Pediococal Infection :o(

[Reviled]

Hey guys

Does anyone know anything about pediococal infection? I seem to have picked one up from somewhere, first in my Pilsner which is really strongly smelling of what I have been told is a pediococal infection, and im now worried because ive just kegged and carbed a Pale Ale and ive noticed it has a similair smell to it, tastes fine, but that smell is not good

Smells, herbally, minty, piney sorta, hard to describe, but its not desirable at all... The two beers were completely different so I can definately narrow it down to an infection...

Id be keen on any information relating to this, just curious where it may have come from etc etc...

Im gonna throw out all of my hoses, bleach the crap out of all my fermenters, and get new yeasts, oh, and get a tap put in my kettle so I stop no chilling in the kettle and go back to cubes Im thinking it may be a combination of the no chill in the kettle and the really hot weather weve had lately... But thats only my first guess...

Any help muchly appreciated... Cheers

Oh, and am I even spelling it right cos Google didnt bring anything up?

[Kempicus]

I got some ointment from the doctor for that....itched something chronic!

[Reviled]

ROFL, well at least my beer doesnt make me itchy :oP Just smells bad lol...

[JoKing]

I've sent you an email mith my thoughts on it mate.

[Kempicus]

Some sort of discharge?

[Stu McKinlay]

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

Last infection I had was pediococcus - it was the last brew before I switched from chlorine to iodophor.... here's some more info

[Reviled]

The word sour keeps coming up but none of my beers are sour, they all taste fine they just have this pungent herbal smell :o(

Strongly considering Jokings suggestion of chucking some Brett in there :oP

[James P]

Hmm.... beer cheese....

... and are commonly added as beneficial microbes in the creation of cheeses..

[Stu McKinlay]

Get some people to taste it. It sounds to me, from your description, that you just have a shit load of Northern Brewer hops in there. Or the famous “minty” combo of Fuggles and Saaz D that Bookbinder uses.

I usually taste diacetyl a lot easier than I smell it but I remember smelling it in that beer. I also remember the “powdery” astringency being quite prominent… almost like unpleasant green oak aging.

[Reviled]

I thought it was hops at first, cos the Pilsner was all D Saaz, but Joking went to taste it, and lurched his head away instantly due to the smell, he suggested it was infection...

I might bring a few bottles to that comp in feb, a few pilsners and a few Pale Ales, both completely different hops, yeast and malt, but the same smell...

[JoKing]

It was definately something un-beer like. Compared to your other brews - the smell was not a normal part of your process. Where your other beers had distinct clean hop aromas this one was markedly different.

I smelled cheese, some type of acrid smell: virging on sulphur, but not as easy as that. Not much hops funilly enough. Definately difficult to put my finger on exactly what it was - but it was definately not a normal beer fermentation.

[Reviled]

Funny how you mention not much hops, it almost drowns out the hop aroma completely :o( The beer I tried last night was only just kegs, heaps of late Galaxy hops, but its just been fully drowned out by this non beer like smell :o(

Im definately picking its an infection of some kind, seeing as ive had brews in between which have been fine, and now ive got it again with a new yeast and a different fermenter...

Bugger :o( Oh well, guess its all part of the learning curve :o)

[JoKing]

I'd be looking in the plastic - it's quite porous and can be difficult to steralise. Ask Stu - he just scored a non porous stainless fermenter! Either Primary or Secondary as well even the hoses.

Acidity is mostly attained from a straight lactic fermentation - but you had plenty of cerevisae in there - and the pedio would have just muddied it up a bit. I'll be willing to bet that if you left that keg at room temp for a month she'd get pretty sour, as the bacteria can take some time to scavenge the less fermentable sugars in your beer.