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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Re: Acetobacter? (Fred L Johnson)
  Re: Acetobacter? (Dennis Lewis)
  Acetobacter? ("Dave Burley")


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Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2013 06:43:09 -0400
From: Fred L Johnson <FLJohnson52 at nc.rr.com>
Subject: Re: Acetobacter?

Darrell asks about identifying acetobacter, a potential unwanted guest in
his 007 Amber Ale. 

I look under the microscope will help to confirm if you have a bacterial
infection identify the organism and determine if it is a coccus versus
bacillus, and a Gram stain will help to distinguish lactobacillus from
acetobacter. Lactobacillus (and pediococcus) is Gram positive. Acetobacter is
Gram negative (or, I think variable). A full set of culture tests on
different media are probably required to confidently identify the organism.

I'd love to hear someone with experience in identifying common bacterial
contaminants in the brew house provide us some simple standard procedures for
doing identifying the common contaminants.

Fred L Johnson

Apex, North Carolina, USA

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Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2013 15:01:18 -0400
From: Dennis Lewis <dblewis at dblewis.com>
Subject: Re: Acetobacter?

> Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2013 11:06:18 -0400 (EDT)
> From: "Darrell G. Leavitt" <leavitdg at plattsburgh.edu>
> Subject: Acetobacter?
>
> Anyone here know how to identify "acetobacter"?
> I just bottled a 007 Amber Ale and along the top inside of the fermenter
> was a white scum.
> Since I have seen a bunch of fruit flies in the brewhaus, I wonder if this
> could be acetobacter?
> I can send several pictures if anyone wants to see them.
> The ale tastes good, but I wonder what this white scum is.
> Darrell

In my limited experience, I had what I thought was a pediococcus
infection a few years ago that left a white scum in the fermenter and
on everything else. It's an odd, gritty kind of film that was unlike
the yeast floaters or cold break. I googled 'pediococcus beer' and
found a nice picture of some lambic with the white scum.

I finally had to replace most everything plastic and nuked my plastic
minibrew fermenter with iodophor then bleach. The beers tasted ok, but
continued to get a strong tang taste plus white scum in the bottles.
It was ugly and frustrating. Older bottles turned into gushers. I
actually quit brewing for a few years because of this.

If it was aceto, I think you'd know by the smell.

Best regards,

Dennis Lewis
Warren, OH

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Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2013 21:16:01 -0400
From: "Dave Burley" <Dave Burley at charter.net>
Subject: Acetobacter?

Darrell,

Acetobacter can be identified by acetic acid (vinegar) taste or in later
stages as a "mother of vinegar" gel, which will be useful as a starter for
your next vinegar.

Since you noticed no bad effects in the taste, I suspect you have a yeast
film, the appropriate yeast is often useful in producing sherry from wine. It
is sensitive to oxygen ( and why it floats) so bottling  under CO2 will
reduce any activity.

Keep on Brewin',

Dave Burley

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