I brewed a quad a few months ago. Had it on tap for a month or so, bottled about a twelve pack and then took the keg out of the serving fridge. It has now turned into a syrupy mess in the bottles and in the keg as well at cellar temps. I have no idea what happened or what could even have caused this phenomenon. This is the same quad recipe I have used for years and has won multiple blue ribbons. The only difference is the yeast (WLP530 instead of 500). Is there any type of infection that could cause this? I’m going to have to dump it at this point, but don’t want to this issue to crop up again.
sounds like oxidation if you mean it’s overly sweet and cloying. The hops bitterness drops out leaving a strong sweet alcohol flavor. The oxidation can also cause honey like flavors that tend to taste kind of cloyingly sweet to me as well. that fact that it happened to the bottled beer and the kegged beer is wierd unless the o2 exposure occurred before packaging.
other than that I’m stumped.
It actually turned to syrup, thick, like corn syrup. It’s very strange.
If you mean really thick syrupy vs sweet syrupy then I would say peddiococcus that has become sick/ropey… if that’s the case it should be acidic as well… and the sickness/ropeiness should go away with time… possibly leaving a nice sour beer behind…
+1
sounds like polysacharides
I was going to dump it, but I think I’ll wait and see what happens. It does have a slight tang to it. Maybe add some other bugs as well. Nothing to loose at this point. Thanks for the input guys.
You might want to be careful with the bottles though… they could possibly turn into bombs
Vinnie C. (Russian River) talked at an NHC a few years ago about one of his first beers getting “sick” and ropey in the bottles. He described it as snot-like. It evidently is a stage and changes to something else eventually. I don’t think it creates any extra carbonation though.
I found a power point presentation from his NHC talk in the AHA archives and pulled this quote:
Pediococcus produces a slimy elastic thread like consistency if the conditions are just right. Belgian brewers call this being “sick”, the technical term is “ropy”.
This slimy substance is harmless. It is composed of carbohydrates, acids, and proteins, and plays an important role in Lambic and Russian River funkified beers.
A beer will become “well” after 3 or 4 months.
A beer that has been “sick” exhibits a deeper acidity and mouthfeel.
A Beer can be sick twice.
yup, that’s the stuff. I keep waiting for my sours to do that but not so far, unless I missed it. It would suck though to send a sour beer off to competition looking beautiful and get back that sheet:
“Mouthfeel: Slick and Slimy, like snot.”
I judged a sick beer in competition… It was the nastiest pour of a beer I’ve ever had… Once my judging partner and I got up the courage we tried it… FANTASTIC tasting. We were floored. Still… it was beyond gross looking.
We were given a sick beer at my first BJCP exam…you could see the stringy/ropy clumps in the glass. In retrospect, I’m really glad I knew what I was looking at.
That sounds exactly like what I have. Snot consistency, awesome flavor. I’ve had two of my buddies that are quad aficionados and they both loved it. The issue I saw pouring it out of the bottle was that is was thick and poured with no head initially then the head just kind of appeared. Jeffy’s description sounds exactly like what I have. I’m gonna let her ride. Although I will monitor the bottles to be on the safe side. My capper puts a round indentation on the top. If that goes away, it’s time for the fridge.