17 replies to this topic

[albertv05]

Hey guys,My buddy called me this morning and sent me this photo of his 10% abv Saison. Its been sitting for 4 months or so and after transferring last week this started to appear.Any ideas what this might be?Thanks!Al

[OrionPax]

Hey, all. That is my beer above. I called up albertv to ask him about this, and he said he was posting it here, so I ended up joining the board today. A couple of smaller spots showed up pretty soon after transferring to tertiary--actually, it may have been immediately. I remember thinking at first they were some sort of residual from the StarSan. They were relatively static for quite a while, although I haven't been watching it that closely, just letting it sit. It's been in tertiary about a month, and I was planning on bottling soon, but that may not be worthwhile..........So, just went down to the basement for another look before posting. The two bulges in the big patch actually looked like bubbles when directly lit--that is, they weren't solid all the way through, just high spots in the surface of the patch. Then, I tried to rotate the carboy to get a closer look, and it disturbed the beer slightly--not sloshing to the point of splashing or breaking peaks, but the surface of the beer waved back and forth a couple of times. Almost immediately, the big patch broke up, and most of these things sank. I'm really not looking forward to losing a beer that's been going for four months...

[cavman]

Hey, all. That is my beer above. I called up albertv to ask him about this, and he said he was posting it here, so I ended up joining the board today. A couple of smaller spots showed up pretty soon after transferring to tertiary--actually, it may have been immediately. I remember thinking at first they were some sort of residual from the StarSan. They were relatively static for quite a while, although I haven't been watching it that closely, just letting it sit. It's been in tertiary about a month, and I was planning on bottling soon, but that may not be worthwhile..........So, just went down to the basement for another look before posting. The two bulges in the big patch actually looked like bubbles when directly lit--that is, they weren't solid all the way through, just high spots in the surface of the patch. Then, I tried to rotate the carboy to get a closer look, and it disturbed the beer slightly--not sloshing to the point of splashing or breaking peaks, but the surface of the beer waved back and forth a couple of times. Almost immediately, the big patch broke up, and most of these things sank. I'm really not looking forward to losing a beer that's been going for four months...

Don't be quick to dump a beer, chances are it's some yeast or brett. Taste some of the beer, if it tastes good it probably is. Dumping a batch is last resort only.

[3rd party JKor]

I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I've had it on a few of my beers. They've all turned out fine. I'd definitely bottle it if I were you. If I had to guess, it's some kind of mold.

[OrionPax]

I will definitely taste it before I decide one way or the other. It looked sort of like mold, but didn't have any fuzziness to it, which i would expect. Also, I'm wondering what sort of mold could actually live in that environment...Another thing I didn't note above--when I went for the second look, I saw a few tiny bubbles rising to the surface. Since I disturbed it, there are a few more, and I'm getting some new small clusters of bubbles about 3/4" diameter collecting on the surface. This is the longest I've had a beer in fermenters so far, so I don't know if that's normal. Could there really still be any fermentation going at this point, or is it more likely some CO2 coming out of solution (and possibly more so because I disturbed it)?

[3rd party JKor]

probably just some co2 coming out of solution.

[Slainte]

Your beer looks infected.I've had beers look like that before when I used Brettanomyces. Brett will form pellicles on the top of the beer when oxygen is introduced, possibly from transferring to a carboy.Now, it could be that, or another creature...can't really tell without a taste and a gander under a microscope. But what you're experiencing is definitely not "normal"....things should not be growing on the surface of your beer.I would taste it before you do anything, who knows it may be decent. But more importantly, I would look into why this happened, and examine your sanitation and cleaning practices closely.

[Jimmy James]

Looks fine to me, I see similar stuff on my brews sometimes. When you transferred you probably introduced some O2 and got a little more yeast activity, or like JK indicated some CO2 came out - and what you're seeing is just foam. At least that's my guess. If you're going to bottle it you may as well do so as you can always age it further in the bottles.

[zymot]

Infected beer. The Purple Heart of homebrewing.Brewing is a disgusting slime, gunk, funky looking stuff producing process.Taste your beer. If it tastes anything even remotely OK, then it is OK.zymot

[ncbeerbrewer]

Seen it here before on some of my beers as well. As stated taste the beer and if it taste ok I say go ahead and bottle it. I have just transferred down from below the surface and left whats on top behind. Never had any ill effects. I think a good soaking in some cleaner would help out the carboy. It worked for me as well.

[MtnBrewer]

The waxy film on top definitely appears to be some type of contamination. The proof of the pudding (and beer) is in the tasting so if it tastes ok, drink it. There's nothing in there that's going to hurt you. But I would expect that beer to start showing some off flavors before long. I agree with the advice to tighten up your sanitation.

[OrionPax]

So that's a couple of votes for looks infected, and a couple for "seen it, but it tasted fine."Anybody seen this and had bad beer result?

[stellarbrew]

It's been a while, so I can't say if it looked exactly like that, but I've seen something a lot like that on a homebrewed porter I left in the secondary fermenter for a long time. What happened with the porter was that the filmy stuff was eventually overtaken by foam as the fermentation sponteniously kicked back up. Eventually (weeks, the fermentation tapered off and I took a gravity reading. It dropped from something like 1.012 (where it had been for a number of weeks)to something like 1.002! Apparenty it was some wild yeast, or bacteria, or some combination that fermented all of the normally unfermentable sugars. In the end it didn't taste especially bad, basically had no taste at all, other than alcohol. I'm not saying you necessarily do or don't have the same thing going on with yours, but there's an anecdote of my experience with what looked like that.

[3rd party JKor]

So that's a couple of votes for looks infected, and a couple for "seen it, but it tasted fine."Anybody seen this and had bad beer result?

I said 'seen it, but tasted fine', but I also say it's infected. It's just a minor infection. When I've seen that in the past I've made an effort to transfer it to a keg and keep it cold. I figure that will curb the spread of whatever infection is present.

[Stout_fan]

If you do save it, I would say that it is a safe bet that this brew is not a good candidate for cellaring.Drink it quick than REALLY sanitize the keg you use.

[davelew]

It might be infected. It might not be infected. Those spots on the surface could just be bubbles from moving it and slight temperature changes, there could be a little yeast still active (I've found some saison yeasts to be very slow finishers).Either way, there's not much you can do now. Especially if it tastes sour or funky like it is infected now, I'd suggest cellaring a few bottles and trying them to see what an infection tastes like. There are no human pathogens that can live in beer (that's why the good people of Lambic County, Belgium are still around), so you shouldn't have any health worries.

[ChefLamont]

If it was just the smaller "flakes" you see in the picture, then I would say no problem, just yeast rising to the surface. The bigger glob with the two white bumps is more concerning. It doesnt look as much like just yeast floating, but who knows.I would do one of two things. Either leave it and see if a full pellicle forms, or just rack carefully, carb, chill, and drink fast. Heck that second part may be the answer whether or not there is a pellicle. As we have said many times, the taste should determine.

[OrionPax]

I transferred a pale ale tonight, and used the batch of sanitizer as an opportunity to sneak a taste of the saison. This is the third time I've tasted it, and it's been different every time, but I didn't taste anything offensive. At the first try (primary to secondary, 2 months ago), I thought it was bad--it tasted mostly hot and bitter. Secondary to tertiary, about a month ago, the hot flavors had decreased substantially, and I tasted a lot of bitter and a touch of citrus from the bitter orange peel I used. I don't remember the smell the first two times. This time, it smelled a little alcoholy and a little citrusy. The flavor had a lot of citrus fruit--mostly I think the bitter orange, but possibly a hint of lemon and grapefruit. There was also some spiciness I wasn't really able to identify. I may be missing some, since my palette isn't that educated yet (but is improving) and I've been fighting a cold and/or allergies for a while.All in all, it tasted intriguing, with nothing sticking out as bad. I'll probably bottle it this weekend, and I'll try to update periodically on how it matures.