Another infection, help!!!!!

YellowDogBrewingCompany · 02-15-2010, 03:59 PM

I moved my most recent batch to the kegs last night.

It seems there is a pretty bad infection. The beer has a very "sour" taste to it. It tastes like a sour ale. I may be dumping out my second batch of beer.
The goal was to produce a very basic pale ale.

I regard my sanitation process as being very thorough and can't imagine my sanitation process being the reason for an infection.

I have a few thoughts as to why this could have happened.

1. My carboys are infected and are not cleanable. My carboys are 3 years old. Could there be some reason that a glass carboy can get an infection and not be cleanable?

2. As I inspected my rig last night for any potential problems I noticed that the arms (the pieces on the inside of my kettle that the water or wort flow through) in my hot liquor tank and brew kettle have RUSTED. Can this rust affect my beer? Could there be any chemical reaction from the rust getting into the beer during fermentation that could cause this to happen?

3. The CFWC is infected and cannot be cleaned. On the brew day I flushed the CFWC backwards and forwards with boiling water. After that I submerged the CFWC in an iodipher mixture for at least an hour. I am hesitant to assume that the CFWC was not clean after this process but who knows!

I am really upset by all this. It has been a few months since I have had a good batch of beer and am getting extremely frustrated. Any help you may be able to provide would be greatly appreciated.

TipsyDragon · 02-15-2010, 04:29 PM

what color was the iodipher solution when you used it? if its clear its no longer active.

Wellshooter · 02-15-2010, 04:32 PM

Are you reusing yeast?

YellowDogBrewingCompany · 02-15-2010, 04:33 PM

The Iodipher mixture was a dark brown.
I make the iodipher fresh each brew day.

To your point I use the orange carboy cover with a blow off tube going into a growler of iodipher made that day. I do not touch the growler for the duration of fermentation.

Does anyone change their iodipher solution during the fermentation process?

YellowDogBrewingCompany · 02-15-2010, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wellshooter

Are you reusing yeast?

Negative, I always use one packet per carboy of the safale US-05.

**android** · 02-15-2010, 04:34 PM

did you see any visible sign of infection (a pellicle or something atop the beer before transfering?) i mean, if you just kegged it, i'd at least let it sit for a few weeks to try it out again and see if anything changes before dumping it. old carboys, especially glass, shouldn't cause any problems. you might want to use some PBW or oxyclean to give everything a thorough cleaning and then sanitize again just to be safe before your next brew. as for the rust, i would definitely get that taken care of, it can lead to a metallic taste in your beer, which could be what you're tasting (it doesn't seem like you're 100% sure if it's actually sour or not...), but not all that likely. i've done a brew with rust on my heating elements and didn't have any ill effects on the final product (i'll be resolving that issue before the next batch however, i don't want to take more chances).

Beernip · 02-15-2010, 06:02 PM

Do you use any plastic tubing to move the wort from your BK to your carboy? Rack to a secondary?

**samc** · 02-15-2010, 06:18 PM

Write down and/or post your entire brew day process. That helps you and HBT readers pick apart any areas of concern. Piecemeal analysis might skip the thing that infects!

YellowDogBrewingCompany · 02-15-2010, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beernip

Do you use any plastic tubing to move the wort from your BK to your carboy? Rack to a secondary?

I do use plastic tubing to move from BK to carboy.

**Wayne1** · 02-15-2010, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YellowDogBrewingCompany

The Iodipher mixture was a dark brown.
I make the iodipher fresh each brew day.

Your description of dark brown for your sanitizer sounds like you are using far too much.

The suggested use of an iodophor is 12.5 ppm for no rinse.

25 ppm or greater requires a rinse. If you are rinsing after saintizing, you are recontaminating your equipment.

If you are going to continue to use iodophor, you should get some test strips verify the concentration.