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View Poll Results: Have you reused plastic fermetation buckets and/or plastic tubing after they have con
Yes, and my subsequent batches were fine. 17 37.78%
Yes, and my subsequent batches were contaminated! 3 6.67%
No, I threw away all my plastic equipment after the infection. 4 8.89%
I've never had an infected batch 21 46.67%
Voters: 45. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 06-11-2012, 02:48 PM   #1
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Default Survey: Reusing plastic after an infection.

Have you reused plastic fermetation buckets and/or plastic tubing after they have contactated an infected / contaminated batch of beer?

If you answered Yes, please post what cleaning methods you used, and what the results were. Thanks!


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Old 06-11-2012, 03:16 PM   #2
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i brew sours and regular beers and havent had a problem. sanitation is key


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Old 06-11-2012, 03:22 PM   #3
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I didn't answer the poll because I did both when I had an infected beer last summer. It was a beer I had bottled, so what I did was:

1) tossed the Better Bottle (there were visible scratches around the mouth) - I've since replaced all my Better Bottles with glass carboys - it just reduces one variable for me
2) replaced the tubing
3) replaced the autosiphon
4) tossed the bottles

The one item I didn't toss was the bottling bucket - there were no scratches on it and I bleach bombed it, including taking apart the spigot. Many bottled batches since then with no problems.
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Old 06-11-2012, 04:28 PM   #4
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What I do in between my sours and non sours is bleach the hell out of them
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Old 06-11-2012, 04:46 PM   #5
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I had a few infected batches in a row (gushers) and I bought new buckets. I swear I was cleaning and sanitizing as well as possible, but there were some small scratches. Bottom line for me: buckets are cheap. Better safe than sorry.


Btw, I still use the old ones to carry water for the garden
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Old 06-11-2012, 05:59 PM   #6
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Buckets are cheap. I'm on the overly cautious side, though.
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Old 06-11-2012, 09:06 PM   #7
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I brew sours in my buckets.

Usually I bleach them and then brew an IPA or Double IPA in them. Just because I know sours are adverse to hops
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Old 06-11-2012, 09:14 PM   #8
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I had an infected batch of cider in a plastic bucket fermenter. I dumped and did my usual scrub down with dish soap & rinsing. Sanitized as I usually do (pour starsan into the bucket and let it sit for a few minutes) for susequent batches. The infection was four batches ago and I haven't had any issues since. Either I have been lucky, or the "infection from plastic buckets" think is overblown. I vote for the latter. It doesn't make sense to me that infection can hide from cleaning & sanitizing but somehow is still considered likely to infect your beer.
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Old 06-11-2012, 09:25 PM   #9
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I think soaking in a bleach solution should be more than enough to kill some pissant souring bacteria.
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Old 06-11-2012, 10:24 PM   #10
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We use bleach in the hospital to kill spores and bacteria all the time. It can take care of a little lacto


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