I hope this is one of those "good" infections

Production methods from starch to sugars.

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700G
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I hope this is one of those "good" infections

Post by 700G »

Fermenting a 100% Rye malt with enzymes and It's got an infection. Went ahead and squeezed the grains today since it's so close to being done anyhow. The taste is really sour, no bad smells though so hopefully I'm good.

Take a gander:
infected.jpg
Do you reckon this is lacto?
stillin' when I shoulda been buyin'
biker geek
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Re: I hope this is one of those "good" infections

Post by biker geek »

That looks like a massive Lacto infection. it has not ruined your beer, but you may want to pitch more yeast and be more careful with sterilization. I intentionally allow a small lacto infection in my whiskey mashes by not pasteurizing after I mash the grain. Almost all malted and un modified grain has some lactobacillus on it and good pitch of yeast will eat most of the sugar and leave very little for the bugs to work on, minimizing the extent of the infection.
frozenthunderbolt
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Re: I hope this is one of those "good" infections

Post by frozenthunderbolt »

Yup, that's lacto.
Will need major bleaching of the fermenter to get rid of it now!
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woodshed
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Re: I hope this is one of those "good" infections

Post by woodshed »

But run that shit. You may like it.
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MitchyBourbon
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Re: I hope this is one of those "good" infections

Post by MitchyBourbon »

Most likely the infection came from your grain. While you can't control whether your grain carries wild yeast you can control your equipment and work area. Be sure to give everything a good cleaning. If you want prevent these lacto infections in the future, just pitch your yeast as soon as your mash is cool. It also helps if you can chill your wort to bring down the temp faster. I use a thermenator.
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700G
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Re: I hope this is one of those "good" infections

Post by 700G »

Thanks for the info guys. Oh, I'll definitely run it! I did let it set a little too long before pitching the yeast. I was gonna try making a starter for the first time and noticed something starting to take over so I went ahead and pitched to try to save it. It's actually bubbling away pretty good right now in the carboy. Before I squeezed the grains I screened off all of the infection that I could get. I'll keep an eye on it, I suspect the infection will return.
stillin' when I shoulda been buyin'
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