Beer gone off in secondary

pdebarra

Transferred my latest attempt to secondary on 14 Feb. Went to bottle this evening, and found (a) a layer of hairy mould on the top of the brew and (b) a foul smell.

Down the drain?

I do take care to sterilise my vessel and equipment, but maybe my sterilisation isn't effective enough?

kenmc

dump it, its infected. mold is bad. mark the fermenter also, if you get another spoil in that one dump it. you may have some scratches in there harboring baddies. could have been your syphon either

pdebarra

@&%^$@~#!

Thanks

This fermenter has seen no more than 4 uses, though...

djk1000

How and what do you use to steralise?

pdebarra

I use Chemipro, as sold by the folks at the Homebrew Company.

A few teaspoons in a few litres of water, and leave equipment to soak for a few mins, swirling occasionally to make sure it reaches all parts of the vessel.

Mashtun

Truly terrible news! Was it an extract batch? My biggest fear is that when i go to do an all grain batch, i go through 3 weeks of primary, 8 weeks of secondary then go to bottle and it's spoiled. Doesn't bare thinking does it!

pdebarra

'twas a kit, Mashtun. Brupak Steam beer. Still a terrible waste of what was likely to be a perfectly serviceable beer!

lil_lisa

kenmc wrote: »

dump it, its infected. mold is bad. mark the fermenter also, if you get another spoil in that one dump it. you may have some scratches in there harboring baddies. could have been your syphon either

I wouldn't be too quick to jump to this conclusion. The "mould" could easily be the layer of discoloured foam from fermentation and the smell along with it. We had the same with a batch, smelt like fart and covered in greyish brown fuzz. Once we removed the foamy stuff and had a taste, it was definitely good beer.

I would definitely suggest going through with the rest of the process. Hopefully it's not too late. What's the worst that can happen? You've come this far already!

pdebarra

Lisa, thanks for the encouragement. I dumped it this afternoon, though. As I was pouring it down the drain, I had to hold my nose. This smelt really, really bad.

Mashtun

pdebarra wrote: »

'twas a kit, Mashtun. Brupak Steam beer. Still a terrible waste of what was likely to be a perfectly serviceable beer!

Not making light of it pdebarra. Time + money equaling nothing is a royal kick in the stones

oblivious

pdebarra wrote: »

Lisa, thanks for the encouragement. I dumped it this afternoon, though. As I was pouring it down the drain, I had to hold my nose. This smelt really, really bad.

Dropping secondary fermentation will reduce your chance of infection

pdebarra

Thanks, Oblivious. Might skip it in future!