Help

[Yeastman]

My beer has now been bottled for 5 weeks now and last week had a slight off-ish (vinegary / scrumpy) taste. Now i can see a residue like a white scum line floating around the neck of the bottle. Its only thin but its like lots of tiny little white blobs going around in a thin line. Is this the spores of a bacteria is all my brew to in down the drain ?

[brysie]

yeastman that sounds bad to me

i dont know what it might be if im honest. what did you sanitise your bottles with? what did it smell/taste like when you bottled it?

[Benson_JV]

A scrumpy taste is usually related to using sugar and not Spray Malt. The white scum could be an indication of an mild infection, cause if it had a serious one, you wouldn't even consider that it was worth keeping.

[Yeastman]

I sterilised the bottles in VWP Cleaner Steriliser. They were soaked in a strong soluotion for over 5 mins and rinsed thoroughly. Could it be that the crowns have not gone on tight enough and oxygen has gotten in side but then there would be no hiss when i opened them. I think i'll open one and see what its like.

[J_P]

Sounds like brettanomyces to me. Any chance of a picture?

[joel_m]

Most contact cleaners require 15-20min with warm water to sanitise. Especially if there are spore formers present. Don't know VWP however.
Unforunatley increased strength doesn't always mean reduced contact time or atleast 3x as strong doesn't mean 1/3 the time needed. Other than that you probably need some advice from one of the experienced brewers, i thought Brett growth was mainly a wine brewing problem or in lambic beers? Does it smell estery or of phenol? Thats usually a brett sign? (Although I have to say I don't know a huge amount about it other than industrial microbiology of biotic fermenters (and horlicks manufacture) .. sounds similar.. but its pretty different to brewing as i've found out rapidly))!

[Yeastman]

Ok heres some photos its hard to get a clear shot of them and it is only my phone camera but you can make out the little spots. I think ive spotted it early nut it is there.



ok its cut off the right hand side of the pic and there huge but you can still see it.

[Yeastman]

it is getting a stronger sour taste

[joel_m]

ok You probably want to wait for J_P to answer as I've never seen Bretts in a bottle but from a Micro point of view it does look like a bug colony. without smelling it its hard to say what. Could be a yeast but also looking at the colour could also be a strep or pseudomonas.
With biotic fermenters we would pasturise 70 degh C for 1 hour to kill it. But in the bottle thats probably not a viable option (as I say brewing is so much harder)!
Sorry I can't offer any more help. If it is a bug infection you could try pasturising in hot water it to save the beer but I don't know what effect that would have on the brew and to be fair I'm probably way off the mark. Might be worth waiting to see if anyone has seen anything similar. If not bin it.. from what I understand Botulinum can grow in Wort but not beer (it can grow in cider however). So its not going to kill you may just taste foul... Sorry for not being able to offer more help.

[Yeastman]

J_P ?

[Ditch]

Botulinum can grow in Wort but not beer (it can grow in cider however).

Ye kidding?! So, one could get Botulism from Cider??? Hells teeth! I'll never drink Scrumpy again!

[brysie]

easy now ditch..

you can catch botulism from jacket spuds [wrapped in foil] so dont go getting all panicky now.
just make sure your ciders boiled properly and its perfectly safe.