White film on beer - infection

[floydmeddler]

Noticed this last night:





Beer taste OK and the actual white substance tastes bitter. Any ideas? Has anyone else ever had this happen? If so, did the beer turn out OK?

Cheers

[boingy]

I've had it once, ages ago. Like you I noticed that the beer tasted OK so I immediately racked the beer off into secondary and left about 2 inches of beer complete with white film in the FV. The beer was fine. The FV got a double helping of cleaning and sanitising.

[Aleman]

That looks like a visit from the dreaded 'Vinegar fly' (fruit/frit flies) the film is some sort of mould or possibly acetobacter . . . its aerobic which is why its at the surface . . . beer underneath is still ok . . . but will deteriorate with time. . . . Bottle from the bottling tap and leave the last 5-10 litres behind . . . then drink the bottles quickly.

My FV is currently undergoing deep cleansing, initially with strong bleach solution . . . as its SS it will be having a couple of bouts of boiling water treatment as well . . . and then the normal sanitising procedure.

[floydmeddler]

Well, bottled / mini kegged the lot! Will drink fast I think! Many thanks for the replies.

[mark]

I'm going to throw away 19 litre of beer tonight because of the very same thing.
I put a brew in to a 'value' corny, and I didn't notice that over a couple of days the lid had dropped......white film on top like yours floyd and stinks of vinegar.
Needless to say I won't be storing beer in value cornies again

[floydmeddler]

Sorry to hear that Mark. I'm not getting vinegar at all. I even tasted the substance and it just tasted slightly bitter. Not yukky at all.

Time will tell though. Will crack a bottle in 2 weeks.

[floydmeddler]

Just thought I'd update on this. I can say that the beer turned out perfectly fine - even after a few months in the bottle. A friend and I brewed the exact same recipe on the same day and when we compared side by side, weeks later, the beers were pretty much identical. SO DON'T BE TOO QUICK TO DITCH YOUR BREW!

I've had this white film since (consecutive brews!) and ended up getting rid of it by filling my FVs with hot water and chucking in 4-5 tsp of sanitiser. I used to just spray with Starsan but the dreaded white film kept returning.

Hope this helps.

[Spud395]

Just about to bottle a similar one, tasted it and it's fine so I done a search here.
It's great to have such information at hand, on with the bottling so

[floydmeddler]

Spud, read this. It got MUCH worse! viewtopic.php?f=7&t=40677

[Spud395]

AH I was afraid they were the same one, I syphoned from below the film and left a few liters in the FV.

It wont be the end of the world if this goes bad, I also got some 2L pet bottles to bottle so as not to waste time or bottles.
I will be taking all the precautions I can for next brew.

Only thing I can figure is it was my 1st use of Windsor and I was having issues getting the gravity anywhere near where I wanted it.
I was rousing frequently and may have introduced some nastiness as I may have been a bit careless.

Stainless FV, so I'll be scalding with boiling water before I add another brew, thanks for the heads up Floyd

[greenxpaddy]

Straight lines are characteristic of bacterial infection.

Get someone look at your processes if you have had this problem with consecutive brews

[floydmeddler]

AH I was afraid they were the same one, I syphoned from below the film and left a few liters in the FV.

It wont be the end of the world if this goes bad, I also got some 2L pet bottles to bottle so as not to waste time or bottles.
I will be taking all the precautions I can for next brew.

Only thing I can figure is it was my 1st use of Windsor and I was having issues getting the gravity anywhere near where I wanted it.
I was rousing frequently and may have introduced some nastiness as I may have been a bit careless.

Stainless FV, so I'll be scalding with boiling water before I add another brew, thanks for the heads up Floyd

No worries man. Yep, hot water will sort it. Anything above 60c will kill acetobacter. Obviously go hotter if you can. Scald the b@stards!!!

[floydmeddler]

P.S, your current brew will be fine as you've now bottled and thus cut off the oxygen. You'll more than likely have white film appear in the bottles though. Not enough to create an off flavour thankfully!

[Spud395]

Yeah I had a tester bottle this evening , I know only bottled 2 days , but looking for early signs of badness.

I'm happy to report it just tasted like green imature beer, luckey enough it's a 4% session beer so will come around quick and I can scoff it.

I'll report back if it develops any further otherwise I'll surely forget to

[Invalid Stout]

I get this from time to time too. Can usually save the beer by bottling quickly and leaving a couple of litres in the FV. Then give the FV a good soak in a strong bleach solution after cleaning and before the next brew.