infections

pelican · Post by **pelican** » Monday Apr 25, 2005 7:20 pm

what are the obviouse signs of a brew being infected?

GTI86 · Post by **GTI86** » Monday Apr 25, 2005 7:53 pm

have had a few go bad the main sign id get was a white skin or scum
formed on top of the brew and a realy bad smell not good

pelican · Post by **pelican** » Monday Apr 25, 2005 8:02 pm

how long befor you noticed smell i started a brew on the 19 of this month and a smell has just started not really bad though just dosent smell like beer there is no white scum but i have been told that white scum is normal in some batches

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Monday Apr 25, 2005 9:20 pm

Does it taste like a bandaid, smell rather antiseptic?

Dogger

kitkat · Post by **kitkat** » Tuesday Apr 26, 2005 8:46 am

note that if you're brewing with a lager yeast, you can get a smell of sulphur, that would be normal.

pelican · Post by **pelican** » Tuesday Apr 26, 2005 1:35 pm

yeah its a canadian baverian lager so i guess that is what it is. it smells more like beer again today. thanks for feed back

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Wednesday Apr 27, 2005 9:44 am

Dogger, what would the band-aid or antiseptic smell indicate

Antsvb · Post by **Antsvb** » Wednesday Apr 27, 2005 1:21 pm

This might sound really stupid but can you save a brew that has gone bad? ie white scum on top as mentioned.

Had one covered in this scum the other night which I have never come across. Decided to keg anyway and just stoped filling before I was drawing this crap. Meant wasting more than normal but I figured this was better than wasting a whole batch. If its crap I figured I would toss it later. Beer that went into the keg looked and smelt fine

Will this be ok??? Sure looked to be.

Jay · Post by **Jay** » Wednesday Apr 27, 2005 3:41 pm

Antsvb,

Smells and looks can be deceiving. Did it taste bad? If not it may not be an infection. A decent infection (with the wrong bug) will make a horrible tasting beer. In other words if tastes ok it will be right. If not down the drain she goes.

Cheers,
Jay.

Antsvb · Post by **Antsvb** » Wednesday Apr 27, 2005 6:34 pm

Not sure about taste Jay, didn't think to try it

. I am sure it was an infection though. Been Brewing for 7 years and havn't seen anything like this before. Could not see any liquid from the top for this white cover it had on it.

Carbonating the keg as we speak, should be ready to try tomorrow night or so so we'll see how it goes.

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Friday Apr 29, 2005 9:40 am

Jeff,

I recently had a bout where I thought I had infections. After getting the beer tested, it was fine.

The problem was chlorophenols, which is the blending of chlorine with phenols.

It makes the beer smell and taste bad, typical of an infesction, the issue being you treat the wrong thing.

Dogger

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Friday Apr 29, 2005 6:19 pm

Dogger,

I assume you mean the beer was "fine" because when tested it might not kill you (rather than it was fine to drink in spite of the smell and taste)

I'm interested in the "band-aid" description - it may apply as a better description to the one I've attempted. Started as ammonia and ended up as burnt urine....

Not that it matters - the brew in question has been sent elsewhere, the bottles washed and re-filled with a hopefully more approachable drop.

Cheers

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sunday May 01, 2005 1:33 pm

Dogger,

I've noticed that a few of my brews have a harsh bitter taste at the back of the mouth (kind of like a panadol that didn't go down properly). This is different to hops bitterness and is beginning to get more unpleasant with age. I've only noticed it in bottles that I have sanitised with bleach...could the taste be due to these chlorophenols building up after not rinsing bleach out properly? I don't think I have an infection as the beer was fine for the first month. I've just bottled a stout but not used bleach so I guess that's the real test. Probably will try Mr Bakshi's Iodophor.

Cheers,
Jay.

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Sunday May 01, 2005 10:38 pm

Jay,

One of the hardest things I have found to do is to try and get your head wrapped around these issues. Really, I had a tough time doing it and I even had my own brews to try.

I would suggest if it tastes off and it isn't cloudy and you can't see a white ring at the surface of the beer then the chlorophenols is a likely reason. It will also help if we can get both the chlorine and the phenols at the right spot and I think there is a mechanism there to make it work, especially if you are aware that you aren't rinsing correctly.

I use bleach as a contact sanitizer and have not had an issue. Try the iodine however, be aware that it stains and if you don't rinse well it to will make your beer taste bad.

Good Luck, please let me know how you make out, there is nothing better than having worked through the issues and getting a really great beer. Once I made the chlorophenols go away my beers it really did become top notch. I was away last week and had to drink domestic from the big boys. When I got home I had one of mine and with out a doubt, it was by far better than anything the big kids did.

Dogger

r.magnay · Post by **r.magnay** » Monday May 02, 2005 7:35 am

off the topic of infections but on the topic of your own beer, I was very reluctant to go to PET bottles, but because I am away out bush so much, and glass is not convenient, I was using cans which of course meant commercial beer, now commercial beer is better than no beer, (unless it is VB!) Like Dogger, the homebrew tasted all the better when I got home, but now I use the PET bottles and carry my trusty old stainless panican, the only time I drink commercial is at a pub or club or some such venue.

BPJ · Post by **BPJ** » Monday May 02, 2005 8:46 am

I've had a few batches that have had a plastic taste. Some had a very subtle after taste of plastic, others wre straight up.

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Monday May 02, 2005 8:51 am

BPJ

Thats what I am on about,

I don't think that it is an infection, I am thinking it is chlorophenols.

Dogger

Jay · Post by **Jay** » Monday May 02, 2005 11:48 am

Dogger,

Yeah I agree with you on the infection. I didn't really think the brews were infected as there was no evidence (ie cloudiness, bad smell, overpowering taste). The off taste is at the end of the mouthful and is definitely a bitter chemical taste. The strange thing is that the taste has built up over the last 2 months in the bottle with no off flavours noticed earlier. All brews put in bottles santised with sodium met have been fine.

I've got access to distilled water at work so will try this next time in case there is alot of chlorine in the tap water.

Also would not washing bottles thoroughly add to this off taste?

Will experiment with a number of different methods...this will not beat me.

Cheers,
Jay.

grabman · Post by **grabman** » Monday May 02, 2005 6:29 pm

on a side note, bottles a brew a while ago, some in glass stubbies, some in 740ml PET's.

Beer in glass is completely different taste to that in PET, much smoother, was a lager. That in the PET has a sharp acidic hint on the tongue.

Not sure what the cause is but all the PET's are being given away, will stick to keg and glass from now on!!

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Monday May 02, 2005 9:10 pm

Jay,

Drive on man.

A word of caution about distilled water, it is missing a lot of the ions and cations required for brewing. I know they are supposed to be in the kit but it wouldn't hurt to use a yeast energizer to avoid a stuck fermentation.

I am thinking your issue is at the end of the fermentation, everything else seems to be OK, so maybe start changing your bottling regime. I like the idea of rinsing with DI water.

Dogger