First infection

[school]

Hope this is the right place to post this. Been home brewing for ten years, but new to this hobby. Never had an infection until today.

Jimbo’s all grain. I’m super uptight about my sanitation, first hints of cloudiness in the Star San and I make a new batch. Sanitized everything. Fifteen gallons, three packets of US-05. Split between two fermenters. Took twelve days for cap to fall and was still at 1.03 so let it ride to the twelve day point. Looked great. Was my first time straining right after it cooled (been doing BIAB). Was a cold day so cooled fairly quickly with wort chiller, didn’t let sit overnight.

I messed up and let a handful of grain into the batch as I was straining through BIAB bag. So I decided to let it sit for four days (just didn’t have time after one day) to clear. Left it in my detached garage, temps ranges from 40-60 so I thought the cooler temps might serve as a kind of cold crash. A tiny fruit fly fell in as I was straining, but I’ve had this happen a hundred times with beer and it never bothered a thing. Only other thing I did was sterilize a pipette with 71% isopropyl alcohol to use my new refeactometer (I know it’s not very accurate after fermentation but I couldn’t wait to try it).

Will try to post pics when I get home. Light film of little white mold looking stuff layered on top of wash and sides of fermenter. Racked perfectly clear. Smelled great, like every batch (only four) I’ve done so far.

So, first of all do any of those culprits jump out at you? Fly? Isopropyl? Let it sit too long? Obviously I’m going to run it, nothing to lose. But should I be prepared for an awful product, or can you sometimes get away with this?

[fizzix]

school, an infection not only won't hurt your distilling, but there's people who chase infections
for the unique flavors a good ol' lactobacillus delivers.

Extended time likely did it. Something on the grain. Don't fret.
I mixed my one and only accidental infection right into the ferment and distilled it.
In my case it was an all-grain that sat for 14 days, 7 more than I wanted.
It was small and didn't add anything, but certainly didn't subtract either.

[Fiddleford]

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=72256
Did it look something like that?
Grain has that kind of bacteria naturally
For me it generally smells fruity and plesent
What people will do with infected beer or wine is just run it
Best thing to do with questionable wash, mash, or must like that is to run it
You should check out what people do when making rum.. makes a germaphobe run for the hills

[school]

Thanks guys, I feel better. Fizzix, do you mean I let it ferment too long, or the sitting a few days to clear? Or both?

Fiddleford,could be that. Mine was a little more round circular mold and not as wispy, but could be same. I’m going to figure out how to post pics now.

Small world. I was trying to remember who had the link about how to post pics in their sig line, and it was the guy who commented on my post. Thanks, Fizzix.

mold on top

sides of fermenter

racked product. that's just bubbles from the racking flow, no visible mold ended up in receiving vessel

[fizzix]

The infection, again likely acquired from the grain, was given a long enough time to grow into a large encompassing mass.
A short 5 day ferment may not be enough time to grow that much of a noticeable pellicle.

I've had 5, 7, and 14-day ferments and have only had 1 infection. A real hit and miss.
Don't let it dissuade you from long ferments, though. They finish when they want so don't rush it.

[school]

Perfect, thanks again.

[fizzix]

That's not horrifying whatsoever. In fact a lot of that looks like "yeast rafts" ---just floating yeast.

[school]

Fantastic, thanks so much.