hottpeper13

I unbunged a barrel to see the same growth. We tasted it and it was drinkable so we kegged all 25 gal. I took mine to a fish fry the next weekend and it kicked,and was greatly enjoyed. Another was camdened and was good to the last drop. The other 3 were in kegerators and went way off and had to be dumped in around 3 weeks. So,taste,if good add a camden tab and keg.

IslandLizard

Clean first, sanitize next. All need to be done thoroughly and dexterously with everything that touches your chilled wort, or beer.
Pay attention to nooks and crannies such as occur in certain lids, and the groove.
What kind of cleaner(s) and sanitizer did you use?
Lifting the lid during fermentation is often discouraged. And when you must, make sure to clean and sanitize it first, especially around the groove area, and again when replacing it.
Large headspaces are comfy for krausen to prevent blow off, but become an issue when conditioning beer for longer times. More so after the lid has been lifted, as all the CO2 in the headspace is lost and replaced by air (containing 21% Oxygen).
Sugar should not cause infections, except in extreme cases where it may contain bacteria, mold, and such. Therefore it's often advised to add the sugar to the boil or boil the sugar with some water making a syrup that get added to the fermenter later on, when fermentation starts to slow.
That could be an issue, sure! Although you could use that to your advantage when brewing mixed fermentation sours.
Generally, we try to aim for short lag times by pitching a good amount of healthy yeast, that takes off fast, so it can get well ahead of any stray organisms floating in the midnight air.
What I was referring to was using secondary fermenting vessels, which appear in old and often outdated brewing instructions. The benefit of secondaries has been debunked mostly over the past 10-15 years, except in some cases, none in the beginners brewing realm.
You're gonna try again, yes?

IslandLizard

A good scrub, then a bleach bath, and optionally followed by exposing the inside of the fermenter and lid to bright sunlight for a day or so should take care of most bugs. Given there are no deep scratches or irregular shaped pits in the plastic.
Now racking hoses can be much harder to clean, so unless you know how to clean them and have the patience for it better replace those.