Is There Hope?

I assume this was an extract kit to begin with? Then you boiled and added two more pounds of extract? And got no change in gravity after another week? But clearly you have live [yeast] inside the bottles?

Possibly that extract has a lot of non-fermentable sugars, and your FG just settled back to 1.020 after the second batch of extract was fermented.

The film sounds infection-y. How picky were you on bottle cleanliness? When I save bottles, I rinse in hot water multiple times, let dry upside down, and if there's even a speck of crud, rejected. Then, once dry, I cover with tinfoil squares until bottling day. Sanitize with starsan. I've had the occasional bottle get an infection from not being careful enough accepting bottles from friends, so I started being much stricter on my bottle standards. If it needs a bottling brush to get the crud out, I simply won't use it. And if it's not perfectly dry and covered with tinfoil, rejected.

If it's drinkable, I would move the bottles into a strong, sealed container for the remainder of conditioning. Those plastic containers with a lid should be fine. I would condition growlers in these containers the few times I bottled with growlers (growlers may have a higher chance of exploding). You definitely don't want possible bottle bombs to continue conditioning un-contained. If the beers are both drinkable and well carbonated, refrigerate and drink soon. They probably won't asplode once cold.

 

First, the guy at your LHBS who told you to use extract in place of the sugar in your BSG is a nimrod. Anyway...

Regarding your FG, what was your total extract and grain bill, including the extra extract you added? And what was your total actual volume of wort (after the extra addition)? And what yeast strain did you use?

As for the membrane thing, it does sound like an infection.

 

Regardless of the possibility of infection or not, I would dig a hole and bury these bottles quickly because they are getting ready to turn into ordinance. You introduced a large amount of fermentables that weren't fermented, then bottled it. A good amount of carbonation after one day? Wear protection (I'm not joking) and get rid of those things.

 

The 'good amount of carbonation' after one day would be a little concerning, but really, if there was significant unfermented sugar (from extract) left over in a beer this big (presumably, because it's a BGS), I wouldn't expect that to carbonate much faster than just priming sugar.

We do not know the OG or the grain bill (though it sounds like it was all/mostly extract), or the final wort volume. Depending on those factors, and the yeast strain, 1.020 may not be far off from what would be expected. It would be a really good idea for OP to tell us those things very soon.

 

I agree with this. If I understand correctly, and you had an extract beer that was supposed to finish around 1.010 and you bottled it at 1.020, you still had a lot of fermentables in there. And then you added priming sugar on top of that. The fact that you already had carbonation after one day shows the yeast is still active.

Get rid of these things now, as carefully as you can! Wear goggles, etc.

 

I'm hoping no one is could be confused by the "...still reading 1.020."
This makes it seems like the gravity hasn't moved.
The yeast ate most of the sugar and the gravity went back to 1.020 as a couple replies mention. It doesn't necessarily mean there are still fermentable sugars in there (well, fermentable by the yeast the OP pitched, at least...)

...having said all that, it does sound like a couple infections I've seen. I would move to somewhere they cannot cause harm or make a mess and monitor very closely. I'd be chilling and opening a bottle every day at least to see if the carb was growing to dangerous levels/anything "off" was developing.

good luck--
--Michael

 

Can you take some pics of the yellow film? It doesn't sound healthy.

 

Don't get discouraged. I think just about everybody here has had to dump a batch before. I certainly have. Do be careful, however. They're called "bottle bombs" for a reason!

There are a number of reasons your fermentation might have stalled. You might not have had enough healthy yeast: I highly recommend making a starter, if you didn't do it this time. The temperature might have gotten too low. You might not have aerated the wort adequately. These are all common problems for new brewers.

In addition to making a properly sized starter (there's plenty of info on how to do this online, if you need it), I would recommend brewing a relatively "small" (ie, lower OG, something 1.060 or less) next time. Getting up into higher gravities (and 1.075 is getting up there) complicates things somewhat--aeration becomes more important, starters need to be bigger--and there is some benefit to keeping things simple in the beginning, when you're still learning your equipment and getting your system down. Good luck!

 

The fact that your OG was 'supposed' to be 1.075 is irrelevant at this point, because you didn't follow the recipe.

So how many lbs of extract did you use all together? And was it liquid or dry? And what was your final wort volume? And what yeast strain?

Honestly, if one more person tells you that your FG of 1.020 is abnormal, underattenuated, or otherwise diagnoses the 'problem' without knowing those things, I'm going to turn red and shake my tiny fist.

 

I'm sure I don't know as much about these things as you, but any beer that is showing signs of carbonation after 1 day in a bottle has the propensity to become a problem, regardless of any of those elements that you want to know more about.

 

I have had a Belgian strain on an extract recipe (with sugar added) stop at 1.020, no uncommon. Then again it took nearly 5 months to carb up properly.

The film in the bottle sounds like Brett. Is it actually yellow, or could that be the lighting? If it looks kinda like an oily slick or like a dusting of powdered sugar you probably have a Brett pellicle. If so, don't just dump it all out. Get some Fermcap and a sanitized carboy. Cool all the bottles as cold as you can get them. Pop the caps off one by one and pour into the carboy gently letting it flow down the sides of the carboy. Add some of the Fermcap to keep it from foaming up too much. After all the bottles are emptied, put an airlock on the carboy and put it in the closet for 6-9 months or so. If you find it in 6 months with a large powdered sugar bubble farm on top, congrats, you have a BGS with Brett, check the FG after 6 months, then again at 7, then again. If you are down under 1.008 at that point (or the FG doesn't change from 6-7-8 months at all) rebottle it. Might turn out to be a great beer.

 

I don't really disagree with what it SOUNDS like, but...in ONE day after no signs of infection in primary?

 

I know it is anecdotal, but I've done 2 Lambics with lots of commercial and homebrew dregs tossed in after a primary fermention with yest cultured from fresh fruits. Neither of them had a pellicle even at one year. A bubble here or there that never popped, but no fuzzy toppings, no oil slick that I could see (dark wort since it is covered in a shirt to keep light out), no powdered sugar, nothing like my soured blonde with blackberries. If anybody looked at the batch I have, they would never know that it was a wild beer until I told them. It is possible that the original batch was already infected with signs that a new brewer didn't pick up (I seem to remember seeing the OP post a "I'm new to brewing" thread a month or so back) and transferring it to the bottling bucket and putting it in bottles caused it to be seen since Brett pellicles typically form in the presence of oxygen creating a barrier between the beer and atmospheric air.

 

That would get you about 1.066 OG in 5 gallons. But what was the actual wort volume post-boil? Or in the fermenter? And yeast strain?

 

Supposedly its for 2.375 gallons and includes unspecified yeast: http://www.brewferm.be/en/

 

Shit happens, then you die. But you try to drink as much homebrew as you can in the meantime. So don't sweat it, one measly little ol' batch ain't shit. Most of us have dumped far more than that.

Honestly I would stop taking advice from the LHBS. You will learn a TON of great stuff here, and there are other places that you can learn a lot online too (AHA being one worth mentioning, but certainly not the only one). I like it here tho. There are a lot of really knowledgeable people that post here. LHBS employees seem to be more notorious for not being able to find their own ass with two hands an a mirror more than they're known for being real good at offering great homebrewing advice. But if you know what you want and need, you can shop with a purpose and ignore any bull-pucky that comes spewing forth in your direction, no matter what the source.

Here's what I would do if I were you...

Get ready to make another batch. Formulate a recipe here. What kind of beer do you like? Any particular commercial beer you think is great? I guarantee you someone else or myself can come up with a recipe in five minutes. Others can help hone it to perfection, if needed. Or you can make your own recipe and have us help you with it. Then brew it.

Make sure to learn from any mistakes you made on this batch. Improve your process. Make a checklist and have a procedure. My early blogs have full procedures. Here's one from back in my extract brewing days, elderberry wheat. It's a great beer to make, easy as pie, came out great. I 'm fermenting my 4th version of it right now (plus I brag on it a lot, but hey, if it's good, don't be shy about saying so). You should have something similar for a procedure, tho probably not exactly the same, because your equipment and ingredients will be different than mine. We can help you develop a procedure too, but details, details, details will be needed. Here's a more complex procedure from my partial mash days, Al's Red-Eye Ale**. It had steeping grains, plus extract, and lots of hops. It came out really good (very hoppy!).

When designing your own recipes, generally most of us recommend you use dry, light or extra light extract, and adjust the color using steeping grains or a mini-mash/partial mash. You have the most control over your final product this way. Also, dry extract generally has a longer shelf life, and you may not have any way to know for certain if a given supplier of liquid extracts has fresh extracts, or if it sits on the shelves for six months at a time or more. That's not to say liquid extracts are bad, I've used them with great results. Nor are amber/dark extracts bad. But to start with, I would also recommend using dry, light or extra light, steeping grains/mini-mash, and adding your own hops (i.e. use un-hopped extracts).

Basically just stick with us, spew forth as much details as you can possibly type, and you will be drinking delicious homebrew very soon.

**you know, I think I'll make that one again, all grain this time****

****I like to use a lot of footnotes