"Nail varnish" smell + skin on beer

Edwardius

Howdy,
I made an amber ale, foolishly left it in primary for 8 weeks, opened the vessel today and there was a white skin on top coupled with a smell of nail varnish. I took a sample from under the "skin" and it seemed ok.

Has anyone else had this issue? What was the outcome?

I racked it off the cake and will leave it in secondary for a week. I was going to dry hop, but I don't know if I should waste hops on something that's potentially infected.

Hingo

Edwardius wrote: »

Howdy,
I made an amber ale, foolishly left it in primary for 8 weeks, opened the vessel today and there was a white skin on top coupled with a smell of nail varnish. I took a sample from under the "skin" and it seemed ok.

Has anyone else had this issue? What was the outcome?

I racked it off the cake and will leave it in secondary for a week. I was going to dry hop, but I don't know if I should waste hops on something that's potentially infected.

What kind of fermentation vessel are you using? Also you know where you store the vessel, is it fairly warm by any chance?

Edwardius

Using a Young's plastic fermenter, temperatures never really got above 20, I had it sterilised with bleach/vinegar and then rinsed with boiliing water beforehand. Transferred it into another vessel on Friday. If the skin reforms I think I'll throw it out

John_C

Here's the info from an off flavour tasting course I did.
http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/wiki/doku.php?id=off_flavours#ethyl_acetate

To me, that brew sounds infected. I'd dump it along with the 2 vessels it has been in contact with.

drumswan

John_C wrote: »

Here's the info from an off flavour tasting course I did.
http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/wiki/doku.php?id=off_flavours#ethyl_acetate

To me, that brew sounds infected. I'd dump it along with the 2 vessels it has been in contact with.

Thats a bit drastic, finish the beer and see if its drinkable, it wont kill you.

No need to throw away perfectly good FVs either, just thoroughly clean and sanitise them for next use.

John_C

drumswan wrote: »

Thats a bit drastic, finish the beer and see if its drinkable, it wont kill you.

No need to throw away perfectly good FVs either, just thoroughly clean and sanitise them for next use.

You could argue either way about chucking the beer. There's no harm in bottling it and seeing how it turns out except the time involved in bottling.

I'd be very weary about using the FV again. I've had a few infected brews in the past. Any time I've tried to sanitize and re-use a plastic FV, I've ended up chucking out a second batch of beer. My thinking is that a FV costs less than the ingredients for a brew so it's a false economy trying to rescue one.

An old FV has plenty of uses, it can be converted in to boiler or a HLT or used for storage. It's a good idea to replace plastic FVs every dozen or so brews anyway.

Edwardius

I let it sit in the FV and the skin returned after a couple of days so I threw out the batch.

The off-flavour document suggested:
infection
underpitching (check)
Continuous fermentation (check)

I'm just going to be cautious and dump the vessels. I don't want to spend 5 hours brewing another batch to have the same thing happen! I might just make another boiler.

Hingo

Edwardius wrote: »

I let it sit in the FV and the skin returned after a couple of days so I threw out the batch.

The off-flavour document suggested:
infection
underpitching (check)
Continuous fermentation (check)

I'm just going to be cautious and dump the vessels. I don't want to spend 5 hours brewing another batch to have the same thing happen! I might just make another boiler.

Pity now, I suppose it's a good thing ya saved the hops at least!