So, i made a fresh hop ipa and am certain it is infected due to letting the yeast cake sit in the fermenter toooo many days. My question is, at times i have read other BAs have had an infected batch and went on to sour or Brett the beer so it was usable. If i am remembering corectly, how would i go about souring or bretting this kind of beer? I have never done it before but seeing this batch is shot or standard beer can it be saved in this fashion?
Have you tried tasting yet? If it's got rubber smell or strong solventy flavors, dump it…you won't get rid of those. If it's more a phenolic or cherry/funk smell or grassy-funky smell from the wet hops…then you may consider it. Order up some lambicus blend, make a starter & pitch (save some of the starter blend for future use too).
Are you saying the fresh hops infected your beer? Letting it sit on the yeast for days, or even weeks shouldn't infect anything.
I'm saying I left a yeast cake in a fermenter, perhaps, too long and that is where the infection came from, I think. I brewed 2 batches that day and one is great the other, see above discriptive.
Yeah, I don't know that the yeast cake caused the infection. If it did, I doubt it would be the good type of infection (i.e. Lacto or wild yeast). How long we talking about? What does it taste like?
Ok ok I think I'm getting you now. You pitched fresh wort on an old yeast cake, one that had been sitting around without beer on it, for too long. If that's what you meant, yeah I could see that being a problem. I did that one time and when I pulled off airlock to smell the yeast cake it was kind of "off" smelling so I decided not to use it. Hopefully your beer is not infected with anything but if the yeast didn't smell good then that's probably not a good sign
Yeah, I was confused as well. Thought he just left it in fermentor on yeast for a while... Makes more sense now. With that said, you could pitch some brett and see what happens. Just use dregs if you don't want to invest in any. Seeing how it is an IPA - the IBUs are probably too high for lacto - you would have to build that up separately.
Yeah I tasted it, so bad with a greasy lookin head I junked it all. It happens. Next time I'll pitch onto a fresh yeast cake , not on one a week old sittin in the fermenter at the top of the stairs. Too bad seeing it was a fresh hop but there ya go,
