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How do you know if your beer is infected?

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11 years 1 month ago #339 by Dullahan Brewing
How do you know if your beer is infected? was created by Dullahan Brewing
I have a pineapple wheat beer on with six days now and it has stopped bubbling. Took sample today and it had gone from 1.058 down to 1.012 i think, anyway it worked out at 6.5% abv. Used a yeast starter and everything seemed to be going fine during ferment no off smells or anything, in fact the smells coming out of the airlock a few days ago were lovely. anyway i took a taste of the sample and it nearly curled my eybrows with bitterness. It smells sour as well, asked hoppybrewer on jtv and he said defo infected.

I wanted you guys opinion as its only my second brew and the first one went haywire because of temp problems(long story). If i have to chuck this one i will be gutted as i was so looking forward to it. My question is how can i be sure if it is infected and is there any point in bottling it as its due bottling over next few days? Thanks.

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11 years 1 month ago - 11 years 1 month ago #341 by Gash
I have never used pineapple in beer, but saying its is 'defo infected' maybe wrong. Did you use real pineapple or something else to get the flavour? Most of the wheat beers I have tried have fairly light in colour, flavour etc.. there is a fair bit of alcohol in there and depending on how much pineapple you added tastes are going to show through strongly. Bitterness will drop over time. I wouldnt bottle anything till its been fermenting at least ten days anyway. If it is infected the 'off' flavours will probably get much worse. I'd leave it for a few more days and taste again.
Last edit: 11 years 1 month ago by Gash.

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11 years 1 month ago #343 by Dullahan Brewing
Replied by Dullahan Brewing on topic How do you know if your beer is infected?
I used two tins of pineapple chunks in syrup boiled and added to wort,kilo of wheat dme,coopers wheat beer,500gr carapils steeped and added that water to wort, Wb06 yeast starter from safale

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11 years 1 month ago #344 by Gash
to me that seems like a lot of pineapple... I have sent one of the other brewers here a message about this post, he will know more about wheat beers than I do, hopefully he will answer you soon.

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11 years 1 month ago #345 by Dullahan Brewing
Replied by Dullahan Brewing on topic How do you know if your beer is infected?
Thanks gas,hard to see how it might have got infected as I starsan everything.

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11 years 1 month ago #346 by Dullahan Brewing
Replied by Dullahan Brewing on topic How do you know if your beer is infected?
It may have been a case of too much too soon before I got good at kits. Might try a coopers IPA next xor lager

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11 years 1 month ago #352 by Gash
I asked Jerid form Heavy Riff Brewing, his brewery opens in a couple of weeks!! He said to maybe secondary it and just continue testing and see how it goes. He also said when he adds the pineapple to his brews he makes sure he gets them in cans where its just pineapple chunks in water or natural juice, not the sweetened juice, and that he doesnt boil them because if it comes straight from the can then its sanitary. So he basically said the same, give it some time. He said you may have got some sour off flavours from the boiling but thats just a guess. Does the wort have any weird kind of layer on top or just look kind of normal, I suppose its hard cause you havent brewed many beers though to tell what is normal.

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11 years 1 month ago #353 by Gash
IPA will probably turn out better than the Lager can, the lager cans need a lot of love and nice cool and long brewing conditions to work well, I sometimes use the Lager cans when thats all I can get but I usually hop them up and add crystal and chocolate malt to totally change them.

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11 years 1 month ago #354 by Dullahan Brewing
Replied by Dullahan Brewing on topic How do you know if your beer is infected?
No scum on top just looks normal,I used chunks from a can too so I should be ok there? The wort is amber colour. During ferment it had normal krizen on top and smelled grand coming out of bubbler, I only boiled the tins cause I thought it was more sanitary. Could that have screwed it up? Will stick it in secondary for another week and see what its like then but I have my doubts. Thanks m8 and thank jerid for me. Think I will keep it really simple for a while.

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11 years 1 month ago #355 by Gash
well its great that the top looks normal. Let us know how it goes!

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