HELP PLEASE

[Patrick]

I have a major problem, I just unscrewed the lid of the amber ale I was going to rack to secondary, and it is infected. Smells like vinegar and has a couple of blobs of mould on the surface.

 

The problem is, I am in the middle of a brew (starting boil now) and I now have no yeast cake to pitch onto, and no yeast in the fridge.

 

What should I do? After the chill, if I put it in a sanitized fermenter will it be OK with no yeast till tomorrow after work?

 

[JackoNZ]

I'd have thought so, not ideal but should be ok. I regularly pitch the day after with my lagers. Bugger on the infection mate.

[Patrick]

Yeah it's a bit of a pain, quite a big beer too ($) I think the stupid cold house stopped the fermentation before it could really start, leaving the door open for other more cold-tolerant bacteria!

Still, this was my 9th batch so all the other ones have been sweet as - had to happen eventually.

Only other difference with this batch was I had stopped using citrox and started using starsan instead!

[martin w]

have you tasted it? is it definately infected? i've had a ccouple of instances where i thought i was infected because of a smell but the tasted fine!

[Patrick]

Havent tasted it - the smell is so sharp it catches in your nostrils, smells exactly like vinegar - not sure I want to taste it!

I havent tipped it out, it is sitting in the naughty-corner in the garage.

[JackoNZ]

Coincidence! Nothing wrong with the Star San, are you making it up to the right strength?

Tip for next time, always keep a couple of packets of S-05 in the fridge for times like this.

Shame on the beer mate, that's gotta hurt putting all that time and effort in.

No one near you that has some spare 05 you could get your hands on in the morning?

[Patrick]

Not really - I might be able to grab some in the morning and just be a bit late for work I guess... dash home and pitch it. It is going to be a 1080 beer, will 2 packets of US05 be enough?

[JackoNZ]

Is it for 20 litres or so? According to MrMalty 2 packs will be fine for 20L of 1.080

[Patrick]

Cheers guys, just racked the amber (infected??) into a spare bucket, covered it with glad wrap and a rubber-band, pricked a little hole in it and we will see what happens.

It doesnt taste like vinegar - but it doesnt tast much like beer either. It is still sitting at 1030 so a long way to go and I am not sure if the yeast will ever recover.

Will let you know how it goes - thanks for all the advice.

[Soren]

that is interesting, it smells hard of vinegar but doesn't taste sour? could it just be the yeast spitting ut some funny smell during normal fermentation? probably not, especially if it's mouldy.
If it has acetobacter in it you could make some mean craft-vinegar though:)
by the way, acetobacter can grow in anaerobically in beer but needs oxygen to actually produce vinegar, so assuming that your fermenter was sealed probably, vinegar wouldn't have been produced. but that doesn't make the mystery easier... keep us posted.

[Patrick]

The only reason I can think of is the vinegar is lighter than the beer so it is floating on top, and I am drawing samples thru the tap which is at the bottom. I used a siphone hose to rack it but left the last inch or so. Bit of a mystery but it's all part of the learning curve!

[Soren]

oh, and to give an answer to your question: If you can't get yeast until tomorrow that will just have to do. it is not optimal but if your sanitation is good there shouldn't be much of an issue. If you don't have time to rehydrate the yeast before pitching, I might go with 3 packs of yeast, especially if you're having issues with the cold weather. just to be sure, sucks if you lose 2 batches in a row!

[Soren]

oh one more thing:) you could also transfer the wort to the fermenter boiling (assuming it's plastic, not glass!), seal it of and let it cool by it self over night. That would certainly take care of any bacteria in the bucket. then in the morning shake it up to aerate it and pitch the yeast. again, not optimal procedure but sometimes you gotta improvise...