bittanomyeces vs infection?

[mfischer2]

Whats the difference between an infected batch of beer versus one that was fermented with some or all of brittanomyeces (sp?)?

[Lufah]

The knowledge of what is in your beer. You know what is going to happen with brett and what it is. With an infection you have no idea what it is or what is going to happen.

Travis

[DannyW]

Kind of like the difference betweeen a plant and a weed.

A plant is a green thing growing where you want it, and how you want it.
A weed is a plant growing where you don't want it.

Corollary:
A plant is a green thing that dies even when you water it and fertize it.
A weed is a plant that grows back even when you spray it with poison and try to pull it out by the roots!

[mfischer2]

The knowledge of what is in your beer. You know what is going to happen with brett and what it is. With an infection you have no idea what it is or what is going to happen.

Travis

Given any random batch of infected beer, is brett the source of the infection? Are there other sources of infection too?

[Geistbier]

plenty of different kinds of infection.

[barleypopmaker]

What type of flavor/aroma are you getting? That would help determine what type of infection you are getting.

[mfischer2]

What type of flavor/aroma are you getting? That would help determine what type of infection you are getting.

I dont have one anymore (crossing fingers), but before I had a distinct sour apple jolly rancher.

[bperetto]

That's funny, Danny, I was going to use the same analogy.

There are certain things you definitely don't want in your beer. Acetobactar (sp) is definitely not pleasant to drink. Maybe you can sprinkle it on your fish and chips, though.

Sometimes brett is not intentional nor desired- so I'd call that infected (otherwise, it's probably called innoculated). I judged Belgian Strongs this past weekend and someone put in a Belgian Golden that was definitely infected with Lacto and Brett. On its own it was an okay beer if he had put it in as a sour/funked beer. But as a Belgian Golden, it was totally inappropriate.