vinegar fly

[intertidal]

Hello all. newbie here. newbie to forum but long term home brewer since 1996, chiefly with kits. Real Ale lover.
for about the second or third time in my brewing career, this year's Yule brew was spoiled with "Vinegar Fly"
this is a local orkney term for what happens when a brew goes vinegary which I think is owing to poor sterilisation & sanitation in the fermenting bucket.

so I have 40 pints of undrinkable plink.

before I chuck it on the garden, does anyone know of any useful things to be done with this? I wondered what cooking it might work with, or pickling?

I am pretty sure that it got fly in the fermenting vat because I racked it off to 1 corny keg plus 4 lemonade bottles and it's all the same.

thanks in advance
Tris

 

[The Baron]

Welcome to the forum hope the weather is being kind to you at this moment as it's dreadful down here in Yorkshire.
It's rare to get fly spoilage in beer if you are using a airlock and not opening it during fermentation. I think you have answered your question it is usually down to sanitation etc or cross contamination with implements you use that touch the beer

 

[intertidal]

I dont think "vinegar fly" has anything particularly to do with flies, probably it was a term used in ale making from before the days that we understood microorganisms properly. Possibly the vinegary smell attracts drosophila before humans realise the beer has spoilt.
I just like it as a local dialect term.
I am sure that it was from a lapse in sanitation at the wort stage. I was probably getting a bit cavalier in my attitude here and its come back to bite me in the derriere.

 

[YeastFace]

Fruit flies are attracted to fermentation, since many of the esters are the same as those present in fruit. A fruit fly's gut contains acetobacter so there quite likely is a link.

 

[MashBag]

Make it up as a vinegar.

 

[foxy]

I dont think "vinegar fly" has anything particularly to do with flies, probably it was a term used in ale making from before the days that we understood microorganisms properly. Possibly the vinegary smell attracts drosophila before humans realise the beer has spoilt.
I just like it as a local dialect term.
I am sure that it was from a lapse in sanitation at the wort stage. I was probably getting a bit cavalier in my attitude here and its come back to bite me in the derriere.

Agree sanitation could be the culprit, brewers yeast isn't in the habit of making acetic acid but other yeasts will oblige.
If you get some Spanish Fly be sure to let the forum know how you accomplished it.