I think we've all had a bad batch on occasion..I have..BUT even they don't always end up STAYING bad...
Read this
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ne...virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/
It may seem like there are a lot of infection threads on here BUT...if you read them (or answer countless ones on a daily basis) You aren't seeing a lot of infections...What you're seeing is the usual spate of nervous n00b threads of people who THINK THEY HAVE AN INFECTION....and no more than we debunk and calm the brewer down, on a daily basis...It's just like stuck fermentations....It SEEMS like there's a whole bunch of brewers who have stuck fermentation, when in reality they are using airlock activity as a fermentation gauge, and NOT a HYDROMETER, or NOT WAITING 72 HOURS before panicking...
99% of the time when we look at a picture of the SUPPOSED infection it is just odd krauzen, or yeast colonies on the surface of the beer in secondary OR the mess that comes from dry hopping in secondary with pellet hops trapping CO2 bubbling...
Just like 99% of the time when the person takes a hydro reading they come back with this...
Originally Posted by Name Witheld
Rev.
Wanted to let you know that everything is o.k. Checked on the primary this morn. There is still no bubbler activity, but when putting my nose to the bucket, there is that distinct aroma. I opened the lid and saw A LOT OF KRAUSEN. So much that I had to resist the temptation to make a beard and mustache out of it. hahahahaha. I'm going to give it 10 days until I check S.G. again.
Thanks
It is actually more likely for an experienced brewer, like me, to get an infection- Perhaps we let something slide in their cleaning/sanitization process and something from their previous batch got nasty between brewing sessions, and infected their latest batch- It sometimes happens that small matter gets lodged in a hose connection and doesn't get cleaned out or zapped with the sanitizer....Or perhaps over many uses a fermenter or bottling bucket develops a scratch in it, which becomes a breeding ground for contamination.....but with brand new, cleaned and sanitized equipment, in a first time batch of beer...highly unlikely.
I wrote a blog about jumping to conclusions and bandying about the "I" word on N00b threads awhile back.It's funny, I was just thinking how it seems there's been a decrease in talking about infections around here...There seems to be a cultural shift over the last year, where we don't feed the fear factor, and calmy explain to the panicked brewer that what he is seeing is normal...and asking for pictoral proof...
http://blogs.homebrewtalk.com/Revvy/The_quotIquot_wordand_other_brewing_words_Im_tired_ofa_Rant/
We actually talked about YOU GUYS before Christmas...
We're going to be seeing a TON of nervous beginners in the next 6 weeks or so, as homebrewing kits are being given as gifts...(it's time to start copying your answers to a seperate file, so you can cut and paste them at will)
I bet you don't realize that the majority of what I write is not technical or scientific in nature...It's PSYCHOLOGICAL....because in actuality the majority of the "is my beer ruined" thread are NOT about ruined beer, or infections....They are about the brewer's fear, and the thought that beer is such a frail thing that it will "die" if they don't watch it constantly...
That's why we tell you not to worry....Because 99% of the time you are worrying for nothing.
Maybe it's 'casue of my training, and 4 years of counselling training in seminary AND training for 6 months as a hospital chaplain...but the first thing I noticed here was the fact that those thread arise becasue the poster is scared.....and because fermentation is so freaky smelling, and looking and the basic concepts of are not quite grasped just from books, but experience...They are just the natural thing that happens when someone is trying something new for the first time...People get scared, and they over think.....
SO we try to both calm fears and educate...but mostly calm fears....