Is Your Homebrew Beer Infected?

Posted in Homebrewing | 2 comments

Have you ever wondered whether the homebrew beer you spent hours on (not to mention your hard earned cash on) was infected? Here are some tell-tale signs.

1. Does your beer smell like absolute death? Really, it should smell like one of the worst things you’ve ever encountered.
2. Have you checked your gravity? If so, is it the same as the Original Gravity?
3. Is there some nastiness floating on top of your beer? (not to be confused with Krausen)
4. Does your beer look like the beer below?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, chances are that your homebrew is infected. Throw the beer away immediately, and wash the fermenter thoroughly before using again. That is unless, of course, you want another infected batch.

How do I know all of this? The beer above is a picture of my first batch of homebrew, which I brewed this weekend.

I think I’ve figured out what I did wrong. First, I used cleanser instead of sanitizer. Second, I added ice to try and cool down the wort, which could have had some nasties in it. Last, it took us over an hour to cool our wort down, which gave it plenty of time for something to fall in it.

What did we learn? Well, be prepared. Have the water you plan on topping up your beer with chilled. That way, if you are having trouble cooling your wort fast enough, the chilled water will help it get to below 80F so you can pitch your yeast.

Also, use sanitizer! Our cleanser didn’t do the job keeping things sanitized. One helpful sanitization tip is to keep some of the sanitizing solution in a spray bottle. That way, if you are in doubt of how sanitary an item is, give it a quick spritz. We bought StarSan, which is a no-rinse sanitizer, and will be using it on our next batch.

Thanks for checking out the blog everyone. Stay tuned as we bring you more beer reviews, interviews, beer news and homebrewing tips. We are just getting started homebrewing, and are very excited to have our first successful batch. Until next time, happy drinking!