Chocolate Milk Stout Infection

Northern Brewer General
1

I was wondering if this looks infected? I did my first partial mash recipe and I have these weird brown floater or globs sitting on the top. It’s been sitting in the carboy for about a week. The OG was 1.050 and the yeast was pitched at 68 degrees. I did make a yeast starter for this beer which is also a first. Is this normal? Here’s what the recipe called for:

English Maris Otter Malt 2lb 0oz 25.8 % 1.4 In Mash/Steeped
UK Flaked Barley 8.00 oz 6.5 % 0.1 In Mash/Steeped
UK Extra Dark Crystal 5.00 oz 4.0 % 8.4 In Mash/Steeped
UK Brown Malt 5.00 oz 4.0 % 3.5 In Mash/Steeped
UK Roasted Barley 5.00 oz 4.0 % 40.0 In Mash/Steeped
UK Chocolate Malt 5.00 oz 4.0 % 28.1 In Mash/Steeped
Muntons Light Dry Malt Extract (DME) 3lb 0oz 38.7 % 0.0 Start Of Boil
Sugar - Lactose 1lb 0oz 12.9 % 0.0 Start Of Boil
Cocoa Powder 4.00 oz In Boil 1 min left
Irish Moss 0.16 oz In Boil 15 min left

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

2

Nah. It’s yeast or something else that just decided to come to the surface. If it was infected, those blobs would be white. Infections also usually have a different shape than that. Go to homebrewtalk.com and search for the thread on infections. You’ll get a good idea, real quick, of what they look like. When you get one, you’ll know it.

EDIT: Here ya go. Check these out. Now THESE are infections!

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/post-yo ... ion-71400/

EDIT 2: It also takes longer for a week for an infection to start. It will take several weeks if not months.

3

+1. That looks like yeast/protein and cocoa powder clumped together on the surface.

4

I’m doing an extract chocolate stout using cocoa powder, and have a similar look in my carboy.

5

After going through that thread a bit I’m a little confused. The Brett pellicle they keep talking about, is that something done on purpose for a sour or what?

6

I haven’t made a sour, but I have had an infection and I believe it’s both. Mine looked like little pieces of white ice forming on top of my beer. Like a lake just before it completely freezes over. It was an unwanted infection. But, just this past weekend while at a fellow brewer’s house he popped open a sour he’s fermenting and it looked exactly the same. He was very excited to see it. This was a wanted infection.

7

Brett pellicles are from a different yeast, Brettanomyces, used in conjunction with lactobacillus (a bacteria) for sours. Some wild yeasts and bacteria can also create pellicles too.

Your stout should only have saccharomyces, unless you’re intending something else.

Edit: from Wikipedia,

[i]Pellicle

The pellicle is a thin layer supporting the cell membrane in various protozoa, protecting them and allowing them to retain their shape, especially during locomotion, allowing the organism to be more hydrodynamic. They vary from flexible and elastic to rigid. Although somewhat stiff, the pellicle is also flexible and allows the protist to fit into tighter spaces. In ciliates and Apicomplexa, it is formed from closely packed vesicles called alveoli. In euglenids, it is formed from protein strips arranged spirally along the length of the body. Examples of protists with a pellicle are the euglenoids and the paramecium, a ciliate. The pellicle consists of many bacteria that adhere to the surface by their attachment pili[citation needed]. Thus, attachment pili allow the organisms to remain in the broth, from which they take nutrients, while they congregate near air, where the oxygen concentration is greatest. [/i]