How do I know if.....

[Biff]

Now, I'm still fermenting my first batch, so I'm getting a little ahead of myself. But I was pondering this question, and thought I'd ask it now as opposed to later.

Is it possible to tell if you have an infection before you bottle? If so, does not detecting an infection at bottling time mean there is none? In other words, can they crop up after a lag time?

I'm new to homebrew (obviously), and don't believe I've ever tasted an infected beer. I've definitely had a skunky one (many actually), just not an infected one.

Signs that I've learned to look for so far are:

- Sour taste
- Lack of carbonation as time goes on

Bottom line: If I can detect an infection before I bottle it, that saves me some time.

Let me also stick a disclaimer on this post:
I'm not worrying, but I'm also not having a homebrew (still waiting on my first batch). However, I am drinking many beers! Gotta get more bottles to stick homebrew in!

Thanks all! Cheers

[Ozbrewer]

That is a very good question, I will normally look for an infection in a beer before i keg it...

Apart from taste and smell, Look for either a abnormally high FG, or a very low FG, sometimes a high FG can be from poor fermentation though, so dont take it straightaway as a infection..

Other things to look for is white slicks ontop of the beer in the fermenter, or a oily mouth feel when you take a sample to drink...

In general its harder to get a infection, than it is to detect one in early stages of fermentation, when bottling you will find you may get the odd bottle infected, that does not mean the whole batch is infected, it may have come from the bottle......

I would suggest you listen to the santization show a few times and just make sure everything is clean after use and sanitized before brewing, ....

Also listen to what Jon, Doc , and Jamil say about pitching good qty's of yeast so that if there is a small bug in the wort, the yeast will take care of it, Keep to the basics and you will never see an infection

[Speyedr]

I want to state the obvious here as well. It is important to evaluate the beer for infection, but you can get an infection DURING bottling, so be sure to sanitize your racking equipment and bottling bucket properly, boil your sugar for at least 10 minutes before mixing into your beer, and sanitize those bottles.

In my opinion, you are more likely to infect the beer when you rack it from Primary to Sec. or to the bottling bucket than during primary ferm. If your racking cane or bucket has any "baddies" in it your whole batch is at risk. If it's a few bottles, then that's all you'll lose.

I know this is all entry-level stuff, but it had to be said.

Rob