Cider is infected… god damn it. What should I do?

[BrewinBrian44]

Looks like something tagged along for the ride for my 20gal cider ferment. I have no idea how long this has been going on. Probably a week or two since I haven’t found time to run. God damn it.

Should I just run it immediately and hope for the best? Looks like lacto, but I could be wrong. It actually smells pretty good. I’m nervous to taste it.

[BrewinBrian44]

Just tasted it. Definitely lacto. Actually tastes pretty good all things considered. Fruity blue sweet tarts. Not apple-y anymore though.

[stillanoob]

Run it ASAP. Lacto infections still taste fine.

[BrewinBrian44]

Did some more research on the issue and after that, I think I know the source of the problem.

Normally, when I make cider, I do it in small batches with airlocks, but with my lack of small vessels and the large amount to ferment, I thought using my large kettle would be fine as I do it all the time for whiskey and have never encountered an issue. I assumed the blanket of C02 that sits over top of the liquid would protect it, I was wrong.

My vessel is essentially open since I can't get a perfect seal on the lid of the kettle, which allows oxygen to creep in. I attempted to prevent this after fermentation halted buy using painters tape around the lid, but there must have already been too much oxygen in there. The large headspace can enable aerobic strains of yeast and bacteria to take hold. This film can be caused by sheet yeast, lacto, brett, mold, etc. I suppose I'm lucky I didn't get anything truly nasty. I have a feeling the film on top is actually a mixture of stuff. I did not use any sulfites before pitching yeast, so any bugs that came along with the cider remained during the ferment. The flavor reminds me of some sour ales I've sampled that have that distinct Sweet Tarts candy ester profile. Not bad, but not what I planned for.

In a panic that my product would suffer if I let it ride any longer, I went ahead and racked half the wash to my boiler and performed a stripping run last night. Hard to tell how good the product is coming out the spout as it was completely smeared from running fast. We'll see what happens in a spirit run. I did notice a strong, ripe apple smell coming through as I collected a small amount of foreshots, which is good! I also noticed my predicted alcohol yield was off, leading me to believe one of the bugs that took hold consumed some of the ethanol. Based on my starting and finishing gravity, I should have had a 6.45ABV wash, netting me roughly 3 gallons of 20%ABV low wines. I was only able to get 2.5 gallons at 20%ABV. I plan on running the last half of the wash after work today, doing my best to rack carefully to the yeast bed.

As this is my first brandy, I was really hoping to make my cuts easier by having only apple flavor in the mix, which is why I selected EC1118 as my yeast choice. Now that I have all these other wild esters, I'm pretty concerned that I won't know which of the good heads jars to add to my final blend. We'll see....

This is the first thing I've ever infected over a decade of brewing and cider making. I'm learning from this mistake and will plan to use smaller, sealed vessels for my future fruit ferments.

[bcook608]

Did some more research on the issue and after that, I think I know the source of the problem.

Normally, when I make cider, I do it in small batches with airlocks, but with my lack of small vessels and the large amount to ferment, I thought using my large kettle would be fine as I do it all the time for whiskey and have never encountered an issue. I assumed the blanket of C02 that sits over top of the liquid would protect it, I was wrong.

My vessel is essentially open since I can't get a perfect seal on the lid of the kettle, which allows oxygen to creep in. I attempted to prevent this after fermentation halted buy using painters tape around the lid, but there must have already been too much oxygen in there. The large headspace can enable aerobic strains of yeast and bacteria to take hold. This film can be caused by sheet yeast, lacto, brett, mold, etc. I suppose I'm lucky I didn't get anything truly nasty. I have a feeling the film on top is actually a mixture of stuff. I did not use any sulfites before pitching yeast, so any bugs that came along with the cider remained during the ferment. The flavor reminds me of some sour ales I've sampled that have that distinct Sweet Tarts candy ester profile. Not bad, but not what I planned for.

In a panic that my product would suffer if I let it ride any longer, I went ahead and racked half the wash to my boiler and performed a stripping run last night. Hard to tell how good the product is coming out the spout as it was completely smeared from running fast. We'll see what happens in a spirit run. I did notice a strong, ripe apple smell coming through as I collected a small amount of foreshots, which is good! I also noticed my predicted alcohol yield was off, leading me to believe one of the bugs that took hold consumed some of the ethanol. Based on my starting and finishing gravity, I should have had a 6.45ABV wash, netting me roughly 3 gallons of 20%ABV low wines. I was only able to get 2.5 gallons at 20%ABV. I plan on running the last half of the wash after work today, doing my best to rack carefully to the yeast bed.

As this is my first brandy, I was really hoping to make my cuts easier by having only apple flavor in the mix, which is why I selected EC1118 as my yeast choice. Now that I have all these other wild esters, I'm pretty concerned that I won't know which of the good heads jars to add to my final blend. We'll see....

This is the first thing I've ever infected over a decade of brewing and cider making. I'm learning from this mistake and will plan to use smaller, sealed vessels for my future fruit ferments.

Keep some of the wash just in case you like the final product.
Also, I've read that if you over dilute your cuts samples when making your selections, it makes it easier to pick out the off flavors you don't want. Just a thought.

[workpress]

if you dilute down to 20% it will give a great idea of the true taste as ethanol is a great masker of flavour.