Beer keeps getting infected...

Ok, so I'm on my 6th batch of beer now. my first batch was awesome, second was ok, 3rd, 4th, 5th and now I think my 6th have all been infected.

I have no idea why or when this is happening, everything seems to start out great but they seem to be getting infected earlier and earlier in the process.

I'm very maticulous about the cleanliness of my brewing equipment. I always hand wash everything before I start and use a pink powder called Diversol that my LHBS gave me with my starter kit a couple years ago.

Once my beer is in the primary, I don't mess with it or move it around more than I have to. I don't even take gravity readings. Every other day I will pull out the airlock to make sure it doesn't get clogged.

My last batch looked and poured great but it tasted horrible! Pretty much like a musty-sour taste. You can't drink more than a few swallows before your stomach starts to hurt. I had tasted it when I racked it to my secondary and it tasted perfect and when i bottled it, it tasted sour so something happened either when i racked or in my secondary. I was hoping it would "clear up" in the bottles but it just gets worse as time goes on(that was over 6 months ago). I still have nearly all the bottles, they're still carbonated and look great but they just taste awful.

I pulled the airlock out of my latest batch which has been in the primary for almost 4 days and it smells EXACTLY the same as the sour beer that I bottled 6 months ago and it isn't even the same recipe!

There are a couple things I am suspicious of:

The instructions I got from my LHBS say to "top up" my wort in my primary after the boil process with cold tap water. I've been doing this but I'm unsure of the quality of the tap water in my municipality.

My airlock nearly always foams over and clogs with krausen at which point I have to pull it out, clean and sterilize it. I use vodka(or gin) in the airlock as an added precaution although I don't know if there's a point to that.

All of my brewing equipment other than my glass carboy are plastic and I read that scratched plastic can harbour bacteria.

The beer gods hate me.


I 100% refuse to give up on brewing beer. I will not be complete until I make the perfect beer. However, I've hit a few roadblocks along the way to my quest for beer-lightenment.

Any advice?

you didn't mention any sanitizing in your process. the diversol (pink powder) is only a cleanser, not a sanitizer. you need something like starsan or iodaphor to sanitize your equipment. definitely risky to be topping up without boiling that water first. i would boil 3 or so gallons first and let it cool before you add it at the end of the brew day.

another problem with adding straight tap water is that it probably contains chlorine or chloramines which will impart bad flavors to the beer.

So basically everything I'm doing is wrong, sweet!

I guess I'll dump this one and start my next batch after picking up some legitimate sanitizer and boiling 3 gallons of water.

Does boiling water take care of both chlorine and chloramine or are the tablets required no matter what in the case that chloramine is present? I ask because my LHBS is closed today and completely across town.

If your water is safe to drink, topping with tap water should probably be okay (I do it too).

Why does your airlock get clogged? What size batch in what sized primary?

Use Star-San to sanitize. Kill all your old buckets and hoses and get new ones. Something seems infected.

My advice would be to grab some "SANATIZER" as opposed to "CLEANSER" to clean everything for your next batch and also invest $5-6 in 5 gallons of distilled/spring/drinking water jugs from your grocery store.

Also you may want to invest in a "blow off tube" if your fermenter is too small for your batches...or a bigger fermenter

PS. The caps weren't meant to be disrespectful, just to emphasize that there is a difference between sanatized/sterilized/clean

Sorry to hear about the infections, man.... :[
StarSan is the way to go..

I use distilled water (~$1/gallon at the grocery store) to dilute up my StarSan solutions... You can keep the solution (in a capped container) after use for a few months!

Also, if you're afraid of your tapwater, you can get bottled water pretty cheap in those big 2.5gallon containers at the grocery store.

I would start with a new bucket, buy some sanitizer, and use bottled water. If this one goes ok, you could try and sanitize one of the old buckets and see if thats ok.

The water here is considered safe to drink but I probably won't risk it any more.

My airlock gets clogged nearly every time I brew. I have a 30 litre primary which I only fill to 23 litres. the last 7 litres seems to fill up with foam almost immediately when fermenting starts and it will get plugged by the krausen.

I used to leave the hops in the primary from my boil but now I strain them out because it was a harder problem to manage when they were inside. I will probably be investing in a hop bag too.

I'm not sure if a blow off tub would help me because it clogs the 3/8 hole in the stopper not inside the hose. My next beer is a wheat beer which I don't plan to rack to a secondary. Would it be better for this batch to ignore the plastic pail and just use the glass carboy for the whole process? It wouldn't have more headspace but I could eliminate one of the possibilities.

Lastly, once my beer starts to smell "sour" should I just dump it? This particular odor seems to persist and the beer tastes just like it even after months in the bottle.

Man this is frustrating.

BeerNoob said:

The water here is considered safe to drink but I probably won't risk it any more.

My airlock gets clogged nearly every time I brew. I have a 30 litre primary which I only fill to 23 litres. the last 7 litres seems to fill up with foam almost immediately when fermenting starts and it will get plugged by the krausen.

I used to leave the hops in the primary from my boil but now I strain them out because it was a harder problem to manage when they were inside. I will probably be investing in a hop bag too.

I'm not sure if a blow off tub would help me because it clogs the 3/8 hole in the stopper not inside the hose. My next beer is a wheat beer which I don't plan to rack to a secondary. Would it be better for this batch to ignore the plastic pail and just use the glass carboy for the whole process? It wouldn't have more headspace but I could eliminate one of the possibilities.

Lastly, once my beer starts to smell "sour" should I just dump it? This particular odor seems to persist and the beer tastes just like it even after months in the bottle.

Man this is frustrating.

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It is very frustrating, but can be rewarding. I will never ever advise to dump a beer. Even brewers with blatant disregard for sanitizing, procedures etc can make a good beer (And you are definitely not in this group). The only way to tell is to bottle it and taste it. If it tastes bad then at least 6 months in the bottles will either help it, or tell you whether it is bad.

Your sanatizing procedure seems great, but the problem could lie in the fact that your LHBS employee gave you some poor advice with the cleanser.

Couple more things...

Do grocery stores sell Starsan?

Would any places other than my LBHS sell hop bags or something similar or is using a strainer when I pour my wort considered ok? It seems to me that a hop bag would restrict the boiling action of the hops.

I like to use a bleach soak for 30 min, followed by a rinse with tap water and then a sanitizer such as Oxyclean.

I've dumped cold tap water in a wort before with no ill effects but I no longer do this. I now boil top-off water for 10 minutes first and let it cool.

I think clorine from tap water will slow/impact the work of the yeast; right?

BeerNoob said:

Couple more things...

Do grocery stores sell Starsan?

Would any places other than my LBHS sell hop bags or something similar or is using a strainer when I pour my wort considered ok? It seems to me that a hop bag would restrict the boiling action of the hops.

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You can get starsan at your LHBS, but not at the grocery store.

I would be money that using starsan, in combination with replacing any plastic or tubing you're using with new, will fix your issue.

As far as using a strainer.......you guessed it, as long as you sanitize it with starsan you'll be fine. I like to keep a spray bottle of starsan mixed up at all times. Used in addition to a bucket of starsan on brew day you can spritz things right before use to be SURE of their sanitization.

robertbartsch said:

I like to use a bleach soak for 30 min, followed by a rinse with tap water and then a sanitizer such as Oxyclean.

I've dumped cold tap water in a wort before with no ill effects but I no longer do this. I now boil top-off water for 10 minutes first and let it cool.

I think clorine from tap water will slow/impact the work of the yeast; right?

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I dont think oxyclean is a sanitizer.

You might be able to find idophor.

robertbartsch said:

I like to use a bleach soak for 30 min, followed by a rinse with tap water and then a sanitizer such as Oxyclean.

I think clorine from tap water will slow/impact the work of the yeast; right?

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Oxyclean requires extensive rinsing after use. Therfore you are rinsing your freshly sanitized equipment with NON-sanitized water...thus defeating the purpose.

Lots of us, me included, wash with Oxyclean, rinse with water, sanitize with Starsan. Since starsan is no rinse, you dont risk contamination by introducing tap water back into the equation after sanitation.

Also, I noticed that while brewing extract I got MUCH better yeast activity when using filtered de-clorinated water...and I got lazy yeast when I added regular tap water. I cant help but think the chlorine had a negative effect.

+1 on everything android said.

I think you usually want some head space on your fermenter too. That or a blow off tube. Plus if the plastic is scratched you'd need to replace it.

Oh and to clear up the whole cleaning process, it's pretty straight forward. But i think John Palmer can say it better then me:

Cleaning is important

Another thing you may also want to try is Fermcap-S drops. They help keep the krausen down if you don't have a lot of headspace in the carboy. I have used it for a couple of years and it doesn't give a funny taste to the end product nor does it decrease the head of your finished beer.

A simple charcoal filter should also help you get the chlorine out of your tap water. If you do decide to go with Reverse Osmosis water from the store, you will need to add minerals back into the water. (We can only use RO water here since our well water has arsenic in it) Chlorine in your water will give you an off-taste like plastic or band-aids. Do a seach in the forum on Phenols and you will get more info than you care to read, LOL!

I usually do an Oxyclean wash of everything, then use either StarSan or Iodophor to sanitize anything that will come in contact with the wort after the boil (funnels, siphons, strainers, carboy, airlock, etc...)

Also, I'm not sure you need to be pulling the airlock every other day to prevent it from clogging. That seems a bit excessive. I don't touch my airlock for 2-3 weeks unless I'm getting blowoff.

Edit: sorry I just saw where you posted about getting blowoff with every brew.....in my experience I get blowoff maybe once every 10 batches. You should just rig up a good blowoff tube and use that from the start.

Ok, so i picked up some bleach today. I'm going to bleach the #$@# out of all the plastic stuff I have and let it dry and then do a super dilluted rinse before I start brewing. The bleach I bought it supposed to break down into inert byproducts like hydrogen, etc when it's done working so it shouldn't hurt anything in the brew. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I will have to get some starsan or iodophor at a later time because it's a long drive to the closest LHBS.

I'm dumping the current batch, the sour smell in the primary is getting stronger by the hour and so far, in the last 3 batches it hasn't gotten better when I bottle. I'm abandoning this batch and moving on.

I will be pre-boiling all of the water that will go into my wort, including the top-off. I don't think I have any problems with chorine or chloramine because it turns out that BC has really good tap water and no need to overchlorinate but boiling will be an easy extra precaution.

I will be using my glass carboy as my primary fermenter because it has more headspace than my pail and i will not be racking into a secondary because I'm doing a wheat beer that doesn't have any dry hopping or added flavour.

I bought some foodsafe tubing today for a blowoff.

And lastly, I will be praying to the beer gods for mercy on this next brew.

Edit: Thank you all for your friendly advice! This is why I love HBT!

I soak everything that touches my beer after I boil with PBW overnight, then star-san while i'm brewing. I also used distilled water from the grocery store.

Now I'm noticing off-flavors in commercial beers.

BeerNoob said:

Ok, so i picked up some bleach today. I'm going to bleach the #$@# out of all the plastic stuff I have and let it dry and then do a super dilluted rinse before I start brewing. The bleach I bought it supposed to break down into inert byproducts like hydrogen, etc when it's done working so it shouldn't hurt anything in the brew. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I will have to get some starsan or iodophor at a later time because it's a long drive to the closest LHBS.

I'm dumping the current batch, the sour smell in the primary is getting stronger by the hour and so far, in the last 3 batches it hasn't gotten better when I bottle. I'm abandoning this batch and moving on.

I will be pre-boiling all of the water that will go into my wort, including the top-off. I don't think I have any problems with chorine or chloramine because it turns out that BC has really good tap water and no need to overchlorinate but boiling will be an easy extra precaution.

I will be using my glass carboy as my primary fermenter because it has more headspace than my pail and i will not be racking into a secondary because I'm doing a wheat beer that doesn't have any dry hopping or added flavour.

I bought some foodsafe tubing today for a blowoff.

And lastly, I will be praying to the beer gods for mercy on this next brew.

Edit: Thank you all for your friendly advice! This is why I love HBT!

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as for racking to the secondary, a lot of homebrewers, myself included dont even bother with a secondary. they argue that its fine to leave brews on the yeast cake and even dry hop directly into the primary. i'm doing that right now and am having zero issues with it. thats jsut one less step u can avoid contamination in.

happy brewing

you obviously know the process, you were just missing a critical step. you're definitely not the first one to get confused about the sanitizing/cleaning process. most of us probably had some sort of confusion with it. so don't get too discouraged, i'm sure this next beer will turn out great. also, with the bleach, just be sure to rinse the hell out of it. it does work, but honestly, when you can, get some starsan or iodaphor from a homebrew supply shop locally or online. it's so much easier not to have to deal with rinsing anything, especially with distilled water you had to pay for. good luck, i'm sure this one will turn out great.

SoonerDoc said:

If your water is safe to drink, topping with tap water should probably be okay (I do it too).

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I'm not buying that. "Safe to drink" does not mean sterile. If it's chlorinated it should be, but then you should boil it anyhow. If it's not chlorinated, there could easily be enough critters in it to wreck a batch of room temperature bacteria-candy-containing beer while being harmless as drinking water.

One more thing that I don't think anyone mentioned but you might already know. if you're using a plastic bucket as your primary, it is important NOT to use a brillopad or anything abrasive when you clean it. They can cause the scratches that can harbour bacteria.

I don't know about the starsan question, I use a light concentration of bleach and rinse with boiled water that has cooled. I do 1 tbsp of bleach (powder or liquid) per gallon of water and that has always worked for me so far.

+1 on not scratching plastic buckets. That's been the culprit of numerous infections.

Clean everything with one of the recommended cleaners, then soak everthing in boiling hot water (not the airlock as this will melt!). Then mix/dilute your StarSan exactly according to the instructions (use a measuring cup) and use this on everything, including your hands (use the thin latex non-powdered gloves if you want). Be sure nothing comes into contact with the post boil wort that's not sanitized (e.g., spray the outside of the yeast pack w/StarSan and be sure the scissors you're using are sanitized). Pay attention so you're not placing a sanitized stir spoon on a kitchen counter or something else touching an unsanitized surface, etc.

CrustyBrau said:

I'm not buying that. "Safe to drink" does not mean sterile. If it's chlorinated it should be, but then you should boil it anyhow. If it's not chlorinated, there could easily be enough critters in it to wreck a batch of room temperature bacteria-candy-containing beer while being harmless as drinking water.

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To each his own. I'm not worrying about it until I get an infection, which hasn't happened yet.

SoonerDoc said:

To each his own. I'm not worrying about it until I get an infection, which hasn't happened yet.

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You probly have sterile water.

My parents are on a well, and when I was a teenager I took a sample to school to be tested, and the report came back with fairly high bacteria count. The water tastes great, and it is of course perfectly safe to drink, but I wouldn't get it within a mile of my beer without boiling the crap out of it.

In fact, now I'm tempted to mix up some extract in unboiled well water and see what happens

Ok so...

I just finished a new brew about 2 hours ago. I was so unbeleivably maticulous about my sanitation and clean water that the entire brew process took about twice as long as normal.

I boiled every drop of water that was coming in contact with my wort, I bleached and boiled every utensil, device, hose, airlock, everything.

Because I will not be racking this to a secondary I chose to use my glass carboy as my primary to avoid using the plastic pail. I bleached it, rinsed it with boiling water, bleached it again and rinsed it twice with boiling water to remove any bleach residue.

I now have a blowoff tube instead of a standard airlock.

I danced in a circle and chanted "O beer gods, please bless this brew and may it ferment quickly and cleanly!" 3 times and stood on 1 foot while I pitched the yeast.

Here's hopin'!

BeerNoob said:

I danced in a circle and chanted "O beer gods, please bless this brew and may it ferment quickly and cleanly!" 3 times and stood on 1 foot while I pitched the yeast.

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Oh boy... Never stand on one foot while pitching the yeast. Always flat footed, both feet.

crustybrau said:

oh boy... Never stand on one foot while pitching the yeast. Always flat footed, both feet.

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nooooo!!!! What have i done?!?!

BeerNoob said:

nooooo!!!! What have i done?!?!

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That which can never be mentioned

Good luck!! I see great beer in your future.

I use bottled spring water from wally world for my brew, but mix my starsan with warm tap water. I read in the beginning of this thread to use bottled distilled water for the starsan. Am i screwing up by using tap water for the starsan?

I use tap water for my sanitizer and haven't had any issues...it is sanitizer, after all. That said, there is nothing wrong with using distilled or boiled water, and it does remove a variable from the equation.

Use whatever you are comfortable with/have success with.

Brasco20 said:

I use bottled spring water from wally world for my brew, but mix my starsan with warm tap water. I read in the beginning of this thread to use bottled distilled water for the starsan. Am i screwing up by using tap water for the starsan?

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Star San will work fine in tap water. However, if you use distilled water it can last longer. I mix up a 2.5 gallon of distilled with Star San and keep most of it in a Homer bucket with a lid. I also keep a small spray bottle of the stuff on hand. Using distilled water it lasts for months. I test the ph of the solution every once in a while to make sure it's still in the proper range and it always is.

I use filtered tap water to top off my batches and so far I've had no ill effects. Also, I've never had any issues with using tap water with StarSan. Just getting some solution on my hands burns a bit so I know it's killing some germs.