Just opened a bottle of german altbier I brewed from a kit and ended up with a slowly, overflowing bottle. there also appears to be, at the bottom of the bottle, a blackish-brown sludge mixed with the yeast. Here’s a picture:
It’s clearly an infection of some sort… but with no horrible flavors or anything. I’m currently drinking it… Has anyone else experienced this? Should I be concerned? haha.
Yay homebrew!
~John~
Well, Charlie Papazian points out that you can’t create any pathogens brewing beer that will kill you, so…
Slowly overflowing sounds like an over-carbonation issue, and the dark precipitate is probably just from dark solids from the beer itself. I’ve never seen a beer contamination that was black.
Could have sworn I posted to this last night… But anyway. It could be the hop isomers dropping out of the solution. This is how hop flavor and bitterness fades over time.
How long did you condition the beer in the bottle?