Could This Kill You? Infected Beer

The fermentation process can look alien at times, which may make you ask yourself "is this infected?" Once you've asked yourself that question, you begin to go down the rabbit hole and start to contemplate dumping your homebrew down the drain.
Brettanomyces (or Brett for short) is a wild yeast often incorporated into sour beers like Lambic's and Flemish Red Ales. It adds a distinctive flavor known affectionately as “horse blanket.” The acetic acid produced by Brettanomyces is associated with funkiness, tart fruit, and peppery spicing in sour beer styles.
#beer #infection #homebrewing

[@GREEENZO]

One thing I’ve learned is you have to almost blatantly disregard basic sanitation and cleaning practices to get an infection. I used to overthink cleaning and sanitizing, but I’ve just thrown things into PBW, rinsed, and then sprayed with StarSan anything I use on the cold side for years now, and have yet to have an infection. Yes, be sanitary and clean, but don’t let it keep you up at night either!

[@greybeard27]

My experience as well. I have had an issue with infections, but that came from using line cleaner on my keg taps and not stripping them down and using PBW and Starsan to clean properly. Once I figured that out, I haven't had an infection since. Sanitising is good, but like you say no need to over-think it, beer that has fermented out is a pretty inhospitable environment for bacteria due to the pH and ABV.

[@JasperCultken]

Agreed, if you have the right cleaner and sanitizer for the job you'll have no issue with minimal effort. The only infection I ever picked up was from silicone transfer lines, they're notoriously difficult to sanitize with chemical interventions, swapped back to pvc and haven't had an issue since!

[@Karen-zf9md]

A whole bunch of us just use boiling water to clean and never an issue.

[@Fancylvania]

Dennis really cleaned up his act! Paddy's Pub must be booming now

[@murthyadivirk]

I came here to post this exact comment. beat me to it.

[@JeffTheHokie]

Need to keep the beer equipment as far away as possible from the fight-milk equipment.

[@TheMcChickenMaster]

When I have infected beer, I usually just drink it! My immune system is second to none. I am a beer god, and brewers are my martyrs.

[@BeautilufMusic]

Infectus Cervisius, bringer of Mycotoxins

[@ClawhammerSupply]

Legend has it that if you keep your BAC high enough, you will be immune to absolutely everything.

[@TheMcChickenMaster]

@@ClawhammerSupply AMEN!!!

[@Tricky_Adventures]

Any beer that does not kill you makes you stronger.

[@bigverybadtom]

Louis Pasteur invented his anticontamination process for beer before it was found it could also be used for milk. When that was done, contaminated milk poisonings went down dramatically.

[@timothywilliams2021]

Never had to dump a beer yet. Dumped 5 gallons of mead once. Wasn't infection though. I was out of town for work for a bit and a bunch of fruit flies got in through a dry airlock.

[@jon2679]

Every fall for years i would wild ferment fruit from my local apple peach plum and pear trees into wine all i would do is rince and chop the fruit into large mason or pickle jars top with fruit juice or sugar water whichever was more convenient stir every day for about a week or two or untill the fermentation slowed down strain the fruit rack into a fermentation vessel and ferment untill complete i never pitched yeast and i cant remember one batch that turned out badly or failed to ferment.

[@nemamvpici272]

Only time my beer went bad was when I used wild hops for dry hopping. Sanitation is extremely important for everything that beer touches after boil. Before boil its not that important good beer can be made from river water. Giving yeast head start by putting billions of yeast cell into worth prevents bad bugs to gaining upper hand. There is always some bacteria, some mold spores in the beer but they don't have favorable conditions in environment that is controlled/formed by yeast. Making Iambics is completely different story you need to have a good deal of luck to make good lambic.

[@Tricky_Adventures]

I've only had a couple contaminated beers, as I try to be very conscious of keeping things clean/sanitized. One of them I tested and after bottling it went down significantly in gravity, which is a good test I think. If something ate residual sugars left in the beer after the yeast had given up that is a sign you got contamination.

[@Scootenfruity]

Had one infection when I tried a blueberry beer. I thought frozen fruit is ok, but it obviously wasn't. Well, I tried tasting it but it smelled like nail polish so I just dumped it. Had a very nice colour though.

[@RyChannelBrewing]

The thing that got me, was the first time I used whirlfloc with a beer in a glass fermenter and saw all the weird protein strands floating around. Totally thought my beer was infected.

[@liamfbules2999]

While not beer we recently made a cider (freshly pressed) that sat for a few days before we pitched the yeast (it came late in the mail) and it developed a rubbery mat on top of the cider. This mat was so solid that we were able to pick it up without it falling apart. The cider tasted fine if a little thin and bland. Perfectly safe despite the incredible odd wild growth.

[@patmog]

Are you describing a chapeau brun?

[@BeautilufMusic]

Only had one infection in my short time as a brewer so far. Most likely happened because the airlock for some reason popped off after dryhopping, without me noticing. It looked a lot like what you guys had. Ended up dumping it, but not before tasting and.. it was fine. Too bitter, though (due to me messing up the hop additions).

[@442OverHeat]

I really enjoyed this video and learned much. Thanks. Good presentation. It was like brewing with neighborhood friends. Keep the videos coming! Bought your Distilling Still Kit years ago. If you like brewing beer, you will love Distilling!

[@Tense]

The one thing to come away from this great video is that basically you in general cannot make yourself ill or get sick from "bad" beer. Generally it will at worst taste like crap, and at best its a new experience!

[@dyyddson]

If it has mold in it, it can be dangerous and must always be dumped. You learned nothing hehe

[@FearTurtles]

One of the best beers that I have brewed was by mistake. Then again I have made mistakes that honestly didn’t kill a batch but because the batch was not what I was shooting for. Turned me off. The tast just reminded me of the mistake and I couldn’t get over it.

[@dudestewbrews]

Great informative video for newcomers to brewing. We've all been there and wondered the same things.

[@kanhavanand]

video idea: Do the exact same beer, but one batch following all hygiene/sanitization protocol, and the other batch not following sanitization protocols. It would be great to learn how the process is different, and maybe even some signs that your beer is contaminated before you wait 3-4 weeks. Also, if there's no mold or completely off flavors, maybe even try both and compare taste profiles! I know I would love this video.

[@Tricky_Adventures]

Sanitizing is just reducing chances of something bad happening. People in the past didn't sanitize at all really besides unknowingly doing it by boiling. It would all depend on if you were using adjuncts afterward, dry hopping with hops from your backyard, stuff that might be on your brew tools, brewing outdoors, etc. I think any video would likely be a bust, some small chance given normal cleanliness without sanitizing. If they did wind up with some contamination it would depend on what "bug" their beer got.

[@clubroot3383]

I’d be concerned about mycotoxins from unknown microbes in the malfermentation. Might be fine with a glass or two.

[@paulie120284]

WTB Ross Brewing and throwing grains on the pile behind the Fence lolol.

[@BillMcGirr]

Being a distiller… I’ve seen every single one of those gross bacterial and yeast growth. In fact I’ve learned to enjoy seeing it happen. Just run it and drink it.🤣👍🥃

[@skepticfucker280]

Send to jessy at still it and distill before dumping

[@greybeard27]

I did a strawberry saison a few years ago and didn't pay enough attention to sanitising the fresh strawberries. Ended up with a pelican on the beer during fermentation, but stuck with it and the result was an extra funky sour saison, it was superb. If in doubt, brew it out :)

[@cartestgroupoy2441]

One thing what I used to love but took away my physical health and turned my body into misery what I didn't want to be part of now I use vinegar with soup if I have stomach problems or I think I have bacteria in stomach

[@zt7489]

How did all these monasteries in the 14th century make and package beer without infections? Even back to the 19th century with Pilsner Urquell, what methods of cleaning & sanitising did they use?

[@alexandraengland3274]

Lots of stuff probably got infected, but also they scalded or boiled a lot of things to sanitize them. They were using lots of wild yeasts anyway too, so their idea of infection and ours are probably a bit different.

[@thecoastalelite2074]

Barnyard Funk. Need to add that to my list of good band names …

[@GenusBrewing]

I'll be out that way around Jan 16this - Would you guys have time for a collab while I'm there?

[@ClawhammerSupply]

Hey man, shoot us an email!

[@wastedbottle175]

I have to say I am a siner. making beer almost 8 years, not a single time entirly followed the hygiene protocol. Good news is I had never suffer by food poisioning somehow😂

[@KoandgoRu]

Feasting on a sugar is 300$

[@MatthewMitchell01]

I’m brewing an IPA, and when I went to bottle it, I took a quick taste and it’s sour. Pretty strong actually but I didn’t see any of the signs of bacteria like shown here. It’s my first brew, but looking at others brews everything seems good. Is this something that may go away during the 2 week rest after bottling? Also, if I like, or can stand the taste it seems as though it’s pretty harmless?

[@TroubleBrewing]

I'm pretty unfamiliar with funky beers besides kettle sours. Could you just pasteurize the finished beer to ensure there is nothing living in the beer and just keep the funk flavor? I imagine you would lose some alcohol from distillation unless you tried to cover.

[@ClawhammerSupply]

No need to pasteurize it so long as you can isolate in a keg / tap that isn’t going to contaminate everything else. Just chill, carbonate, and enjoy.

[@jasonnykamp6173]

What did you use to carb the beer? I've been looking at using a soda stream to carb beers that I didn't add enough priming sugar to the batch. Thanks for the great info as always!

[@robertcolvin1267]

I tried replying but adding the link might have made it marked as spam; it’s a drinkmate and they say they can carbonate anything - looks pretty cool

[@ClawhammerSupply]

Drink mate. It has a slow pressure release that makes it better for carbonating beer.

[@smirnov2520]

Если пиво не заражено уксуснокислыми бактериями, которые могут съесть алкоголь, можно просто перегнать на спирт. Пить такой алкоголь совсем не обязательно, его можно использовать для дезинфекции. 70% алкоголь прекрасно убивает все живые бактерии, если они не споры. Тогда поможет только надуксусная кислота или перекись водорода.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

SWEATY HORSE BLANKET IPA!!

[@piazzonim]

Seems like you’re giving Orval a run for its’ money!

[@srikanthpunagasela5797]

Once Pellicle confirmed.How soon should we consume it.Does it get much sour with time?