Spiced Winter Ale = Gushy Mess

As it turned out, my spiced winter ale was a gusher. This beer was my first infected beer in a while. All of the bottles that we drank after a month and a half or so had a slight aftertaste and you could hear the head "sparkle" as you poured it. Further, if you did not serve it cold, very cold, it would gush. The wild yeast must have gotten in there prior to bottling, due to the pervasive nature of the infection (i.e. it was in every bottle). I think it was because I did not cool the wort fast enough to pitch quickly and I did not aerate enough, so my beer yeast got a really slow start.



To clarify what infection means if you are not familiar with it in a brewing sense, wild strains of yeast or other microbes get into your beer. Because beer is acidic and alcoholic, no pathogens (stuff that can really hurt you) live in beer. However, infections usually have off flavors that can make the beer almost undrinkable. In extreme cases, they make the beer smell and taste like newly opened band-aids or old socks. They also ferment sugars that normal beer yeast cannot, which super-carbonates the beer and makes it gush. This makes a mess and can lead to "bottle bombs." In the case of the spiced winter ale, the off-flavor was minimal, but you could taste it. The real issue was the gushing nature of it.



So, for next time, I have to make sure I cool the wort quicker and aerate more. I got an aeration kit from Northern Brewer, which should help. I also learned how to link my wort chiller into an ice bath using a cheap pond pump, as shown on the latest Basic Brewing DVD. I think these things will really help.